"Those who risk their lives to protect marine mammals, and those who risk jail to stop paying taxes for weapons, and those who risk their jobs to 'blow the whistle' on corruption and deception — they also draw on vaster powers of life. . . . Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world." So write Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self and Molly Young Brown, author of Growing Whole. In his foreword to this paperback, Matthew Fox calls it "a manual for mystics and prophets."
Much of this material has been taken from workshops which Joanna Macy, a committed Buddhist and activist for eco-social justice, has run around the world for the past 20 years. She has tapped insights from general systems theory, deep ecology, earth-centered religions, and ancient wisdom in her construction of "the Great Turning" to a sustainable civilization.
Macy and Brown present exercises and practices for group work in seven modules: (1) affirmation — coming from gratitude, (2) despair worl — owning and honoring our pain for the world; (3) the shift — seeing with new eyes, and (4) deep time — reconnecting with past and future generations, (5) the council of all beings — rejoining the natural world, (6) going forth, and (7) meditations for coming back to life. This is an invaluable sourcebook for spiritual activists who want to practice compassion and loving action in an anguished world.
