In this session of Awareness in Action, Roshi Joan Halifax and Terry Tempest Williams guide participants to witness the world with care, presence, and courage. Roshi Joan opens with the Zen koan—“A monk asked Joshu, when great difficulties come upon us, can they be avoided?” Joshu replies, “Welcome.”—and, in the same spirit, notes the similarity in Chinese kanji between “crisis” and “opportunity” helping to frame our global challenges alongside our global potential. Terry invites us to dwell in the spaces between light and dark, love and grief: “To be in light and to be in dark is to hold that space in between.” She shows how even the smallest acts of noticing can become profound practice, saying, “Attention is a prayer.” The session explores the deep intertwining relationship between spiritual practice and civic engagement, revealing that democracy, ecological care, and awakening unfold not in abstraction, but in patient, loving attention to the world and each other.

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