Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects Paperback – November 1, 2014
by Joanna Macy (Author), Molly Young Brown (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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Coming Back to Life has helped people transform denial, despair and grief in the face of the social and ecological challenges of our time. This new, completely updated edition repositions the classic work within the context of deepening global crises and the cognitive, spiritual and perceptual revolutions occurring all around us.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Here is a blueprint for our present time-an honest and openhearted appraisal of our globally destructive and abusive behavior, and the work required to transform, to shift into a life-sustaining culture. Joanna Macy and Molly Brown outline the simple and essential choices we need to make, and give us the tools to make this shift. A vitally necessary book."
― Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Ph.D., Sufi teacher and author, Spiritual Ecology, the Cry of the Earth
"The Dalai Lama nailed it: a timeless manual for Earth healers, inspires actionable hope. The new edition reminded me again how to replace despair with constructive optimism; blame with imagination, innovation and collaboration. As a former middle-school teacher, I say "Hooray" for the new chapter designed to aid mentors and teachers on whom it will fall to guide those likely to suffer the worst consequences of the Great Unraveling: Generations X through Z and beyond. The meditations at the close of the book are both balm and goad. From their unique and clear-eyed analysis of our present crises and their causes, through exercises to catalyze the Great Turning, Macy and Brown's book models the changes it aims to facilitate in our hearts and minds. A heart-lifting read."
― Ellen LaConte, author, Life Rules and Afton: A Love Story
"In a time of catastrophic climate change, Joanna Macy and Molly Brown offer a treasure-trove of principles, practices, poems, and prayers that must become as natural to us as breathing. Only this quality of spiritual nourishment can sustain us in our planetary hospice condition. These tools not only fortify us for the long haul, but intimately join us with the Earth, our bodies, and one another, thereby enabling us to experience an exuberant aliveness."
― Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author, Collapsing Consciously and Love In the Age of Ecological Apocalypse
"Joanna Macy's and Molly Young Brown's new book is a spectacular and accessible blueprint for conflict resolution, environmental sustainability and a planet we all hope to embrace collectively and enjoy. The measures recommended in this book are ones that every individual and community can get behind. Coming Back to Life is a perfect title for a marvelous book."
― Michael Charles Tobias, president, Dancing Star Foundation
"We live in truly perilous times. If you want to face what is happening with an open heart and mind, if you want to use your suffering to awaken to greater aliveness and compassion, this book is for you. Coming Back to Life doesn't just teach that our suffering can be the birthplace for a greater capacity for healing. It shows you how. It's a brilliant guidebook to the power you have at your core to let your light shine its brightest even in the presence of fear and planetary anguish. If you want true wisdom for tough times, if you want to connect with your joy even in the midst of sadness, if you want to see new life arise out of despair, Coming Back to Life has my highest possible recommendation."
― John Robbins, author, Diet For A New America and co-founder and president, The Food Revolution Network
"A must for all who want to mobilize humanity in service of all beings. These concepts, exercises, and meditations have proven to work across generations, religions, ethnicities and races."
― Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Social Justice Organizing at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
"Modern civilisation has brought the planet and untold numbers of species, including our own, to the brink of existence. To honestly witness this with our hearts, minds, and spirits wide open and remain able to react, adapt, and, when necessary, resist, often seems impossible. Coming Back to Life , the wisdom, clarity and urgency of Joanna Macy's lifelong body of incredible work shines brighter and more important than ever before. Our very lives now depend on being present in order to stay sane amidst this suicidal culture, and Macy shows us the way."
― Dahr Jamail, journalist and author
" Coming Back to Life is the aptly-titled compendium of what has been learned over many years and can be shared with us all from the successful Work That Reconnects workshops that Joanna Macy and associates have offered to thousands of people from all walks of life. The book ranges from the purpose of such work and its role in what's called the "Great Turning" to the most specific details of how to conduct a successful workshop of this kind. It's a fine example of something the progressive world often lacks: a way to pass on what's been learned in one successful project or another so that this work can grow."
― Michael Nagler, president, Metta Center for Nonviolence
" Coming Back to Life is for me a treasured core text and I am among the many who are delighted with this upgrade. It distils a further sixteen years of experience, names more clearly the context we face and broadens the reach of this work with important new chapters. Thank you Joanna and Molly."
