Berta Meneses is a renowned Zen teacher from Spain, who is also a Philippian Catholic nun and a teacher at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de Lourdes in Barcelona.
In September 2026, Berta visited the offices of Earth Charter International in Costa Rica, and we conducted this interview that we present below.
In this interview, Berta Meneses refers to the connection between the principles of the Earth Charter and the practice of Zen meditation, stating that Zen is a Path, a way of living that involves wisdom and compassion. Wisdom implies a deep knowledge of oneself, of others and of the Earth; and compassion is the realization of this knowledge in the reality we live in.
She mentions the importance of the Earth Charter in the educational project of the Nuestra Señora de Lourdes School. School staff learned about the Earth Charter since its early days, in the year 2000, and since then they have sought to adapt this text to different educational levels. They seek the practice of an integral education, which I knew how to consider three dimensions: the relationship with oneself, with other people and with the Earth. In the video, Berta shares examples of how they use the Earth Charter in subjects such as human values and mathematics, in addition to promoting a culture of peace through meditation adapted from Zen for young people.
Berta Meneses is a math teacher, for this reason she gives several examples of how students understand, with mathematics, that we are all interrelated and that the same mathematical principles and algorithms are based on the wisdom of nature.
A compulsory subject in this school is values education, Berta shares what they do in that weekly space, something that can be replicated in other schools.
We thank Maestra Berta for the time offered and the wisdom shared in this video, we hope you enjoy and share it.
