Joanna Macy’s Message of Hope
The Way Out Is In
Plum Village
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🗓️ 21 July 2025
⏱️ 87 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | In honour of Joanna Macy, who recently passed, we're republishing an episode of The Way Out Is In |
| 0:07.0 | called Grief and Joy on a Planet in Crisis, Joanna Macy on the best time to be alive. |
| 0:14.0 | It's just such a joy to have interviewed Joanna and for her to have left so much wisdom for us all to be able to integrate |
| 0:26.7 | into our lives at this moment. And so before we start, I'm just going to read a couple of things |
| 0:34.7 | she said which are so relevant to her passing. She said, I have a great appetite |
| 0:41.3 | for life. I love hiking and skiing and cooking up a great meal. And so this grief can co-inhabit |
| 0:48.3 | me along with a lot of joy. And I think maybe that the joy becomes so great, there's so much love that comes pouring through, that I think it's because I'm not trying to protect myself from knowing things that are painful. |
| 1:01.0 | I'm not putting any conditions and what I let into my heart. |
| 1:05.0 | And here I think the teachings of Tikna Tanaanao are so relevant. |
| 1:08.0 | Do not be afraid of it. Do not be afraid of your pain for the world. |
| 1:13.6 | Do not be afraid of the suffering, but take it. That's what Bodhisattva learns to do, |
| 1:20.1 | and that makes your heart very big. The only thing we have to watch out for is we pick and choose. |
| 1:26.7 | Say, well, I'll just take that. Thank you. |
| 1:30.4 | I'll take it when I want a little bit of hot fudge sauce on it. I think I'll have that. |
| 1:35.7 | It's like that great poem of the Fifth Patriarch, you know. Life is only difficult for those who |
| 1:41.3 | pick and choose. You just take it. And the first thing that came to my mind |
| 1:46.5 | is that this is the great gift of death. Death walks with us and that is the great mystery. |
| 1:53.8 | And I love the way it's put in the writings of the Dharma that death is certain, but the time of |
| 1:59.0 | death is uncertain. And it's like a double whammy. |
| 2:02.8 | You're going to die and you don't know when. It could be in five minutes or 50 years. |
| 2:08.6 | So this keeps us kind of an edge of presence. It helps us to be present. What if you are to live |
| 2:15.0 | forever? Oh, it would be so boring to have that. You know, the concoction is that we are impermanent. Look at these hands. They're all covered with wrinkles, as is my face. I am mortal. I have a good chance to be in my old age. It's wonderful. At least I'm experiencing it that way. |
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