Practice on deep ecology

Profile: Mohandas Gandhi

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), known as Mahatma (“Great Soul”), developed the concept of satyagraha - nonviolent resistance - during the Indian independence movement. His philosophy of ahimsa (nonviolence) and simple living influenced subsequent social and environmental movements, including Arne Naess’s deep ecology.

Gandhi developed satyagraha while working in South Africa (1893-1914), where he organized resistance to discriminatory laws. The term combines satya (truth) and agraha (firmness or force). He distinguished satyagraha from passive resistance, proposing it as an active form of moral confrontation that seeks to appeal to an opponent’s conscience rather than to coerce through violence.

Profile: Satish Kumar

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Satish Kumar (born 1936) is an Indian-British activist, educator, and editor who founded Schumacher College and edited Resurgence & Ecologist magazine for over forty years. His work integrates ecological sustainability, spiritual values, and nonviolent social change.

Kumar trained as a Jain monk in India, learning principles of ahimsa (non-violence) and reverence for all life. In the 1960s, he undertook an 8,000-mile peace walk from India to America without money, relying on hospitality. This journey demonstrated his commitment to Gandhi’s philosophy of simple living.

Profile: Thich Nhat Hanh

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) was a Vietnamese Zen master, poet, and peace activist whose teachings on “Interbeing” examined the interconnectedness of all phenomena. His development of “Engaged Buddhism” integrated contemplative practice with social and environmental action.

During the Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh worked with war refugees and advocated for peace, leading to decades of exile. He established Plum Village in France, which became one of the most visited monasteries in the West. His “School for Youth and Social Services” helped rebuild villages bombed during the war and later became the Order of Interbeing, a worldwide lay practice community.

Profile: Vandana Shiva

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Vandana Shiva (born 1952) is an Indian physicist, environmental activist, and author who advocates for biodiversity, traditional agriculture, and indigenous peoples’ rights. Her work examines connections between environmental and social justice.

Trained as a physicist, Shiva shifted to environmental activism following the Chipko movement in the Himalayas, where women physically protected trees from logging. She founded Navdanya in 1991, an organization promoting organic farming and seed sovereignty that has worked with farmers to preserve indigenous seed varieties and transition from industrial agriculture.

Profile: Joanna Macy

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Joanna Macy (1929-2025) was a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Born in Los Angeles, she earned her PhD and spent five decades developing the Work That Reconnects, a group methodology for addressing ecological grief and cultivating engagement.

Macy studied at Wellesley College and conducted doctoral research on systems theory and Buddhist philosophy. Her academic work explored connections between Buddhist concepts of dependent co-arising and contemporary systems thinking. In the late 1970s, she began developing what she initially called “Despair and Empowerment Work,” proposing that people needed structured ways to acknowledge grief about ecological and social conditions.

Profile: John Seed

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

John Seed is an Australian environmental activist who co-created the Council of All Beings practice and founded the Rainforest Information Centre. His work connects direct action rainforest protection with experiential deep ecology practices.

Born in Australia, Seed became involved in rainforest protection campaigns in 1979. His participation in direct actions contributed to the protection of Australian rainforests during the 1980s. In 1984 he helped establish the US Rainforest Action Network, organizing roadshows that connected Australian forest campaigns with North American audiences. He produced the documentary “Earth First!” for Australian national television in 1987, documenting rainforest protection efforts.

Profile: Pat Fleming

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Pat Fleming is a deep ecology facilitator who co-authored Thinking Like a Mountain (1988) with John Seed, Joanna Macy, and Arne Naess. She has conducted experiential deep ecology workshops for over forty years.

Born in England to a Northern Irish family, Fleming holds British-Australian nationality and currently resides in northern Lutruwita (Tasmania). Her background includes mental health counseling, conservation botany, organic farming, and environmental education. She holds an MA in Psychology from Edinburgh University and an MSc in Botanical Conservation from Plymouth University.

Meditation: “Our Life as Gaia” - Remembering Cosmogenesis

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The recording below consists of a 45 minute guided meditation and visualisation exploring the story of cosmogenesis also known as “The Universe Story”, “The Great Story” and the “Epic of Evolution”. This version is a little more meditative than some versions, so it contain less in the way of specific dates for events and more cues for embodied awareness. The basic flow is ispired by Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis, John Seed and others.

Embodied practice: Body Scan and Total Relaxation

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The following recording consist of a guided body scan and total relaxation. This practice builds on the embodied awareness and breath meditations introduced in previous sessions, cultivating a sensitivity to subtler sensation in the whole body. These practices are beneficial as a way to increase embodied awareness, the capacity to maintain that awareness over a longer period, and for relaxation and stress management. You will also find they are of benefit when you revisit those earlier practices, as they hone the same skills.

