A poem by Alexander Julie

Many people around the world, particularly in the United States, live and work in highly artificial environments, cooled in the summer and heated in the winter, engineered with electricity, running water, and high-speed internet connections for work, communication, news, and entertainment.

The path of sustainability is mostly understood and discussed in terms of “outer” transformation through public policy and law, use of technology, innovative agriculture and fuel production, etc. These are fundamental and necessary steps to take, yet their potential impact on behavior is limited unless we work to heal, renew, and transform ourselves. We also change the world by changing ourselves.

We at The Mind Body Ecology Institute are dedicated to helping empower the global community for a more socially, spiritually, and ecologically harmonious world. We believe that by understanding and transforming ourselves we can be agents of positive change.

We are struck by this moment in history. The annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this year was preceded and followed by the passing into the ancestral of two other visionaries, wisdom teachers, and compassionate leaders: author, feminist, professor, and activist bell hooks, and Buddhist monk and socially-engaged mindfulness activist Thích Nhất Hạnh.