“Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response.” Joanna Macy
The future of all beings hangs by the fairest of threads. There is not a place where the Shambhala Warrior exists. Rather, it exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala Warrior. They have no uniforms. No banners. No barricades in which to regroup. No home turf. They must move across the barbarian landscape of powers. Now is the time when moral courage and
physical courage are required to go into the heart of the barbarian warriors to dismantle their weapons. Their bombs and armament, too. We must go into the corridors of power to dismantle the weapons. The Shambhala Warriors know they can be dismantled. The weapons are manamaya. They are made by the human mind. Because they are made by the human mind, they can be unmade by the human mind. They don’t arise from a Satanic deity… They arise from our relationships and our priorities, and our habits. The time is upon us when the Shambhala Warriors must go into training.
How do they train? They train in the use of two weapons:
He held up his hand, showing 1) is compassion (fuel, the motive force;) the other is 2) insight into the radical interdependence of all phenomena.
You need both.
What it consists of: You must not be afraid of the suffering of your world. Compassion by itself is too hot. It can burn you out. You need insight into the mutual belonging of everything that is interwoven into the web of life. It is not a war between the good and bad guys, but the line between good and evil that runs between every human heart.
Even the smallest act has repercussions through that web that we can barely see. We need the heat of compassion and the cool of wisdom, the dance, the interplay between compassion and wisdom.” Her son, Jack asked, “So how does it turn out?” “We can’t know,” she said. “The not knowing mind is what allows great things to happen.”
Adapted from a video, Joanna Macy on the Shambhala Warrior, retrieved 8/10/25 from the Work that Reconnects Network
Invitation: “… good and evil runs between every human heart.”
“Should you feel an ache in the chest, a pressure in the ribcage, as if the heart would break, that’s alright. Your heart is not an object that can break. But if it were, they say the heart that breaks open can hold the whole universe.” Joanna Macy
Learn more about the work of Joanna Macy at her website https://www.joannamacy.net/main
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Moral courage stance.
Fear, doubts, notwithstanding, try
insight, compassion.
“Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response," Joanna Macy.
Compassion and recognizing radical interdependence are the key responses Joanna Macy identifies as essential for this time.
As I look at our nation and world, I affirm these two -- in the midst of operation within one's moral compass, conscience and commitment to the common good.