The word “releasement” comes from Heidegger's Gelassenheit, a quality of open, receptive presence that refuses the restless drive to control, fix and optimise. It is not passivity. It is the opposite of the exhausted, anxious doing that characterises so much of our response to ecological collapse. It is, I believe, precisely what contemplative life is called to offer right now.
My name is Adam Lobel, I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a rust-belt city surrounded by mossy forests and rich farmland, ravaged by coal, steel, and now the fracking industry. A petrochemical plant half an hour from my home produces 1.6 million tons of plastic each year. I lead bearing witness retreats to fracking pads and oil sites, and co-facilitate meditations to listen to the Ohio River, one of the most polluted rivers on the continent. The place is my teacher. The wound is part of the practice.
After more than twenty years teaching Buddhist practice, I found myself at a threshold. The old frameworks — meditation as self-improvement, spirituality as retreat from the world — no longer felt adequate to the scale of what was happening. What emerged instead was a practice I call working through the Four Fields: an ecological field (material practice in place), a psychological field (psyche, subjectivity, image), an awareness field (meditation), and an ontological field (inquiry into being and emptiness). Not four separate paths, but a single ecosystem of responsivity.
Releasement is a learning space for those who sense that the inner and outer dimensions of transformation cannot be separated. Courses, retreats and inquiry sessions bring together EcoDharma, somatic Focusing, philosophy — from Buddhist teachings to critical social theory — and the kind of honest, embodied conversation that doesn’t bypass grief or wonder.
For those whose work is specifically in the environmental sector (nonprofits, universities, governments ) my consulting practice, 4 Element Strategy, brings the same depth of attention to sustainability planning, resilience building and stakeholder engagement.
Own or work here?
Claim Now!
Claim Now!
