Christine Wamsler

Amid overlapping global crises, many individuals experience psychological distress, anxiety, hopelessness, and a diminished sense of agency. Scholars increasingly argue that this erosion of perceived significance may be as consequential as climate change, biodiversity loss, polarization, and political turmoil, as it stems from a growing disconnection or alienation from self, others, and nature at the heart of today’s polycrisis. Against this backdrop, spiritual approaches are gaining attention for their potential to foster resilience, connection, and sustained engagement. Yet their role in supporting societal transformation remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap through a mixed-methods analysis of the Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (ZASP) online course, drawing on survey data from three cohorts (2023–2024). The quantitative assessment (n₁ = 868) revealed statistically significant changes: approximately 60% of participants reported increased resilience and decreased climate anxiety, and 76% reported increased connection, hope, empowerment, and coping. The qualitative analysis confirmed and complemented these findings, with around 85% of participants describing meaningful transformations in self-awareness, meaning-making, hope, agency, and engagement. At the same time, participants highlighted challenges in sustaining their practices and translating their learnings into climate and sustainability work contexts, pointing to the fragility of transformative change in modern societies and the need for targeted practical guidance across individual, collective, and system levels. Overall, the findings suggest that spiritually and scientifically grounded concepts and approaches (such as interbeing) can strengthen resilience, foster sustained engagement, and support societal transformation by addressing the root causes of today’s polycrisis, including associated ‑isms such as individualism, materialism, elitism, consumerism, and extractivism.