Dr. Joanna Macy

USA

Joanna Macy, Ph.D., is a Buddhist scholar and teacher who has played a significant role in movements for peace, ecology, and social justice. She is known worldwide for the group work she has pioneered, which inspires both spiritual awakening and collaborative action for the healing of our world.

This work, called the Work That Reconnects, is grounded in the Buddha's central teaching of dependent co-arising (paticca samuppada). This doctrine is the focus of her books Mutual Causality in Buddhist Teachings and General Systems Theory and World as Lover, World as Self, as well as many scholarly articles.

Other books by Dr. Macy include Dharma and Development, about the Buddhist-inspired Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka; Coming Back to Life, on the theory and practice of the Work That Reconnects, and her spiritual autobiography, Widening Circles. She has been a guiding voice in the Buddhist Peace Fellowship since it began, and currently serves on its International Advisory Council. (For more information about her work see www.joannamacy.net)