A reflection on how boundless Metta naturally becomes gratitude and generosity. Grounded in early teachings, elemental presence, embodied practice, and the simple movement of a heart learning to give freely.

This talk occurs five days after Joanna's death at age 96, and two days after Donald attended a wake for Joanna at her home, saying good-bye to her. Donald first met Joanna Macy in 1977, while still a student. When he moved to Berkeley, California in 1988, he helped start a neighborhood daily meditation group of ten households, including that of Joanna and her husband Fran. So he got to know Joanna and Fran as friends and neighbors. In 1991, he first trained in her approach, later called "The Work That Reconnects" and offered this work in different venues. Over the years, they have stayed friends and colleagues, and sometimes taught together. In this talk, Donald gives a sense of the trajectory of Joanna's life and work, showing photos of Joanna spanning her life-time and interspersing stories of training with Joanna and using her practices and perspectives in his own teaching. He focuses in the second part of the talk on the four aspects of the "spiral" of her teaching: (1) starting with gratitude, (2) honoring our pain for the world, (3) seeing with new eyes, and (4) going forth into the world. We close with a brief account of Joanna's wake from two days before the talk, and a video recording from the wake of group singing about the "Great Turning." The talk is followed by discussion and closing intentions. For the slides shown during the talk, see document 318, below.

We begin with a period of settling, developing greater samadhi or concentration, and then move to mindfulness practice, including giving some attention to noticing moderate or a little greater levels of pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tone. When we notice pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tones, is there any tendency toward grasping or pushing away, in habitual or automatic ways? We then explore gratitude as a practice, simply reflecting on ways that we are grateful, first for aspects of our own lives, and then for aspects of the wider world. This is followed by opening with mindfulness to some difficult or painful aspects of our world, whether close to home or farther away, inspired to see and be with what is painful through wisdom and care. We end with a return to mindfulness practice for a short time. (This guided meditation is related to the talk that follows, honoring the life and work of Joanna Macy.)

Living in the forest, we are always aware of the trees. Patient, deep-rooted, even in fierce storms, they stand. So stand like the trees, committed and enduring. See the world with pure awareness, just the way it is. Living in a state of gratitude, we make peace with the divisiveness of this realm. We offer the blessing of our own inner harmony – the heart's compassionate, pure presence – to live and die in a state of grace, gratitude and love. Some will be blessed by that. But can we spread peace in the world without being peaceful ourselves?

This talk looks at the dependent co-arising in the context of nature-based practice and the tenderizing of the human heart.

This talk takes a dive into Gratitude as a way to hold suffering. The Jewish holiday of Passover began on Saturday. Passover is a holiday of liberation. One of the most joyous parts of the holiday is singing the song Dayenu, which translates as "It would have been enough." The song's lyrics list one blessing after another, 15 in all. After each verse the refrain is "if that was all, it would have been enough. But then there was this (next blessing)." When we look at our lives through this lens it gives us inspiration to see and appreciate all the good in our lives as we process all that is challenging.