― Chris Johnstone, co-author, Active Hope
"The earlier edition of Coming Back to Life has been a roadmap to me and to others at the Gandhi Institute for years, especially for strengthening our systemic thinking in relation to social injustice and for increasing our capacity to practice mourning in community settings. This new edition is a gift, like a visit from an old friend during a rough time. I feel so grateful to Joanna and to Molly for choosing to return to and refresh this work - a more timely, practical book is unimaginable. I pray that it strengthens our collective ability to lovingly take action on behalf of our descendants."
― Kit Miller, Director, MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
"Every generation needs its sacred texts, its scriptures. Our journey through the damaged landscape and perilous time on this precious Earth requires a new kind of soul guide. Coming Back to Life gives voice to our generations' psalms, praises, and lamentations, our call for justice. It provides practices and meditations so we can make sense of who we are. This book is our wisdom text."
― Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director, Science and Environmental Health Network, and co-founder, Women's Congress for Future Generations
"Reading this blessed treasure of a book is a healing experience. It names and honors the overwhelming emotions, paradoxes, complexities and desires that swirl deep in us as we face the reality of this time. And with gentle assurance it offers us actions that reconnect us to our deepest sources of well-being, energy and love, no matter the external realities. I am forever grateful that this book returns to our world at this time."
― Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science, Perseverance and So Far From Home
"If you ever feel pain or guilt for events in the world, dismay at useless cruelty, rage at environmental damage and waste, or powerlessness because you do not know what to do, this is the book for you. In Coming Back to Life Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown show how these feelings need not be suppressed. Far from being an agonizing companion, they can be a friend and an aid at reconnecting with your heart and taking useful action."
― Piero Ferrucci, author, Your Inner Will
" Coming Back to Life opens our eyes to both the difficulties and the possibilities - while inspiring our hearts and minds with practices that allow us to become wise activists in a very complex world."
― Lynne Iser, founder, Elder-Activists.org
"Joanna Macy and Molly Brown in their expansive new book Coming Back to Life help us understand the urgency of and the steps to take for this necessary journey. This book is as challenging as it is breath-taking. Macy and Brown remind us over and over the importance of not just facing but claiming suffering, our own, other's and the planet's. Not to despair but to live out and embody our spiritual being in mutuality with each other and the world. They offer practical exercises to help us on our way. Rays of joy leap from the pages but without a guarantee that we will prevail. I found myself continually feeling grateful for this book and the wonderful beings who bring up the necessary challenge of reconnecting and coming back to life."
― John Powell, director, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, UC Berkeley
"This legacy edition reflects forty years of highly refined, time-tested experiential group work that has now spread around the globe. Built on the wisdom and principles of Macy's life work, the volume offers a bounty of resources for teachers and facilitators engaged in social transformation. New chapters include insights and progress from expanding the work to children, young people, and activists of color. Macy and Brown provide clear analysis and guidance for cultivating a profound shift in perception critical to a viable future. They express great urgency about what must be done, yet their methods are grounded, powerful, and proven as a path of action. The creative strength of the work lies in its confidence in the human imagination as a basis for hope. This work is wisdom work, an inspired project for healing the wounded parts of the earth and the human psyche. It is filled through and through with the huge hearts and passionate dedication of all those who have been touched by this compelling vision and most visionary teacher."
― Stephanie Kaza, author, Mindfully Green
Book Description
Personal empowerment in the face of planetary despair
From the Back Cover
EMPOWERMENT IN THE FACE OF PLANETARY SUFFERING
If you want true wisdom for tough times, if you want to connect with your joy even in the midst of sadness, if you want to see new life arise out of despair, Coming Back to Life has my highest possible recommendation. John Robbins, author, Diet For A New America and co-founder and president, The Food Revolution Network
Coming Back to Life gives voice to our generations' psalms, praises, and lamentations, our call for justice. It provides practices and meditations so we can make sense of who we are. This book is our wisdom text.
Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director, Science and Environmental Health Network, co-founder,Women's Congress for Future Generations.
DEEPENING GLOBAL CRISES surround us, causing many to fall prey to denial and despair. Coming Back to Life shows how grief, anger and fear are healthy responses to the harsh realities of our time, and that when honored through the revolutionary practice of the Work That Reconnects, they can free us from paralysis and move us toward creative action.
This new, completely updated edition of the classic text illuminates the extraordinary Work that has inspired hundreds of thousands to make strides towards the creation of a life-sustaining human culture. Authors Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown introduce the Work's theoretical foundations, revealing the angst of our era with remarkable insight. Pointing the way forward out of apathy, they offer personal counsel as well as easy-to-use methods for group process that profoundly affect people's outlook and ability to act in the world.
