About the Organization

Green Sangha is about mindful practice for awakened action:

Green Sangha brings spiritual practice and environmental work together to heal our planet. Our mission is to bring healing to ourselves, one another, and the earth through thoughts, words, and actions rooted in love.

Green Sangha chapters meet once a month to meditate, educate, and support each other, and to plan and perform direct environmental actions. Our time together is designed to help develop the qualities of calmness, lucidity, and awareness which we believe are vital to our work as spiritually-based environmental activists. We are non-denominational and find inspiration from the lives of non-violent leaders such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., The Dalai Lama, and Julia Butterfly Hill. We incorporate a deep ecological perspective and experiential exercises based on Joanna Macy’s work.

Our groups are based on shared leadership and full participation. If you are interested in environmental activism as spiritual practice you are invited to join us!

Our Mission

Green Sangha is dedicated to restoring oneness – healing our communities and restoring the earth through mindful practice and awakened action.

Inspired, awake individuals with commitment to community service deeply affect everything and everyone they touch. With this in mind, we meet to: 1) raise awareness of the interdependence of humans and our environment; 2) inspire mindful actions in daily lifestyle choices; and 3) catalyze systemic change in business practices and government policies. We are dedicated to creating a healthy, just society and averting ecological collapse by creating a rapid shift from the destructive paradigm of extract-use-discard toward a restoration of sustainability in all economic practices.

Our overarching goals include:
1. Promoting the use of meditation for stress reduction, sustainable activism, and behavior change away from hyper-consumerism
2. Education to increase public understanding of the environmental impacts of daily choices, develop critical thinking, and build societal momentum towards green behavior and policy change
3. Replacement of wasteful products, processes, and packaging with sustainable materials, products designed for reuse, and an underlying aesthetic of conservation.

Specific objectives in our current campaigns:
1. Training community educators in mindful awareness, constructive communication, and skills of presentation
2. Making presentations in schools, churches, service club meetings, and other public venues to raise awareness of issues in Climate Protection, Zero Waste, and Water Conservation
3. Eliminating non-biodegradable, toxic packaging and products with safe, reusable, and compostable materials.

Our Vision

We envision a world where a healthy biosphere supports the infinite creativity and diversity of all life. Green Sangha members intend to “walk our talk” by making individual lifestyle choices and by engaging in local as well as national actions that promote systemic, positive change for the health of all people. We engage in the restoration of the earth on three fronts:

1. Oneness. We recognize that the destruction being wrought upon the earth is a result of thinking that we are separate from other life forms. Green Sangha works to raise awareness of the interconnectedness of all life.

2. Compassion. We recognize that activists sometimes forget that those whom they oppose are also part of the one body, earth. This forgetfulness can lead to subtle hostility and burn-out. Green Sangha endeavors to inspire activists to meet those whom they oppose with thoughts, words, and actions rooted in love, thereby leading to a more sustainable activism.

3. Action. We recognize that if humanity is to survive, the general population must be mobilized at the grassroots level to adopt lifestyle changes and advocate for systemic change. Green Sangha provides a model for ordinary citizens to meet in their living rooms for a few hours a month to plan and perform direct environmental actions.

About the Founder

Jonathan Gustin, MA, MFT is a purpose guide, integral mentor, psychotherapist and spiritual teacher.   He is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice with offices in San Francisco and San Rafael.

Jonathan has taught throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including at: Spirit Rock, CIIS, JFK University, The Non-Dual Wisdom and Mental Health Conference, Marina Counseling Center, Bank of Marin, Drew High School, East Bay Open Circle and Vajrapani Institute.  Jonathan teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mind-Body Medicine, and Integral Life Practice at San Francisco and San Rafael Kaiser Permanente.  He has also co-led day long programs with human potential pioneer George Leonard and depth psychologist Bill Plotkin.

Jonathan founded Green Sangha in 2000, a spiritually engaged environmental activist organization with chapters in the Sonoma County, the East Bay, Marin County and San Francisco.  Green Sangha is featured in the documentary “Renewal,” a film on spiritual communities’ responses to environmental challenges. (www.greensangha.com)

Jonathan founded the San Francisco Integral Awakening Center (SF IAC) in 2003.  The center’s Integral Awakening Group, has been a community for students interested in exploring different sides of Spiritual Awakening: the transcendent Oneness that moves through all things and the specific life’s purpose of the embodied human soul.  This group is co-taught by Jonathan and an outstanding roster of guest teachers including: Adyashanti, Joanna Macy, Cheri Huber, Bill Plotkin, Duane Elgin and Sally Kempton.  Other SF IAC offerings include: The Integral Awakening Process, the Underworld Journey and Finding Your Life’s Purpose Seminar.  (www.integralawakeningcenter.com)