I'm Jamie Smart - welcome to the podcast. A few months ago, I had a conversation with my good friend and colleague, Ami Chen Mills. As well as being a very experienced principles teacher (Ami was one of the first people I heard talking about this understanding), she's the co-founder of the Santa Cruz chapter of Extinction Rebellion.

Earlier in the year, Ami wrote a Medium article, calling out her colleagues in the principles community for a lack of comment and action on climate change (the article was called, 'An Open Letter to My Spiritual Colleagues: On "Spirit" and the Climate Emergency'.)

I read the article and invited Ami to come on my podcast (she accepted.)

While I know that there is a broad range of opinion on the subject of climate change, one thing is abundantly clear to me:

Humanity currently faces a number of existential threats, including climate change, global pandemics, possible nuclear winter and the dizzying rise of artificial intelligence. In recent years, the world seems more and more like a Marvel comic, replete with mustachioed villains and killer robots.

One of my heroes, Buckminster Fuller once wrote,

"Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment… Humanity is in 'final exam' as to whether or not it qualifies for continuance in Universe."

This has never looked more true to me.

So how can we usefully orient ourselves to the challenges we face in the years ahead? And how can the principles help us make sense of things that sometimes seem insensible?

Exploring the answers to these questions is what this episode is all about. By the way, we recorded this before the full scale of the pandemic was known. For that reason, I've delayed the release of this episode until now. So regardless of what your current perspective on the whole question of climate change is, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this episode.

Visit the Ami Chen Mills website here: http://www.amichen.com/

You can get to know more about 'Light on the Horizon' webinar here: http://www.amichen.com/light-on-the-horizon

Visit Ami's YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AmilliaABT/videos