I spent 10 days in July at Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects (WTR) intensive workshop. Now Joanna Macy’s teachings, the Elm Dance, the poetry, the silence, and the deep connections we experienced over a month ago are encapsulated like a crystal ball, hung right in front of me. It’s so close, yet it seems unreachable. Thankfully, I found time to review my notes from the book Coming Back to Life and to reflect further.

THE GREAT TURNING
In this time, the most commonly held stories seem to boil down to three, three different lenses through which we see and live our own reality. As humans, we are blessed with the ability to make choices; and we can choose the story that we want to live by.

As Joanna put it in Coming Back to Life:
Business As Usual is the story of the Industrial Growth Society, forever profiting from the Earth and from each other. There is little need to change the way we live and all difficulties and problems are temporary and solvable by human will.

The Great Unraveling is the lens through which many environmental scientists, independent journalist, and actives see. We cannot afford to do what we have been doing because Business As Usual has endangered and will continue to endanger life on Earth, which may cause massive-scale extinction in the foreseeable future.

The Great Turning is that we see the Great Unraveling, but we choose to join and act together for the sake of all life on Earth. More and more of us are waking up collectively as a species. Guided by our innate nature, our interdependence in the web of life, and our connection to the living Earth, we are gaining momentum and going to turn things around and build a life-sustaining society for generations and generations to come.

We choose to live The Great Turning as it unfolds simultaneously in three dimensions: Holding actions to slow down the damage to Earth and its beings (such as protesting against nuclear power and waste), transforming the foundations of our interdependent life (such as transitioning toward living independent of fossil oil), and shifting in our consciousness (such as growing connection to the living Earth and waking up to our interconnectedness with all life).

All three dimensions are interrelated, one supporting the other two. When we see each other working or living in any of the dimensions, we smile and nod at each other, “Brother/Sister/Sibling, I see you and I am here with you!”

The worst thing is not the destruction caused by irresponsible human behaviors that harms life on Earth, but the deadening of our hearts and minds. We ought to feel and honor our fear and despair first in order to understand what’s beneath that fear and despair—our love for life. We don’t know for sure, as Joanna Macy put it, if we are midwives for the new life-sustaining future or the deathbed attendants for the dying. But either way, we can always live this life in awe as the sun rises every morning because life itself is a miracle and we are forever grateful.



Deep Ecology
Instead of treating the symptoms of the ecological degradation, such as cleaning up a river here or a dump there for human benefits, deep ecology questions the foundation of the Industrial Growth Society as it exists independently of whether humans recognize it or not. Earth is alive, not a supply house and sewer. All life-forms have an intrinsic right to exist, but none should take more than what is needed and what Earth can give sustainably. We act on behalf of Earth as part of Earth. As John Seed, an Australian rainforest activist, said, “I am part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of rainforest recently emerged into thinking.”

As we truly mature, we grow out of that narrow competitive ego and grow into a social self and a spiritual self, and also an ecological self. Self-organization of the whole requires differentiation of the parts. Each ecological self in this unfolding journey of reaching ecological harmony is unique. How can we find our ecological place in the web of life? Speak the truth of our experience of this world; be generous with our strengths and skills—they are not our private property; put forth great effort but let go of wanting to see results for our actions ripple way farther than what we could see or even imagine in our lifetime. Keep on keeping on.

It was the systems view combining with Buddhist teachings that prepared Joanna Macy to dive deeper into Deep Ecology and shaped Work That Reconnects from its beginning.

Deep Time
We often hear about a five-year plan, but how about making a 5,000-year plan? What would it be like? If we all slow down or even stop and do nothing like trees, which only care to grow roots and reach towards the sun, what would the world be like? As Rainer Maria Rilke put it, “If we surrender to the Earth intelligence, we will rise up like trees, rooted.” Without the distortion and distraction from mass media, militarism, and consumerism, what’s essential for us will come into focus as we sit down with a quiet mind.

During the exercise of harvesting the gifts of the ancestors, we walked back in time to the day before, the year before, ten years before, to being a child, being born, to the first meeting of our parents and grandparents, to all the ancestors who gave us life, to the Stone Ages, to the floating single cells in the ocean, and all the way to the birth of the universe. Then we walked forward again from the very beginning to the present. I wondered, "What is time?"

After the walk of harvesting the gifts of the ancestors, one of us shared the image of a mother who held up a baby high and implored, “Please keep this baby alive!” That's the calling from life itself. We received the strength from all mothers who had given birth to us. My existence alone is a mere miracle—just imagine if any one of my hundreds of thousands of ancestors didn’t survive long enough to pass on their life to their next generation, I wouldn’t be here. None of us are alone. We all have an army of ancestors behind us, whispering into our subconscious how much we are blessed for being alive. And in the same way, we must take care of this home on Earth for our future generations and will pass on to them the warmth in our heart that keeps all life connected.

When we are connected across time with the beings of the three times—those who came before us, those who come after us, and those who live with us in the present--we are connected with the timeless torch of life.

THE SPIRAL OF THE WORK
The spiral that begins with Gratitude, then Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes, and Going Forth—four successive and recurring stages, maps the journey of Work That Reconnects.

