Occupy Spirituality Quotes

“If you don't work on yourself, then much of your politics is merely projections. We have to walk our talk and do the inner work that allows the outer work to be authentic and also effective.”
― Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“Certainly–and we can all agree on this, whether we are atheists, theists, panentheists–the future is doing the calling. The unborn children, our great-great-grandchildren are doing the calling. A mere seventy-five years from now they're going to be saying, 'What did you do, Daddy, when the Earth was collapsing and when militarism was where you were putting so much of your money, and when empires were still the mode of the day, and when religions were at each other's throats and Christianity was collapsing? What did you do? How did you interfere and say no?”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“We have to get over this notion, which many of us are taught early, that your soul is in your body. Because if your soul is in your body, it doesn't grow very much–your body is obviously limited in size. But if your soul's not in your body, but your body is in your soul, then your soul can grow as much as your heart and mind grow.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“We believe that the movement, from Cairo to New York, from San Francisco to London, that is being called "Occupy" is a movement of spiritual democracy.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“The goal is not to answer these questions. The goal is to be present to them with all that we are. In a way we are following the poet Rilke's advice when he counseled the young artist, "be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along into the answer.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“Again, it's about patterns––you see the pattern, for example, that a young person has moral outrage and is finding effective ways to express it. It's very important that the older generation sees this, feels it, and tastes it. Otherwise they become cynical old goats, and they die with regret. But if you can see that younger people are also tapping into visions analogous to those that you had in your twenties, that's very heartening. If you have something to teach them––which you probably do, especially if you carry some wounds yourself––then there's a mutual learning that goes on. It's not one-way by any stretch of the imagination. It's a beautiful thing.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“That's why we live in a world that is so messed up, because most of us go along, simply because going along is connected to our paychecks.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“Many young activists tend to resist spirituality, thinking that religion has nothing to do with social change and is, in fact, part of the problem.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“The powerful do not understand hope. Hope is not part of their vocabulary. They speak in cold, dead words of national security, global markets, electoral strategy, staying on message, image and money...Those addicted to power, blinded by self-exaltation, cannot decipher the words of hope any more than most of us can decipher hieroglyphics.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“There is much to be angry about in today's world, whether you are young or old, but certainly if you are young. Adultism reigns.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“We believe that today's younger generation, who started a global movement by camping out on Wall Street and its equivalents around the world and who are often choosing a road less traveled rather than joining the military-industrial-academic-prision complex–these people are prophets in our midst.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“This new spirituality is much more about taking off the masks of pretense and cultivating genuine heart connections that inspire growth in both elders and youth, rather than in keeping with tradition or respecting authority. It is all about true aliveness and entering into life in a more full and deep way.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“Benedictine Anselm Grün, who used a very beautiful metaphor that went like this: Before you are born, God pronounces a word or a sentence over you. Then, once you get here, your goal is to live your life in such a way that other people—the people around you—can hear it.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“Thomas Aquinas said that while injustice is the worst of sins, despair is the most dangerous, because when you are in despair, you care neither about yourself nor about others.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“When we are deeply committed to and engaged in meaningful work - irrespective of how we define meaning as individuals - we feel alive in a profound way. We can touch our purpose. We trust life again. And we trust that we are alive for a clear and powerful reason.”
― Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation