The Four Global Truths: Awakening to the Peril and Promise of Our Times

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

With the planet increasingly threatened with catastrophe and perhaps even collapse, many seekers are looking to past, proven models to create meaningful change in their lives. One such model is Buddhism's Four Noble Truths- the reality of suffering, the root cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the path to the end of suffering. This fresh, timely book taps and modifies that ancient wisdom to address the pressing environmental and spiritual crises facing us. In The Four Global Truths, author Darrin Drda contends that as global temperatures rise and natural systems decline, humanity is forced to confront the destructiveness of unfettered material progress and mechanistic thinking. He posits a more enlightened worldview that honors the interdependence of all forms of life and aspects of reality, a concept increasingly see as a practical and compassionate approach to averting disaster. Writing in a warm, open style recalling that of Eckhart Tolle in The New Earth, Drda integrates elements of Western philosophy, transpersonal psychology, deep ecology, modern cosmology, and quantum physics to get at the heart of worldwide ecological suffering. In the process he encourages a responsible and joyful-and ultimately healing-participation in this critical moment in life.

Reviews

In a brilliantly appropriate application of the Buddhas fourfold Truths, Darrin Drda provides a conceptual structure for perceiving both the peril and promise of this planetary moment. He also shows us how to play with this structure, climbing around on it with uninhibited curiosity, and exploring ways to integrate the darkness and the light, the failures and the hopes that taunt and lure this evolving human animal. The book brings such a rich cargo of companionable inquiry and inspiration, I want to see it in every book bag and backpack. I love to think of the hands it will fall into, the minds it will ignite, the hearts it will embolden, so that this great adventure may continue!
Joanna Macy, PhD, author of World As Lover, World As Self

With a warm and open writing style, and drawing from his extensive knowledge of Buddhism and the ecological state of the planet, Darrin Drda gives expression to some of the noble possibilities of human consciousness. The Four Global Truths is destined to become an essential part of the ongoing illumination of this wild, groping, confused, but ultimately beautiful human species.
Brian Swimme, professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies

In his remarkable new book, The Four Global Truths, author Darrin Drda potently examines the challenging situation that humanity has created for itself at this time in history, a perspective that is greatly enriched by his accessible understanding of cosmology, ecology, philosophy, and cultural history. This book allows us to see that humanity's current condition is in fact, a larger-scale manifestation of the Buddhas Four Noble Truths and that the Buddha knew that we are in a dream of attachment, and that we need to wake up and free ourselves from this dream that is robbing us of our true capacity as human beings. Fortunately, the Buddha offered a path to liberation, one that is now possible for humanity as well. This magnificent book powerfully invites us to choose that path.
Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money and cofounder of The Pachamama Alliance

Informed by leading-edge consciousness studies and new paradigm thinking, The Four Global Truths is a creative re-visioning of dharma for the planetary era. Packing the pages with fascinating details, Drda nevertheless keeps his eye (and heart) on the Big Picture. He helps us see the grand lines of our collective evolution, uncovering the path that has led to our troubled present, and illuminating a possible, but by no means certain, way forward.
Sean Kelly, author of Coming Home: The Birth and Transformation of the Planetary Era

In a style at once urgent, witty, and poignant, The Four Global Truths gives us a fresh, insightful, and nuanced polemic on global turmoil and its transformation. Darrin Drda has done us a great service by bringing together the best in consciousness studies and fresh perspectives on ancient Buddhist insights. This is a treasure mine of information and resources for changing the status quohighly recommended.
Steven Goodman, professor of Asian and Comparative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies

The Four Global Truths is a unique take on the central questions that face humanity at this moment. Fusing ancient Buddhist teaching and contemporary ecology, Drda uses the Buddhas Four Noble Truths as a model for addressing the crisis of modernity.
Working from the assumption that the solution to myriad problems, particularly the ecological crisis, requires a new worldview, Drda uses Buddhist teaching to work toward a new way of relating to the world. The genius of his work is that he takes teachings largely understood in terms of individual process and applies them to the entire planet. Drda's creative process is revelatory: the solution is found in the integration of the personal and the global, the removal of barriers between our isolated, individualistic selves and the planet as a whole.
Perhaps most impressive is Drda's ability to discuss extraordinarily complex subject matter in an accessible, clear, and inviting tone. Whether one is interested in learning a modern take on Buddhist practice or addressing some of the worlds most severe crises, The Four Global Truths is highly recommended.
Theodore Richards, founder of the Chicago Wisdom Project and author of Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth

Author Bio

Darrin Drda is a longtime practitioner and occasional instructor of Insight meditation, as well as a facilitator for the Awakening the Dreamer symposium, which promotes ecological sustainability, social justice, and spiritual fulfillment. He lives in San Francisco.