Gratitude quiets the mind and grounds us to the Source of life. I had a dream the first night after we arrived at River’s Bend Retreat Center. I dreamed of a childhood friend, who was beautiful and bright, tragically committed suicide after being sexually assaulted as a young girl and receiving no understanding from her family and friends. I wasn't sure if the story was true or not, but growing up as a Chinese peasant and factory worker's daughter, I witnessed many young souls like me wither away. I felt tremendously grateful the next morning as I walked up to our meeting hall, looking around at the trees and hills and the trails leading to the river. What did I do to deserve all the blessings in my life? Given where I came from in China, I couldn't have imagined that I would ever come to a retreat center in northern California to learn from such a wise elder and teacher of our time the powerful tools by which to live, to love, and to serve. My gratitude overflowed, as our first day together was about to begin.


Drawing by Martin Wagner

"May you be strong to hold hands with vulnerability; may you walk courageously toward your real truth; may you fall madly in love with life." On my solo day, lying by the river, I repeated those words 51 times as I wrote down each of the workshop participants' names and held each person's image in my mind's eye. At this moment, all the heart-to-heart conversations that I had during the retreat are still fresh.

Honoring our Pain for the World, instead of numbing our mind and heart, is crucial for the healing of the world, including the pain within ourselves. The Truth Mandala ritual provided us a sacred space to hold our vulnerability together. The power of expressing our feelings by holding a symbolic object was palpable, holding fallen leaves as sorrow, a stone as fear, a stick as anger, and an empty bowl as a sense of not-knowing. Then the truth beneath that vulnerability was our resilience, with sorrow indicating our love for what we've lost, fear our courage to be vulnerable, anger our passion for justice, and emptiness welcoming a new beginning. Joanna Macy opened the circle by going down to the floor grieving over the misuse of the sacred spirit of Sri Lanka whose beauty became its curse in present time... What we expressed in the circle that day stayed in that circle and will continue to live in the invisible circle of our hearts.

Seeing with New Eyes is seeing our life as connected to all life in the web of life, across all three times—the past, the present, and the future. We are instructed to think for the seven generations to come, while carrying on all the gifts that our ancestors have handed down to us.

We need to be part of the neural net. Who wants to be like a neuron which isolates itself behind defensive walls? As it says in Coming Back to Life “It would atrophy and die. Its health and power lie in opening itself to the change, letting the signals through. Only then can the larger system—the neural net—learn to respond and think.” How wonderful to let life come through each of us, to open to the large mystery, and to be part of the web of life where each element has a role to play.

As wise ones say, tell the story of anything, we must tell the story of everything. When we talk about ecology, we need to talk about social justice too. Every morning as we linked hands and hearts during Elm Dance, we swung in solidarity like trees with roots connected and we said our prayers loud, "Soil, farmed animals, Earth, factory workers, trees, victims of police shootings..."

My heart is often saddened by the division among human hearts, and the misunderstanding and hurt even between dear friends and within caring and conscious communities. When we have disagreements with someone, may we pause and ask questions: Do I really understand that person? Do I understand her suffering, her difficulties, and her deepest longing? If I do not, how can I ask for support to understand her better? With a strong intention to connect, we will be able to strengthen our heart connection by soothing one heart at a time.

Seeing with New Eyes is seeing the world from a free and loving heart. Each heart-aching moment is an opportunity to grow. Peace starts first from my own heart.

Going Forth
One of the co-facilitators at the 10-Day Intensive, proposed an ongoing monthly meeting to deepen our collective learning in the Work That Reconnects. As we reconvened for the first time, it felt like a family reunion.

At the reunion, it was inspiring to my core to hear Joanna (at age 88) say, “I feel so alive!” She was glad that she didn’t form a 501(c) (3) organization. All her teachings were "open source" before she even knew the term of open source. She said, “So all we are is like a river… and we can do the best we know how to do with the Work That Reconnects. That means we have to hang out together; we have to listen to each other; we need to read what has been written and write other things. This is a new kind of organizing. It’s like what you see in nature. When the rains come, the streams flow…” To me, that's the very practice of Work That Reconnects and community building.

DO THE WORK
How does WTR really help the world? Yes, we read the books, attended the workshops, and even used some of the exercises to lead the circles. But on a larger scale, what does WTR actually do? It should be more than just training more WTR trainers.

When we no longer hold jobs for which we don’t have passion, our real work begins. Some of the work is visible and most of it is invisible. When people ask me, "What do you do for work?" I often find it hard to put in words what I do. What do I do? I want to reduce harm by gradually reconnecting to everything I touch; I want to cultivate peace within by living simply and consciously; I want to contribute to the Work that transforms human hearts and minds by reconnecting to ourselves, to each other, and to Nature.

In this sometimes heart-wrenching time, I want to learn to taste the sweetness of each moment, even when I am stuck in a well with a tiger roaring above and a dragon spitting fire below, as an old story goes. If I pause and pay attention, the sweet fruit hung on the wall of the well is waiting for me to taste.

Using the Vows as Daily Reminder
I vow to myself and to each of you:
To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
To live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume.
To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and my brothers and sisters of all species.
To support others in their work for the world and to ask for help when I feel the need.
To pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.

The Shambhala Warrior Prophecy

"Now comes the time when great courage is required of the Shambhala warriors, moral and physical courage. For they must go into the very heart of the barbarian power and dismantle the weapons. To remove these weapons, they must go into the corridors of power where the decisions are made.

"The Shambhala warriors know they can do this because the weapons are manomaya, mind-made. This is very important to remember, Joanna. These weapons are made by the human mind. So they can be unmade by the human mind! The Shambhala warriors know that the dangers that threaten life on Earth do not come from evil deities or extraterrestrial powers. They arise from our own choices and relationships. So, now, the Shambhala warriors must go into training."