In the final week of David Loy’s retreat, “The New Bodhisattva Path”, we return to the question of what Buddhism can offer us given the ecologically unsustainable path we are on.

Laying out the differences between the bodhisattva path and the arhat path, Loy points out the tendency in the West to lean towards the more self-focused arhat path, potentially distorting it into a kind of self-help Buddhism that only helps people to adapt to the unhealthy social institutional landscape he has spoken of throughout this retreat. He concludes that the path to recovery and sustainability demands that the West embrace and integrate the ideas and wisdom of the bodhisattva path, which transcends competition and encourages a collective responsibility for the health of our species and planet.

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