Since birth, I learned from living with my Animal and human family that love is the substrate of all life. I took this lesson to heart years later when I was invited to South Africa for research on Lions. There I first heard about young male Elephants who would eventually kill more than 100 White and Black Rhinoceroses. This unhappiness is now epidemic and extends to internecine violence even involving Elephants killing each other’s children.

These unprecedented events are not, as biologists describe, “abnormal behavior.” Elephant violence is an expression of profound psychological trauma, the associated actions merely an outward expression of inner suffering. Elephant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a natural response to unnatural conditions: a desperate response to 500 years of mass killing, loss of homeland, life in constant threat, and the breakdown of a civilization millions of years old.

The overwhelming interest from scientists and the public about my diagnosis of Elephant PTSD led to the founding of our nonprofit, The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence and its companion in reparation, The Tortoise and the Hare Sanctuary (now Grace Village) located on land where my family has lived seventy years.

I continued to teach and write scientific papers and books about the lives and psychological trauma of Chimpanzees, Orcas, Grizzly Bears, Turkeys, Horses, White Sharks, Rattlesnakes, Parrots, and other Animals who have labored under the violence of our species.  Soon, however, I realized that it wasn’t enough. Information alone has not been sufficient to stop destruction of Earth and Animals. Underlying the resistance to change – even in the face of common sense and overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrating Animal, Earth and Plant sentience – is a deeply ingrained mindset.

For over 10,000 years, the planet has been dominated by dualism and human exceptionalism. Transforming human cultures to Nature’s values and ethics of nonviolence involves revisioning the entire psychological, economic, cultural, and educational foundation of the current paradigm.

To catalyze nonviolence and Earth liberation, it is necessary to dissolve this deep-seated, conditioned view that creates the illusion of human separation and superiority. This realization prompted grounding of Kerulos’ work in the teachings and practices of Buddhism, in particular, the tradition of Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. My own mindfulness and meditation practices have helped bring greater understanding and insights into Plants, Animals, land and waters with whom I live.

Nature Consciousness and Nature Mindfulness underscore what is already implicit in Zen Buddhism – that Animals, Plants, the entire Earth are fully conscious. Teachings and practices of mindfulness and meditation return us to ways of living aligned with Nature’s ethics and principles. We experience this state of mind when we look into the eyes of Animal kin. Animals naturally embody qualities sought by meditators and spiritual travelers: unconditional love, open heartedness, patience, equanimity, presence, and connection to all life. This was what I experienced in childhood and this is how Grace Village started.

Grace Village is our natural sangha, a community and space where humans, Animals, and other Earth members of the Village share life and land. We envision our work as another leaf on Buddhism’s Bodhi Tree, growing together in the evolution of human consciousness.

Grace Village is a living, breathing, generative community supporting global transformation to peace and wellbeing.