I have been wanting for so long to be in a cabin in the woods, and I feel like the universe conspired to make it happen.

I’m staying in the cabin of a Buddhist nun, Ani Jangchub, who is the caretaker of a nature reserve, Karma Samadhi Ling (KSL), which belongs to the Karma Kagyu Buddhist lineage. I met her when I visited here in September when a prestigious monk, Khenpo Tenkyong, was visiting from New York on his eastern Canadian tour, to do a couple of public talks and a fire puja (smoke offering ceremony) on the land. He comes every year because of the land’s connection to the lineage, and to foster good relations and connections with the non-Buddhist communities in the area.

I hadn’t even heard of Khenpo Tenkyong before August, but I watched a few videos of him on YouTube before planning to come to Cape Breton, and I was impressed by his commitment to the environment.

I came to Cape Breton to see his talks, and camped on Ani Jangchub’s land for two nights.

The puja is held near a large statue of White Tara. A mesh tent and temporary shrine were set up to accommodate the gathering, which was attended not only by local Buddhists, but by others in the local community.

Over the next few months, Ani Jangchub and I stayed in touch because I was curious about the land and her plans for it. She had initially had big plans for the land, perhaps even a nunnery, temple, or retreat centre, but community interest waned, and without support for bigger projects, KSL became a nature reserve.

Back in November, Ani Janchub told me about a course called PREP, based out of the University of Wisconsin, which is a course for faith leaders (of any faith) about creating climate-adaptive projects. Topics include project design, planning, and management; community consultation and outreach; and communications and fundraising. The core motivator behind creating this course is that faith leaders are in a prime position to be able to lead climate action because they are already trusted members of their communities and people look to them to set a precedent.

This course is the intersection of so many of my interests, and with my long-term goal of founding an eco-village, these seemed like very valuable skills for me to learn. Although I’m not a faith leader, Ani Jangchub encouraged me to apply as a representitive of KSL. She thought I had a good chance of being accepted because the director of the course, Dekila Chungyalpa is already familiar with KSL and this lineage. She was a consultant for several monasteries, to implement environmental retrofits and improve disaster-resilience.

I applied and was accepted, and started the course in January. There are about 35 students from all over the world – Cambodia, Nepal, Kenya, Argentina, Brasil, Pakistan, Myanmar, India, Thailand representing Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and other faiths.

So far, the course content has been mostly informational content about environmental and climate issues, such as the carbon cycle, water insecurity, pollution, etc. I already have a good understanding of most of this content, but since the course is designed for faith leaders with varying degrees of environmental awareness, it’s good that they include a thorough overview of WHY it is important to do everything we can to be an active part of the solution to these problems.

The Course Project

All the course homework is building toward designing and managing a community project, starting with research about environmental issues in the area, and what the community needs.

Which brings me back to the cabin. Ani Jangchub had plans to go away for the winter, and since I was researching the area and working on this project it made sense for me to stay at her cabin while she was gone. This way, I can explore the property and meet with community members in person.

I have been here two weeks so far, and it has been amazing. It feels like I hit the winter jackpot! I’ve been feeding the birds out of my hand every morning, and going on Lives to talk about community and resilience-building.

First Assignment: Assess the Climate Threats

The first assignment was to write an essay about what particular climate issues are affecting this community and local area. Since students are coming from around the world, it’s really interesting to see how different the issues they are facing are.

In my essay, I found the most pressing environmental concerns in this area are:

• Drought and Water Insecurity
• Deforestation
• Food Insecurity
• Intensifying Storms and Climate Instability

Read full essay.

Second Assignment: Interview Community Members

Next, I started to connect with community leaders to hear what they think are the most concerning issues here, and what they think could be solutions. In this project, I’m considering overlapping communities: the local area, as small as the road we’re on, the surrounding local area including the nearest town, and the Buddhist community, including the Karma Kagyu lineage and its ties to the monastery in New York, and Buddhists in Cape Breton from other lineages. The local Mi’kmaq community is another consideration, being both local, and having a good relationship with Khenpo Tenkyong.

I have talked to a few people so far, and have some new insights into challenges the community faces, and what has been working or not working to solve them.

One of the main challenges is a lack of people-power, and sense of community responsibility, as well as a lack of good access to education and mental health resources. There are not may young people here. and the youth and seniors are disconnected from each other.

Potential projects could include finding a way to connect youth and seniors to facilitate transfer of knowledge. One person I talked to had the idea of community kitchen and gardens, where seniors and youth could connect gardening and “soup nights” where they could make soup with ingredients from the garden.

There also used to be a community space nearby that no longer hosts events, so a gathering place would be helpful.

My First Thoughts

Yesterday, I went to a community breakfast held in a local hall, and it was well attended, but I noticed that most people were 60+. Typical of older buildings and church halls in rural NS, the building was a square box with not much character. My intuition is that perhaps young people don’t have a sense of ownership or authority over what goes on public spaces, and that a blank, rectangular room is not that appealing to hang out in.

I still have a list of people to talk to, but so far it seems to me that what is needed is a gathering space that is comfortable, aesthetic, and has flexible programming, or doesn’t necessarily need programming to hang out there – a third space, like a community living room that could also be used as a gathering space for events or classes, and a base for nature walks. As one interviewee put it “Getting someone in nature doesn’t occur naturally for city folk.”

Next Steps

This week we are starting the project design phase of the course. I’ll be continuing to talk to community members as I narrow in on a project idea.