Coming Back to Life Quotes

“It is no longer appropriate to think only in terms of even my nation or my country, let alone my village. If we are to overcome the problems we face, we need what I have called a sense of universal responsibility rooted in love and kindness for our human brothers and sisters. In our present state of affairs, the very survival of humankind depends on people developing concern for the whole of humanity, not just their own community or nation. The reality of our situation impels us to act and think more clearly. Narrow-mindedness and self-centered thinking may have served us well in the past, but today will only lead to disaster. We can overcome such attitudes through the combination of education and training.”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“It seems both outrageous and irresponsible that so few mental health clinicians connect the epidemics of mental distress in industrial societies with the devastating impact of our suicidal destruction of our own habitat and ecocidal elimination of whole species. — Linda Buzzel and Craig Chalquist”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“It is hard to believe we feel pain for the world if we assume we’re separate from it. The individualistic bias of Western culture supports that assumption. Feelings of fear, anger or despair about the world tend to be interpreted in terms of personal pathology. Our distress over the state of the world is seen as stemming from some neurosis, rooted perhaps in early trauma or unresolved issues with a parental figure that we’re projecting on society at large. Thus we are tempted to discredit feelings that arise from solidarity with our fellow-beings.”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“Resistance to painful information on the grounds that we cannot do anything about it springs less from powerlessness (as measured by our capacity to effect change) than from the fear of feeling powerless.”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature. — Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“CONSUME OBEY BE SILENT DIE”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer. — Thomas Merton”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“How dare I be discouraged in the work By anything so trivial As the fear of personal failure? — Paul Williams”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“Demagogues direct our frustrations against other groups, blaming those most victimized. For the failures of corporate capitalism, we scapegoat each other.”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects

“Most Americans get their news from corporate-controlled media. At the same time, right-wing interests and ideologues are buying up the major newspapers, radio and television stations across the country which people have looked to over the years for balanced reporting. Now too often, they find misinformation, outright deception and the fomenting of false fears in once-trusted media. Such manipulation of the news keeps people ignorant and confused about what’s really going on.”
― Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects