World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Planetary RenewalThis overview of Joanna Macy's innovative work combines deep ecology, general systems theory, and the Buddha's teachings on interdependent co-arising. A blueprint for social change, World as Lover, World as Self shows how we can reverse the destructive attitudes that threaten our world, with concrete suggestions on how to address "An Inconvenient Truth". The essays are based on the Buddha's teachings of "Paticca samuppada" (interdependent co-arising). Reduced to deceptively simple terms this says that everything in the world- every object, feeling, emotion, and action is influenced by a huge, all-inclusive web of factors. Any change in the condition of any one thing in this web affects everything else by virtue of interconnectedness. It makes World as Lover World as Self a quintessential guide for those readers who want to integrate their Buddhist practice with concerns for social issues like global warming. It also breaches the dualities that have haunted much of both Eastern and Western thought, namely the dichotomies between mind/body, humanity/nature, reason/emotion, self/world, science/spirituality. The premise is that self-centeredness, and modern individualisms are ultimately destructive for the environment. We are not individuals separate from the world. Instead we are always "co-arising" or co-creating the world, and we cannot escape the consequence of what we do to the environment. Joanna Macy presents a re-focusing on the beauty of the natural world as personally nourishing and replenishment as one way to move away from our self-centeredness. For this revised edition the author will be adding some chapters as well as removing others. The new ones will deal largely with her new work around the "Great Turning" that will add a somewhat more visionary, future-oriented, and strategic dimension to the book. World as Lover, World as Self shows us how to realize that the earth is an extension of ourselves and how to discover the knowledge, authority and courage to respond creatively to the crises of our time. Foreword Thich Nhat Hanh |
Contents
Introduction | |
Harvesting Wisdom from the Past | |
World as Lover World as Self 17 | |
Its All Connected 30 | |
Self and Society 42 | |
The Coarising of Doer and Deed 53 | |
Mother of All Buddhas 61 | |
Cultivating the Present | |
Faith Power and Ecology 103 | |
Three Lessons in Compassion 113 | |
The Shambhala Warriors 120 | |
Spiritual Practices for Activists 123 | |
Sowing Seeds for the Future | |
The Great Turning 139 | |
The Greening of the Self 148 | |
A Dharma Lesson from Tibet 159 | |
Common terms and phrases
action ancient appear arise asked awareness become begin bodhisattva body breathing bring Buddha Buddhist called capacity causes Chapter co-arising comes connection consciousness continuity create culture dark deep dependent desire Dharma Earth experience express eyes face fear feel four future give greetings hand happening healing hear heart human imagine individual kind land larger light lives look matter means mind monks mother move nature notion nuclear offered organic ourselves pain passing past Perfection of Wisdom person planet practice present Project question reality reflected response reveal Sariputra sense separate share social society space speak species spiritual story suffering sustain teachings tell thanks things thought tion traditions tree truth turn universe walk waste wisdom