Plant-thinking in the Anthropocene : meditation, memory, and the history of ecological ideas

Historians often focus on a specific period, tradition, or geographical region, yet the movement of ideas across time and space transcends such boundaries. In the contem-porary world, dominated by ecological crisis and existential concerns, humanity's re-lationship with nature is redefined in literature, science, and spirituality. This article explores the intersection of these realms by tracing the evolution of ecological thought through the works of Sudeep Sen and Sumana Roy. In their writings-"Anthropocene: Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation and How I Became a Tree"-the authors provide profound meditative interventions, seeking introspective engagement with contemporary human challenges. Through a historiological lens, this paper recon-structs the intellectual genealogy of meditation, ecology, and humanity's evolving re-sponse to the Anthropocene, drawing on the interdisciplinary framework of plant hu-manities. The works of Sen and Roy are examined not as isolated literary creations, but as part of a broader intellectual tradition that explores human responses to eco-logical and psychological crises. This research traces how their reflections on medi-tation, rooted in ancient spiritual practices, contribute to the contemporary discourse on deep ecology, offering remedies for emotional desolation in a world increasingly marked by instability. This paper examines how ideas from diverse intellectual tradi-tions have converged in these works, offering a deeper understanding of the human-nature relationship in the Anthropocene within the broader framework of the history of ideas.