Darrin Drda - The Four Global Truths: Awakening to the Peril and Promise of Our Times

Praise for The Four Global Truths

In a brilliantly appropriate application of the Buddhas Four Noble Truths, Darrin Drda provides a conceptual structure for perceiving the unique challenges and opportunities of this planetary moment. He also shows us how to play with this structure, climbing around on it with uninhibited curiosity, and exploring ways to integrate the darkness and the light, the failures and the hopes that taunt and lure this evolving human animal. The book brings such a rich cargo of companionable inquiry and inspiration, I want to see it in every book bag and backpack. I love to think of the hands it will fall into, the minds it will ignite, the hearts it will embolden, so that this great adventure may continue!

Joanna Macy, PhD, author of World As Lover, World As Self

With a warm and open writing style, and drawing from his extensive knowledge of Buddhism and the ecological state of the planet, Darrin Drda gives expression to some of the noble possibilities of human consciousness. The Four Global Truths is destined to become an essential part of the ongoing illumination of this wild, groping, confused, but ultimately beautiful human species.

Brian Swimme, Professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies

Darrin Drda potently examines the challenging situation that humanity has created for itself at this time in history, a perspective that is greatly enriched by his accessible understanding of cosmology, ecology, philosophy, and cultural history. This book allows us to see that humanitys current condition is in fact, a larger-scale manifestation of the Buddhas Four Noble Truthsthe Buddha knew that we are in a dream of attachment and that we need to wake up and free ourselves from this dream that is robbing us of our true capacity as human beings. Fortunately, the Buddha offered a path to liberation, one that is now possible for humanity as well. This magnificent book powerfully invites us to choose that path.

Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources and cofounder of The Pachamama Alliance

Informed by leading-edge consciousness studies and new paradigm thinking, The Four Global Truths is a creative re-visioning of dharma for the planetary era. Packing the pages with fascinating details, Drda nevertheless keeps his eye (and heart) on the Big Picture. He helps us see the grand lines of our collective evolution, uncovering the path that has led to our troubled present, and illuminating a possible, but by no means certain, way forward.

Sean Kelly, author of Coming Home: The Birth and Transformation of the Planetary Era

In a style at once urgent, witty, and poignant, The Four Global Truths gives us a fresh, insightful, and nuanced polemic on global turmoil and its transformation. Darrin Drda has done us a great service by bringing together the best in consciousness studies and fresh perspectives on ancient Buddhist insights. This is a treasure mine of information and resources for changing the status quo.

Steven Goodman, Professor of Asian and Comparative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies

The Four Global Truths is a unique take on the central questions that face humanity at this moment. Fusing ancient Buddhist teaching and contemporary ecology, Drda uses the Buddhas Four Noble Truths as a model for addressing the crisis of modernity.

Working from the assumption that the solution to myriad problems, particularly the ecological crisis, requires a new worldview, Drda uses Buddhist teaching to work toward a new way of relating to the world. The genius of his work is that he takes teachings largely understood in terms of individual process and applies them to the entire planet. Drdas creative process is revelatory: the solution is found in the integration of the personal and the global, the removal of barriers between our isolated, individualistic selves and the planet as a whole.

Perhaps most impressive is Drdas ability to discuss extraordinarily complex subject matter in an accessible, clear, and inviting tone. Whether one is interested in learning a modern take on Buddhist practice or addressing some of the worlds most severe crises, The Four Global Truths is highly recommended.

Theodore Richards, founder of the Chicago Wisdom Project and author of Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth

Copyright 2011 by Darrin Drda. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by Evolver Editions

Evolver Editions publications are distributed by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Art direction, cover design, and cover illustration by michaelrobinsonnyc.com Interior design by Brad Greene

The Four Global Truths: Awakening to the Peril and Promise of Our Times is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drda, Darrin, 1968
The four global truths; awakening to the peril and promise of our times / Darrin Drda.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-344-1
1. Human ecologyReligious aspectsBuddhism. I. Title.
BQ4570.E23D74 2011
294.3377dc22

2011012829

v3.1

For my mother and family
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Four Global Truths Word Cloud (from www.wordle.net)

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Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity