Global Awareness Local Action (GALA)

Watch a video from BCBS Resident Scholar/Monk Bhikkhu Anālayo about the GALA Initiative.

Global Awareness Local Action (GALA) is a BCBS initiative to inspire a deeper engagement with climate change informed and inspired by Buddhist teachings and mindfulness.

Grounded in the idea that Buddhist ethics calls on us to mitigate and adapt to climate change, the GALA program, freely offered on a dāna basis, will share practices, conceptual frameworks, and workshops to support participants in mindful and skillful engagement in a world with a rapidly changing climate.

A Note about Dāna

The GALA program is offered freely in the spirit of generosity, and we invite participants to join in the tradition of dāna by considering a tax-deductible donation. The dāna offered for GALA will all go directly to BCBS’s solar project as we work towards 100% renewable electricity. We are deeply grateful to the teachers for offering their teachings freely in support of this project.

Program Sessions

Two program sessions will be held every Saturday during the program, with one teacher offering a morning session and a second teacher offering an afternoon session. The teacher schedule will be shared with registered participants closer to the event:

  • When: Saturdays, October 4 – November 22, 2025
  • Times:
    • Morning Session: 10:30–11:30 AM ET
    • Afternoon Session: 1:30–2:30 PM ET (except Jon Kabat-Zinn’s sessions: 1:30–3:30)


The program website (available for registered participants at a later date) will include readings for each session, recordings of the teachings, and other resources to support a deeper engagement with meditation, Buddhism, environmental activism, and climate change.

Teachers and Topics

  • Bhikkhu Anālayo, resident scholar-monk at BCBS, will teach on Saturday mornings in October. He will draw on the practices and teachings in Mindfully Facing Climate Change and his more recently published Mindfulness Between Early Buddhism and Climate Change.
  • Rhonda Magee, Professor Emeritus at the University of San Francisco Law School and a leading scholar and teacher at the intersection of mindfulness and social justice, will teach on Saturday afternoons in October. Rhonda will explore how mindfulness can help us expand our capacities for personal and collective engagement with a particular focus on working together for environmental justice.
  • Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University and a fellow of both the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, will teach on Saturday mornings in November. Rebecca is a renowned scholar whose research focuses on how societies and economies can change to become more sustainable and just. Rebecca will teach about where we are now with regard to climate change, the resources we have to respond to the many dynamics of a changing climate, what is currently holding us back, what are the pathways and theories of change, and what we as individuals can do to contribute to a more life-sustaining world.
  • Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and one of the leaders in the movement to integrate mindfulness into medicine and approaches to well-being, will teach on Saturday afternoons in November. Jon will explore action-oriented mindfulness practices that can support an engaged response to climate change.


Mindful Climate Activism: Small Groups and Workshops (Online)

Participants will be invited to join small groups based on geography and/or common interests to support each other in becoming more engaged in mindful climate activism.

Starting in the fall and continuing into 2026, environmental organizations and others working for a more just and sustainable world will offer a number of workshops for participants. These workshops are intended to support us as individuals and/or in our small groups in embodying Buddhist ethics and mindfully responding to climate change.

Gratitude for Program Support

The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is grateful to the BESS Family Foundation for their generous support of this Global Awareness Local Action program.



BESS Small

Cancellation Policy:

There are no cancellation fees for donation-based programs.

Online Schedule:

This program is hosted on Zoom and closed captions are available. You can check the time of the group sessions in your timezone here: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com. The schedule for this program (shown in US Eastern Time) is as follows:

Meeting Dates: (all Saturdays) October 4, 11, 18, 25; November 1, 8, 15, and 22, 2025

Meeting Times:

  • Session 1: 10:30-11:30 AM ET
  • Session 2: 1:30-2:30 PM ET (except Jon Kabat-Zinn’s sessions: 1:30–3:30)
  • The teacher schedule will be shared with registered participants closer to the event date.
Please note that sessions will be recorded and made available to participants within 48 hours of each session. Recordings remain available indefinitely.