A must for all who want to mobilize humanity in service of all beings. These concepts, exercises, and meditations have proven to work across generations, religions, ethnicities and races.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Social Justice Organizing, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
JOANNA MACY, eco-philosopher and root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, has authored 13 books including World As Lover, World As Self .
MOLLY YOUNG BROWN, teacher, trainer, and life coach, has authored and edited 6 books, including Growing Whole: Self-Realization for the Great Turning .
About the Author
Joanna Macy , eco-philosopher, activist, and scholar of Buddhism and systems theory has an international following, thanks to 30 years in movements for global justice and ecological sanity. She is the author of 12 books including the original Coming Back to Life and Widening Circles , and she has produced a 2-DVD set entitled The Work that Reconnects .
Molly Young Brown combines the Work That Reconnects, ecopsychology, and psychosynthesis in her work: teaching online courses, writing and publishing books and essays, coaching and mentoring, and giving talks and workshops internationally. Her five books include the original Coming Back to Life and Growing Whole: Self-realization for the Great Turning .
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Product details
Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: New Society Publishers; Revised ed. edition (November 1, 2014)
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Customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
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Top Reviews
M. A. Syverson
5.0 out of 5 stars It is not only a clear introduction to Joanna Macy's approach but a wonderful guide for teaching it
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2018
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I have used this book in numerous workshops and trainings. It is not only a clear introduction to Joanna Macy's approach but a wonderful guide for teaching it. She is a brilliant transformational activist and teacher wth a powerful message and method for restoring our deep connection with all life. Her Buddhist foundation does not create "bad guys" and "good guys" but recognizes that we are all living beings who share this world and must learn how to make the shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining world. Just read it; you will be heartened, inspired and moved into constructive action, out of despair and overwhelm.
11 people found this helpful
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Minx Boren
5.0 out of 5 stars MAGNIFICENT Treatise on Staying Actively Engaged in Life
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2019
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Joanna Macy and Molly Brown are voices of sanity and hope and practicality in a bleak planetary doom and gloom landscape. Their words offer an intelligent perspective on why it is not too late and instructions on how to be part of the Great Turning toward a planet that works for all.
3 people found this helpful
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Bob Stilger
5.0 out of 5 stars It is a space where we can dance with our grief and celebrate our joy. It is the space in which we create ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2014
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Coming Back to Life is one of the important books of our time. The view of the world and these times that Joanna and Molly offer is clear and compelling. And for me it is spot on. The exercises and processes they share are powerful. They offer us guidance for working with groups of people to stand awake in this world and to step forward to make a difference.
Lately I've been using this framework as a core part of my work in Japan -- both in the 3.11.11 disaster area as well as in other parts of the country. The space it opens up for people is incredible. It is a space where we can dance with our grief and celebrate our joy. It is the space in which we create the future we want.
19 people found this helpful
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anniedelasol
5.0 out of 5 stars great ideas, and practical things anyone can do
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015
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An updated version of Joana Macy's work. A "how to" prescription on making social change. Full of heart, great ideas, and practical things anyone can do.
6 people found this helpful
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Cynthia
5.0 out of 5 stars We can help change the world by experiential education and activities
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2014
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We need more people to read this and understand its significance to the times we live in. Easy to understand, good for teachers, facilitators of group work, people who want the change toward a new sustainable world to be for our spirits as well as the physical world around us.
19 people found this helpful
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MPB
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
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Stunning and comprehensive.
One person found this helpful
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Charles Harrienger
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important gift, you could give yourself
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2017
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Pivotal, elimental ! critical reading
3 people found this helpful
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Karpani
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! I am registered for a week-long retreat as ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017
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Excellent! I am registered for a week-long retreat as a result of this book!
One person found this helpful
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Top international reviews
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Livvi Lestrange
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book to read in isolation :)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
Brings you back to what’s truly important and inspires you to be proactive in changing what you can.
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Debbie Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars Fostering reconnection to all that is, all that matters.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
I'm loving the style, and revisiting Joanna Macy's work after a many years' absence.
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5.0 out of 5 stars I am a long time fan of Joanna Macy's work ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
I am a long time fan of Joanna Macy's work and use it often in workshops. This book updates the work that reconnects updating the seminal text with drawing on the lessons learned of 20 years or so.
