Spirituality on deep ecology

Please Call Me by My True Names

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

“Please call me by my true names, \ so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once, \ so I can see that my joy and pain are one.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Profile: Bayo Akomolafe

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

Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian psychologist, author, and philosopher who offers decolonial perspectives on mental health, spirituality, and environmental activism. Trained in Western psychology but rooted in Yoruba cosmology, he proposes “post-activist” approaches that examine assumptions about agency and social change.

Akomolafe’s philosophy emphasizes “slowing down” and “composting” - allowing old systems and identities to decompose so that new possibilities can emerge. Through The Emergence Network, he facilitates conversations about decolonizing research, education, and activism. His work examines how indigenous African philosophies can contribute to environmental movements while maintaining cultural sovereignty.

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: Sulak Sivaraksa

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

Sulak Sivaraksa is Thailand’s most prominent Buddhist social critic and one of the founders of the international Engaged Buddhism movement. For over five decades, he has articulated a Buddhist approach to social, economic, and environmental issues that directly challenges both Western materialism and traditional Buddhism’s perceived detachment from worldly concerns.

Sivaraksa’s work demonstrates how Buddhist principles of interdependence, non-violence, and mindful consumption offer profound alternatives to industrial capitalism’s destructive relationship with nature. His concept of “Buddhist economics,” developed alongside E.F. Schumacher, proposes development models based on sufficiency, sustainability, and spiritual well-being rather than endless growth.

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: Mary Oliver

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was an American poet whose accessible nature poetry examined attention to the natural world. Her work invited readers to observe closely the ordinary aspects of nature - grasshoppers, bears, wild geese. She suggested that sustained attention to nature can cultivate direct experience of interconnection.

Oliver’s poetry presented birds, flowers, trees, and animals as subjects that reveal patterns of existence. Her question “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” from “The Summer Day” has become widely known. She proposed that humans are participants in natural processes rather than separate observers.

Profile: Rainer Maria Rilke

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was an Austrian-German poet whose work explored nature, solitude, and human existence. Writing in the early 20th century, Rilke articulated a sense of intimacy with the natural world that examined relationships between self and environment.

Rilke’s work depicts trees, animals, flowers, and mountains not as objects but as presences with whom one shares existence. His concept of “world inner space” (Weltinnenraum) suggested that knowledge comes from allowing the world to arise within consciousness through deep attention and openness. This phenomenological approach to nature proposed a participatory relationship between human awareness and the natural world.

Profile: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a Jesuit priest, paleontologist, and visionary thinker who pioneered the integration of evolutionary science with mystical spirituality, articulating cosmic evolution as a fundamentally spiritual process moving toward greater consciousness and unity. His cosmic vision provided essential foundations for contemporary approaches to ecological spirituality and planetary consciousness.

Trained as both paleontologist and theologian, Teilhard spent decades studying fossil evidence of human evolution while developing a mystical understanding of cosmic development as the unfolding of divine creativity. His work in China during the 1920s-1930s, including participation in discovering Peking Man, grounded his spiritual insights in empirical paleontological research. This unique integration anticipated many themes in contemporary cosmology while offering spiritual interpretation of scientific discoveries about universe evolution.

Profile: Thomas Berry

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a cultural historian, cosmologist, and self-described “geologian” who examined human-Earth relationships through the lens of both scientific cosmology and spiritual traditions. His concept of the “Universe Story” proposed that cosmic evolution provides a framework for examining human purpose and ecological consciousness.

Trained in history and theology, Berry studied Asian cultures and religions throughout his early career. His encounters with indigenous worldviews and Eastern philosophies suggested alternatives to Western approaches to nature, informing his work on articulating new cultural narratives.

Quote: Joanna Macy; "Despair and gratitude can coexist; embracing both expands our capacity to act."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Despair and gratitude can coexist; embracing both expands our capacity to act.”
– Joanna Macy

Source: Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (1983)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world.”
– Joanna Macy

Source: Journey On in Peace (Crossing the Boundary)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "It is my experience that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“It is my experience that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation…”
– Joanna Macy

Source: On Being with our World (One Earth Sangha)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”
– Joanna Macy

Source: Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (1983)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "The sorrow, grief, and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“The sorrow, grief, and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity…”
– Joanna Macy

Source: Greening of the Self (2013)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "We are our world knowing itself. We can relinquish our separateness..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“We are our world knowing itself. We can relinquish our separateness…”
– Joanna Macy

Source: World as Lover, World as Self (1991)

Quote: Joanna Macy; "When you look at what is happening to our world and it is hard to look at whats happening..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“When you look at what is happening to our world-and it is hard to look at what’s happening to our water, our air, our trees, our fellow species-it becomes clear that unless you have some roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all your fellow beings, facing the enormous challenges ahead becomes nearly impossible.” – Joanna Macy

source World as Lover, World as Self: A Guide to Living Fully in Turbulent times (ed. Parallax Press, 2007) - ISBN: 9781888375718

Quote: Pema Chödron; "The earth seems to be beseeching us..."

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.” – Pema Chodron

Profile: Ailton Krenak

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

Ailton Krenak (born 1953) is a Brazilian indigenous intellectual, environmental activist, and leader of the Krenak people of Minas Gerais. He advocates for indigenous rights, environmental protection, and presents indigenous perspectives on human-nature relationships.

Krenak gained recognition during Brazil’s constitutional assembly in the 1980s, where he painted his face black while speaking to Congress, symbolizing indigenous peoples’ mourning. This act of resistance became notable in indigenous advocacy against colonization.

Profile: Robin Wall Kimmerer

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

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, author, and distinguished professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. As an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she integrates indigenous wisdom and Western scientific knowledge in her work on traditional ecological knowledge and restoration ecology.

Kimmerer’s approach bridges empirical science with the holistic worldview of indigenous peoples. She advocates for what she terms “the grammar of animacy” - recognizing the personhood of the more-than-human world. Her work examines how indigenous protocols for relating to land can inform contemporary environmental practice while respecting indigenous sovereignty and wisdom.

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.

Quote: Thich Nhat Hanh; "the Earth is in you, you are the Earth..."

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“When you wake up and see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is in you, you are the Earth, you touch the nature of interbeing” - Thich Nhat Hanh

This powerful quote from Thich Nhat Hanh comes from an interview he gave with Joe Confino from the guardian in 2011. To watch the full video see Video: Interview with Thich Nhat Hanh – “Awakening to interbeing”

Quote: Joanna Macy; "All life is interdependent; we cannot survive without the web of relationships that sustain us."