Joanna Macy
Born in 1929, Joanna Macy is an environmental activist, author, and a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology.
In the mid-sixties, Joanna moved with her husband Francis to post-colonial India, where he ran the US Peace Corps. There, she cared for Tibetan refugees, joining the young, newly exiled Dalai Lama. She “fell in love with these Tibetans who were living in very harsh circumstances up in the foothills of the Himalayas after these incredibly strenuous — and often with loss of life and great danger and sick-making — escapes over the peaks and passes out of Tibet.” She marvelled at the way they loved life and the way they loved their tradition in a very open-hearted way and she wanted to know what helped them be like that. That was a turning point in her life that led to her to embracing Buddhism.
Her entry into the environmental movement in the seventies was through protests against nuclear arms and nuclear power generation. She realized that we were “making choices that would affect whether beings thousands of generations from now will be able to be born sound of mind and body.” She began offering workshops all over the world on nuclear and other environmental issues under the title “The Work that Reconnects.” Her writings and training activities have addressed the psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary science.
“The Work That Reconnects” helps people discover and experience their innate connections with each other and the self-healing powers of the web of life, transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action. It unfolds as a spiral journey through four stages: Coming from gratitude, honouring our pain for the world, seeing with new/ancient eyes, and going forth. The journey helps us experience first-hand that we are larger, stronger, more creative – and more deeply interconnected – than we knew.
Along with her colleague David Korten, she also evolved the concept of the Great Turning, which is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization. Joanna believes that a revolution is under way because people are realizing that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.
The Three Dimensions of the Great Turning are:
- Actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings
- Analysis of structural causes and the creation of structural alternatives
- Shift in consciousness
According to Joanna, whether or not it is recognized by corporate-controlled media, the Great Turning is a reality. “Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage. The realizations we make in the third dimension of the Great Turning save us from succumbing to either panic or paralysis. They help us resist the temptation to stick our heads in the sand, or to turn on each other for scapegoats on whom to vent our fear and rage.”
Early in her life, Joanna was deeply influenced by the work of the famous German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. Throughout her life, Rilke’s poems have anchored and sustained her. Along with Anita Barrows, she translated Rilke’s work and published A Year with Rilke, which contains 365 readings from Rilke. Joanna is also the author of several other books including Dharma and Development, Thinking Like a Mountain, In Praise of Mortality, Pass It On: Five Stories That Can Change the World, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy, and Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects.
Joanna Macy currently lives in semi-retirement in Berkeley, California. I am posting her story today, 3rd May 2020, and yesterday was her 91st birthday. She is still active and strong!
Afterword: For this story, I have drawn heavily from Joanna’s website, the website of “Work that Reconnects Network”, and her interview with Krista Tippett.
Recently released is a new book A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time (edited by Stephanie Kaza), in which leading spiritual teachers, deep ecologists, and diverse writers and activists explore the major facets of Macy’s lifework.
I sure hope we are in The Great Turning… I have admired her for years… but knew little about her. This is so important to know. Specify during the COVID-19 pandemic
The great turning has to necessarily happen and people cannot remain in the inertia of the current living for too long. Many things have changed over centuries and nature plays its role from time to time if men desist to change, from causing havoc on this earth. Action to go slow is long overdue and shift in consciousness can happen if there is a jolt bringing about mutation and a radical change in our thought processes. I am sure there is something beyond the thought process itself, which needs to be individually discovered. Hope Covid-19 has enough lessons for us and what a tragedy to bring in the benign effect into the communities.
I hope that “The Work That Reconnects” of Joanna Macy and issues like these will help people realise that there are simple ways to living, which is far more energising and creative.