Douglas Christie on contemplative ecology There is a deep and
pervasive hunger for a less fragmented and more integrated way
of understanding and inhabiting the world. What must change if
we are to live in a sustainable relationship with other
organisms? What role do our moral and spiritual values play in
responding to the ecological crisis? We sat down with Douglas E.
Christie, author of The Blue Sapphire of the Mind, to discuss a
contemplative approach to ecological thought and practice that
can help restore our sense of the earth as a sacred place. What
is the blue sapphire of the mind? It is an image used by
Evagrius of Pontus, a fourth century Christian monk, to describe
the condition of the mind transformed by contemplative practice:
it is pure and endless and serene, capable of seeing and
experiencing union with everything and everyone. What is
“contemplative ecology” and what does it have to do with this
idea? Contemplative ecology has two distinct but related
meanings. First, it refers to a particula