"I don't know anything about 'sustainability.'" 

"Nothing?  You don't know anything about sustaining things?"

"Well, that's different.  I've sustained a Zen practice for 10 years.  I've sustained life in this body for 42 years.  I've sustained a marriage for 22 years.  Okay, maybe I have some experience with sustainability.  But I don't know anything about environmentalism!"

"Well, then just offer what you have."

As I look more closely at sustaining, it becomes clear that I haven't sustained anything.  But I have participated in the process.  For me, sustainability is about 1) commitment, 2) not stopping, and 3) compassionate awareness.  The order in which those things happen doesn't matter.  Lord knows, I was not aware of what I was doing when I got married 22 years ago, but the other two steps carried the relationship while the 3rd one caught up. 

When I first started meditating, I felt like I had found the thing that would save my life.  I was also so afraid that I would throw it away and slip into apathy.  I knew that my pattern had been to get very enthusiastic about something only to have the energy wane and move on to something else.  I had done it with many things in my youth that had been important to me.  I was so afraid I would do the same thing with this practice.  The most terrifying thing conditioning would say to me was that it could take this practice away from me.  I put that out in group one week and said, 'I hope that I don't look back in 10 years on my Zen practice as something I used to do.'  I honestly cannot define that which keeps me practicing.  But I have experienced it and can only describe it as That Which Sustains.  That Which Sustains is my life force, my guide, my mentor, my heart, my beloved, and my true nature.  My practice is to keep turning back to it.  That's all.  It keeps calling me back, so my part is actually very simple. 

It seems That Which Sustains has a partner.  Dissatisfaction.  Dissatisfaction is that experience of all that is wrong, bad, angry, frustrated, etc.  Often, I turn and keep my attention on Dissatisfaction.  It's been my traveling companion through many of my days.  But as my practice matures, I'm noticing how Dissatisfaction can become my marker and cue to turn to That Which Sustains instead.  They seem to arise together.  And it's my choice who I want to live with.  In each moment, the choice is available.

I haven't really looked much at what sustainability for the planet may entail.  I suspect it's the same thing...turning back again and again to one's true nature.  We may go off into waste, carelessness, and abuse of resources.  But our practice is to keep turning back and to keep waking up.  Again and yet again, may it be so.

Just as we don't know how long we have in this body to practice coming back, we don't know how long we have on the planet.  That's why it's important to take the 3 steps sooner rather than later.  Commit.  Keep going.  Practice compassionate awareness.
And I'll add a fouth one just for fun -- Feel the gratitude!  That's like icing on the cake.

Gassho.