Former researcher at the CNRS in climatology, Mathieu Labonne directs the Oasis Cooperative, which brings together a network of more than 1,200 schoolchildren in France. He himself lives in the Plessis farm, an eco-hamlet backed by the Amma center near Chartres. Author of Serving the world, advocating for a spiritual ecology (Tana), it calls for reviewing our mental patterns and relying on spirituality. The only way for this 40-year-old to approach the necessary change in the fight against global warming.
In your book you try to go to the deep source of our ecological crisis…
It all starts with this question: why is it so difficult to get moving to resolve the crisis when all the scientific studies show us that we are heading for disaster? It seems to me that we haven’t looked at the root causes. We are under the illusion that happiness depends on what is external to us. From communism to liberalism, all the ideologies of the 20th century express the same idea: human beings must transform reality so that it sticks to their desires and no longer suffers. In the end, all lead to the overexploitation of resources and living things.
You blame our ego. It would be the greatest pollution…
I got this phrase from the Indian sage Amma, whose teachings I have been following since 2006. Thanks to her, I understood that our ego cuts us off from reality, from what is. It can mislead us and take us away from our inner peace. And is thus at the origin of the ecological crisis insofar as it makes us believe that by having more we would be happier.
In the Indian tradition, the ego is defined as the feeling of separation. Unlike an animal, the human being feels separated from the rest. And it is this separation, this discrepancy, which is at the origin of our suffering and of the infinite lack to be filled. We are so identified with this feeling of separation that we forget that we are interconnected and interdependent. But the ego is only a part of ourselves. It’s about putting him back in his rightful place and no longer identifying with him.
The essence of Western thought has been to value the ego, which can also have its share of genius. Have we reached the end of the system?
What has been missing are safeguards. If we had not had such abundant and inexpensive energy, our ego would not have shaped the world according to its desires. At the same time, Western thought has lost its ability to understand its inner workings. The company has remained in technology, efficiency. This gave rise to the ecological crisis. But no spiritual tradition tells us that by cultivating our ego, we would be happier.
With the rise in fossil fuel prices, we are going to have to review our consumption model. But how to make sobriety desirable?
Human beings have been able to build modern industrial civilization thanks to the colossal and ever-increasing use of energy. This is no longer possible. Sobriety will be endured, if we do nothing. For it to be chosen, it is necessary to return to more essential needs. We also need to revisit our imaginations and change our relationship to the world. Many people have a relationship with energy that is limited to the amount of their EDF bill. But energy is everywhere. In physics, we say that energy is the ability to transform a state A into a state B. We must have this global vision: the ecological crisis is the reflection of our insatiable desire to transform reality.
Admittedly, having less when you live in town is difficult. But it is possible to live much more simply. In the 1,200 schoolchildren that the Oasis Cooperative identifies and runs, like the one where I live next to the Amma center near Chartres, we try to cultivate close social ties and be better connected to living things. We show that we can do otherwise. Many come to us and find this way of life desirable. Where we live, 20 years ago, it was a Beauce field. Thousands of birds have since returned.
To overcome the crisis, you are calling for us to think differently and to get rid of “continental” thinking in favor of “archipelago” thinking. Can you explain ?
Continental thought invites us to standardize and federate in the name of an alleged universality. It is a thought of rational optimization which leads to industrial logics and has led us to the crisis we are experiencing. The concept of archipelago comes from the philosopher and novelist Édouard Glissant. It’s about thinking on a smaller scale, welcoming the diversity of ideas. An archipelago is a set of related islands. To think of the world as an archipelago amounts to being interested in the bridges that allow different identities to come together.
It is an essential interior posture to build the world of tomorrow, where cooperation and interdependence will balance the logic of competition which abusively dominates our society. It is another way of articulating on a large scale what is already working on a local scale. In the network of Oasis, we try to apply this notion to connect very varied collective schoolchildren. I believe in the strength of the collective. If we know how to work on our living together without denying our diversity, we will succeed in innovating. Innovation is not only technological but also social and mental.
As you read, spirituality also offers ways to approach the ecological transition…
Yes, it reminds us that true happiness is found inside of us and not in more consumption. It is then up to us to work on ourselves to get out of the current frenzy. The human being is the key to change. It is an illusion to believe that political institutions alone have the power to act. Religious traditions offer us resources to be both engaged and at peace. I have seen many committed people who were angry and losing inner joy. The wisdoms of the world can support a fairer engagement of activists.
You say that meditation can also contribute to engaging in the fight against global warming…
It is a time when we come back to our deep nature. We have an ego, emotions, a body, but also our true nature, which connects us to greater than us, to universal values such as peace, joy, tolerance. Mind practices train us to identify not with our ego but with that sense of oneness at the core of our being. It is, in the end, the only real alternative to the consumerist model, and it is certainly more effective in finding happiness…
Ecological transition: “Detaching from our ego is the key to change”