Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World (Paperback)

~ Joanna R. Macy (Author), Molly Young Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Many of us feel called to respond to the ecological destruction of our planet, yet we feel overwhelmed, immobilized, and unable to deal realistically with the threats to life on Earth. Noted spiritual and environmental thinkers Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown contend that this crippling response to world crisis is a psychological defense mechanism that has been endemic since the years of the Cold War arms race, when we had to adapt within a single generation to the horrific possibility of nuclear holocaust.

Since its publication in 1983, Joanna Macy's book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age has sold nearly 30,000 copies and has been the primary resource for groups of men and women confronting the challenging realities of our time without succumbing to paralysis or panic. Coming Back to Life provides a much needed update and expansion of this pioneering work. At the interface between spiritual breakthrough and social action, Coming Back to Life is eloquent and compelling as well as being an inspiring and practical guide. The first third of the book discusses with extraordinary insight the angst of our era, and the pain, fear, guilt and inaction it has engendered; it then points forward to the way out of apathy, tio "the work that reconnects". The rest of the book offers both personal counsel and easy-to-use methods for working with groups in a number of ways to profoundly affect peoples' outlook and ability to act in the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mathew Fox
1. To Choose Life
2. The Greatest Danger: Apatheia, The Deadening of Mind & Heart
3. The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature & Power
4. The Work that Reconnects
5. Guiding Group Work
6. Affirmation: Coming from Gratitude
7. Despair Work: Owning & Honoring Our Pain for the World
8. The Shift: Seeing with New Eyes
9. Deep Time: Drawing on Past & Future Generations
10. The Council of All Beings: Rejoining the Natural World
11. Going Forth
12. Meditations for Coming Back to Life


Joanna Macy has developed an international following over the course of 40 years as a speaker and workshop leader on Buddhist philosophy and the deep ecology movement

About the Author

Joanna Macy is a teacher and tireless workshop leader from Berkeley, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086571391X
• ISBN-13: 978-0865713918
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #106,145 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, universal truths about self, community and world., October 4, 1999

By	Angela Sevin ([e-mail]) (California) - See all my reviews

Without having to consult a post-modern dictionary, Joanna Macy and co-author, Molly Young Brown give inspiring and heartfelt explanations and examples of their lifework: dealing with the roots of conscious and unconscious pain that we all feel with regards to ourselves, while bringing home the concept of our connectedness to this world. They point out the fallacy of basic assumptions that we can fix whatever problems we create (the fix-it mentality), as well as dealing with resulting issues of burn-out and stress by alternatively doing the "work that reconnects". The dynamic model set forth in this book recognizes the role of community and encourages us out of an antagonistic "us" versus "them" concept which tends to lead us towards short-term NIMBY (not in my backyard) solutions.

In the preface to the book, Joanna Macy writes, "THIS IS A GUIDEBOOK. It maps ways into the vitality and determination we each possess to take part in the healing of our world."

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, August 20, 2007

By	C. DeGetmon (Earth) - See all my reviews

This is a great book written by a wise elder. While my sentiments are in agreement with the basic concepts of interconnection Macy writes so eloquently about, I am not sure that environmental policies may be achieved without polarization and confrontation of the forces of corporate hegemony. This is my only disagreement with the author. Is consensus really possible given the layers of entrenched elites running the global show?

The practices within the book are meaningful for reconnecting to the wider imprint of nature. I found some to be in confluence with practices Ive learned elsewhere with indigenous peoples and another one of my mentors, the naturalist, Tom Brown.

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative, November 14, 2009

By	Mr. Robin Pryor "RJPryor" (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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A creative, imaginative and very practical book concerned to respond, individually and especially in group contexts, to the environmental perceptions that wilol give new life to Earth and we Earthlings