Compassion literally means to feel with, to suffer with. Everyone is capable of compassion, and yet everyone tends to avoid it because it's uncomfortable. And the avoidance produces psychic numbing - resistance to experiencing our pain for the world and… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe... All is registered in the 'boundless heart' of the bodhisattva. Through our deepest and… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
When you look at what is happening to our world-and it is hard to look at what's happening to our water, our air, our… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
“In the first movement, our infancy as a species, we felt no separation from the natural world around us. Trees, rocks, and plants surrounded us with a living presence as intimate and pulsing as our own bodies. In that primal intimacy, which anthropologists call "participation mystique," we were as one with our world as a child in the mother's womb.… — Joanna Macy Copy Share
“Yet, even focusing on this present life, disciples often queried the Buddha as to who is responsible for the habits, sufferings, and pleasures we experience. In reply, he refused to say that they are caused by a past actor with whom we have no more connection. One cannot categorically separate the “I” who experiences the result from the “I” who… — Joanna Macy Copy Share
There's a song that wants to sing itself through us. We just got to be available. Maybe the song that is to be sung through us is the most beautiful requiem for an irreplaceable planet or maybe it's a song of joyous rebirth as we create a new culture that doesn't destroy its world. But in any case, there's absolutely… — Joanna Macy Copy Share
Clothe yourself in your authority. You speak not only as yourself or for yourself. You will speak and act with the courage and endurance… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
There are the holding actions, the changing actions, and the vision of the future - what we want to see happen for the Earth.… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
We are capable of suffering with our world, and that is the true meaning of compassion. It enables us to recognize our profound interconnectedness with all beings. Don't ever apologize for crying for the trees burning in the Amazon or over the waters polluted from mines in the Rockies. Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It… — Joanna Macy Copy Share
Action isn't a burden to be hoisted up and lugged around on our shoulders. It is something we are. The work we have to… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
Qualities like love and compassion are not just abstract virtues that are the property of saints and adepts. Anyone can develop these qualities in… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world. — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the… — Joanna Macy Copy Share Image