Embodied practice: Finding the Full Body Breath

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From our birth until our last moment of life, the breath is with us, a rhythmic connection between the inner and outer. While there is a basic function of the breath to provide oxygen to our cells and carry away carbon dioxide, the importance of “respiration” for our health and vitality goes way beyond simply gas exchange, so that spiritual traditions the world over are almost unanimous in emphasising the importance of the breath.

Embodied practice: Breathing Through - Ven. Tenzin

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The recording below consists of an introduction to the practice of “Breathing Through” developed by Joanna Macy, here guided by Buddhist monk Ven. Tenzin (Dr. Alex Anderson). This practice is often offered in Deep Ecology and especially Work that Reconnects" workshops, as a foundational practice for working with the powerful emotions that can arise in the Spiral phase “Honouring our Pain for the World” such as the “Truth Mandala”. Joanna’s “Breathing Through” has its origins in a traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice used in the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion, known as “Tonglen”, or “Giving and Taking”. This practice is a foundational practice in the Boddhisattva path, and a cornerstone of the Work That Reconnects. See also Macy’s own written instructions for this practice, and her 2005 training video of the same.

Embodied practice: Basic Breath Awareness

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The following recording follows on from a previous offering which introduced basic postural awareness, helpful in sitting meditation. This practice expands on the base of embodied practice introduced there, bringing in mindfulness of breathing. We draw on the [Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing,][1] or [Anapanasati Sutta][2] (Mn118). As the name implies these instructions take the breath as the main object of awareness, and constitute a core practice of Buddhist Yoga. They are beneficial in the cultivation of a body and mind which is calm, placing the practitioner in touch with the parasympathetic nervous system, fundamentally down-regulating, and a helpful antidote to experiences of strong flooding emotions. The practice shared here are very general and introductory, suitable for any level of practitioner. They can be practiced sitting on a cushion on the floor, on a chair, or even lying down. The emphasis here is again one of cultivation of relaxation, ease and continuity of awareness.

Embodied Practice: Introduction to Mindful Walking

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The recording below is a brief introduction to the embodied practice of Mindful Walking, drawing on insights and instructions from the Buddhist tradition. This practice can form a key part of our daily practices for resources and nourishing, equipping us with the presence and stability to work engage wholeheartedly with our lives, relationships, and experiences, even the more challenging ones. The approach shared here is especially inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village tradition, which emphasises mindfulness in daily life, and the cultivation of ease, peace and joy in all our activities.

Embodied Practice: Introduction to Sitting

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The following recording is an introduction to the embodied practice of sitting meditation, preliminary to a practice of Mindfulness of Breathing. These instructions draw on the Buddhist and Yoga traditions of meditation with the breath as an object. They are beneficial in the cultivation of a body and mind which is calm, at ease and able to maintain awareness even with subtle sensations and experiences. The practice shared here are very general and introductory, suitable for any level of practitioner. They can be practiced sitting on a cushion on the floor, on a chair, or even lying down. The emphasis is not on forcing the body to persist through pain and discomfort, or developing some kind of lazer-beam concentration, but on cultivation the capacity to enjoy, to be be fulfilled by the simple act of breathing in and out.

Practice: Breathing Through

Mon, 02 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Joanna Macy offers the following practice as part of the preparatory work for the “Honouring our Pain for the world” component of The Work That Reconnects. See also her own 2005 training video of this practice, and our guided audio recording of the same.

Basic to most spiritual traditions is the recognition that we are not separate, isolated entities, but integral and organic parts of the vast web of life. We can open to the pain of the world in confidence that it can neither shatter nor isolate us, for we are not objects that can break. We are resilient patterns within a vaster web of knowing.

Profile: Vimala Thakar

Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Vimala Thakar (1921-2009) was an Indian philosopher, social activist, and spiritual teacher who pioneered the integration of meditative inquiry with social justice work. A woman who challenged the norms of Indian spiritual and political life in the mid-20th century, she proposed that inner transformation and outer action are inseparable dimensions of human wholeness.

Influenced by both Gandhian philosophy and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, Thakar developed an approach to spiritual life that rejected the traditional separation between contemplation and social engagement. She argued that becoming a spiritual inquirer without social consciousness is a “luxury we can ill afford,” while social activism without understanding the inner workings of mind represents “the worst folly.”

Cosmic Walk Timeline

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This post displays a visual version of the “Cosmic walk” group process, a journey that spirals through deep time from the birth of the cosmos to the present day. This process is intended to guide participants in coming into contact with the enourmous scale of time which we now know is spanned by the story of our reality. The story touches on just a handful of the important events that have shaped our our cosmos, solar system, planet and biosphere.