Photo: Dominion Energy Rally, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2016.
The following reflections are excerpted from the new book Sacred Resistance: Eco-Activism and the Rise of New Spiritual Communities, edited by Mark Clatterbuck. Five different spiritual communities are observed, exploring how, spirituality—individual and communal, formal and informal—helped shape these grassroots coalitions. We focus here on the successful campaign that blocked Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) in Virginia between 2014 and 2020.
In this first part of a two-part series, Heidi Dhivya Berthoud shares an overview of the morally and spiritually grounded resistance that she engaged in to help stop the pipeline’s construction. Our next issue will contain part two, in which Swami Dayananda will offer her reflections on this historic effort.
It is my great fortune to have found the wisdom teachings and regenerative lifestyle practices of Yoga, including hatha, meditation, and prayer – all of which are essential for supporting a healthy immune system, and for countering the long-term stressors of water protecting, land defending, and pipeline fighting.
One of the hallmark teachings for me of Integral Yoga is “Truth is One, Paths are Many.” The Light Of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS temple) embodies this wisdom. In the shape of a lotus flower, it symbolizes our ability to grow in beauty out of the mud. This is an honoring of common ground and of the beauty and wisdom of our many differences. It aligns well with the current pressing need to understand and support biodiversity and make peace, not war, with the many divergent ways of the world. Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga, would say, “Would you really be satisfied with only daisies in the field?” Such simple but profound teachings drew me to Integral Yoga, a pioneer of the interfaith movement in the 1960s. I was honored to direct numerous interfaith ceremonies at the Ashram, observing our common inner light, while celebrating our outer diversity in prayer and sacred music.
Swamiji encouraged us to embrace the faith we grew up with, not to reject it for Yoga – which is a healthy, balanced way of life for many, a science for some, and a religion for still others. I believe that being steeped in this open, uplifting perspective on all faiths and lifeways made it easier for us from the Yogaville sangha (community) to reach out to others. It also helps in being respectful of others’ limitation or aversions to religious traditions. And fosters collaboration which was so vital for our movement. The first rallies I attended in Richmond [Virginia] were regularly inaugurated with prayer by clergy, mostly Christian. Later, other traditions were included: Indigenous, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist. For me, seeing mainstream faith stand up for social, and ecojustice was a welcome surprise and created an aura of protection, connection, and solidarity.
New book on eco-activism featuring two Integral Yogis.
What it takes to be an activist is a heart cracked open by the pain of feeling the sadness, suffering, existential threat, and injustices of the climate crisis, and then answering the compelling pull. This alone is a powerful unifying force. Most of us were volunteers, giving all we had a more. Selfless service – called seva in Sanskrit or Karma Yoga – is another core Yoga wisdom teaching that sustained me through the demanding years of the ACP struggle. Staying present, right action, not being attached to the fruits of the world: each of these concepts conjures helpful memories of Tibetan monks creating beautiful mandalas with colorful sand on the Fralin Art Museum [at the University of Virginia] floor. The final action is to sweep it up and move on to the next creation, reflecting the cycles of life, death, rebirth.
Three simple guiding words given by Swami Satchidananda go together well: “Easeful, peaceful, useful.” This is another way of thinking about ahimsa or non-violence. One can be most useful and not part of the problem, when being easeful and peaceful. Moreover, while it’s agreeable to be easeful and peaceful, it is more beneficial when that action is made useful.
The Bhagavad Gita is a crown jewel of the Vedic tradition from which Yoga evolved. This is an allegorical story of life as a battlefield that feeds my understanding and acceptance of the tasks and roles of pipeline resistance that come before me. Arjuna, who is born into the warrior class, has chosen Lord Krishna, as his primary support to face the agonizing conflicts before him. Krishna asks Arjuna to draw his chariot up between the two battle lines to survey the fields of opponents. All are relatives, loved ones, teachers, elders on both sides. While in conflict, can we see Dominion Energy as our relatives?
I call on Native wisdom, too, that challenges me to see Dominion as a good enemy who makes us strong. And indeed they did. For eighteen chapters, Krishna encourages Arjuna to fight this battle, while Arjuna comes up with really good reasons why not to. One argument from Krishna is that, if Arjuna doesn’t fight, all life as we know it, with all its long-developed and complex interrelationships, will be destroyed and chaos will ensue. To do battle is Arjuna’s dharma, his life’s right relationship. We, as pipeline fighters and Mother Earth lovers, also know too much to walk away.
I found that the reverence for the Divine Feminine in the Integral Yoga tradition deeply informed my worldview. The mother is the baby’s first guru. Mother Nature, Annapurna, is the manifest; the unmanifested is the Father. It is only the Mother who knows who the true Father is. Mother Nature points the way to the Father. Much wisdom is wrapped up in these simple words, which pillar my quest to transform the abusive ways our patriarchal culture has devolved to treat Mother Earth and her children, both human and other than human. Goddess Saraswati inspires, with two hands playing a veena (music being a universal language), one hand holding pearls (of wisdom), and another holding a book, meaning that even the goddess continues learning. These sacred stories and truths are bedrocks that sustained me through my own struggles on the battlefield with Dominion and the ACP.
About the Author:
Heidi Dhivya Berthoud was on the front lines of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline struggle, serving as secretary of Friends of Buckingham and cofounder of the Virginia Community Rights Network. She moved to the egalitarian Twin Oaks Community in the mid-1970s, where organic farming and Wicca deepened her understanding of right relationship. She resides, with her husband Rishi and two kitties (Tanka and Nez Noir), in Central Virginia (occupied Monacan land) by the James River in the extended Yogaville Community, founded by her Guru, Swami Satchidananda. She is a massage and Yoga therapist and teacher.