2 people found this helpful
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Claire Hershman
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspuring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2018
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One of the most inspiring writers around. I felt so inspired
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5.0 out of 5 stars Really inspiring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2017
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Inspiring and informative and hopeful
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19 people found this helpful
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anniedelasol
5.0 out of 5 stars great ideas, and practical things anyone can do
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
An updated version of Joana Macy's work. A "how to" prescription on making social change. Full of heart, great ideas, and practical things anyone can do.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
Comment Report abuse
Cynthia
5.0 out of 5 stars We can help change the world by experiential education and activities
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
We need more people to read this and understand its significance to the times we live in. Easy to understand, good for teachers, facilitators of group work, people who want the change toward a new sustainable world to be for our spirits as well as the physical world around us.
19 people found this helpful
Helpful
Comment Report abuse
MPB
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
Stunning and comprehensive.
One person found this helpful
---
Charles Harrienger
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important gift, you could give yourself
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Pivotal, elimental ! critical reading
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
Comment Report abuse
Karpani
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! I am registered for a week-long retreat as ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
Excellent! I am registered for a week-long retreat as a result of this book!
One person found this helpful
---
Top international reviews
Translate all reviews to English
Livvi Lestrange
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book to read in isolation :)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
Brings you back to what’s truly important and inspires you to be proactive in changing what you can.
---
Debbie Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars Fostering reconnection to all that is, all that matters.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
I'm loving the style, and revisiting Joanna Macy's work after a many years' absence.
---
5.0 out of 5 stars I am a long time fan of Joanna Macy's work ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
I am a long time fan of Joanna Macy's work and use it often in workshops. This book updates the work that reconnects updating the seminal text with drawing on the lessons learned of 20 years or so.
2 people found this helpful
---
Claire Hershman
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspuring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
One of the most inspiring writers around. I felt so inspired
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Really inspiring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2017
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Inspiring and informative and hopeful
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COMMUNITY REVIEWS
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Chrissy
Nov 16, 2015Chrissy rated it it was amazing
Saved my life.
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Clivemichael
Apr 30, 2018Clivemichael rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Changemakers, culture jammers, revolutionaries
Shelves: coaching, community, education, environment-activism, instruction, political, self-help, social-comment
Immense gratitude for all the work done. Essential reading. Well articulated and presented, enthusiastically upbeat and realistic. Love the humility.
"As we go forth in the Great Turning, there are systems and institutions that we will and must challenge. The men and women who serve these structures may appear as our opponents, but they are likely in bondage to our true opponents: institutionalized forms of greed, hatred and delusion."
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Erica Rhinehart
Aug 19, 2015Erica Rhinehart rated it it was amazing
Macy is an incredible guide and true elder who gives away her most potent practices to teachers, activists and facilitators who recognize the immensity of the tasks that face humanity now and in the near future. In my opinion, the Work that Reconnects contains invaluable practices to engage students of all kinds and belongs in every classroom across the United States.
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Kim Morrow
Oct 05, 2018Kim Morrow rated it really liked it
This is a really helpful book if you are planning a retreat based on Joanna Macy's work, and if you have attended her retreats already. If neither of these are true then I think readers may be lost. It is a workbook for workshop readers rather than a book for a general audience. As a workbook, it is a marvelous resource.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Jonwillum Duurnenbol
Oct 19, 2014Jonwillum Duurnenbol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Inspirerend, met basis/theorie, en veel oefeningen om met groepen te werken.
http://www.joannamacy.net/
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Seham
Mar 22, 2020Seham added it
Despite what was written as a review tagged to this book, Life is coming back slowly, acceptance is showing itself, a smile is enough to bright a day, and a hug from a child equals the whole world.
Family and kind people around you can keep every pain away, taking you out of any dark pool, full of hatred and cruel against any happiness in your life.
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Sarah Guldenbrein
Apr 10, 2018Sarah Guldenbrein rated it liked it
Shelves: non-fiction, mindfulness
I didn't realize this was going to be so heavy on the facilitation exercises and so light on the theory. it's not really what I was looking for.
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Moses
Jul 25, 2020Moses rated it it was amazing
Shelves: spirituality, sustainability
Wonderful resource book to The Work that Reconnects- I read it as part of a facilitator training program on The Work.
For independent reading, I would recommend 'Active Hope'.
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Bruja Ha
Jan 28, 2020Bruja Ha rated it it was amazing
Joanna Macy is a treasure: a wise elder who also shows up as a real human being with foibles, fierce love, and humor. As one of her students, I've used this book extensively in teaching for the past 20 years, and recently purchased the updated version. It was wonderful the first time, and it's even better and more relevant now. It consists largely of powerful exercises that you can apply with others. Highly recommended, as is all of her work.
