I am grateful to the following for their inspiration, their guidance, and their deep commitment to create a better world.

To Joanna Macy for her book Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory, her practical workshop Working to Reconnect that continues to grow and evolve and to plant new seeds of transformation across continents, and to the example of her personal journey in books such as World as Lover, World as Self.

To Michael Asher, author, explorer and deep ecologist, for hours of inspirational and challenging conversation, and for sharing an ongoing concern for our human-ecological predicament.

To Guhyapati, Founder of the Eco Dharma Centre located in the Sierra de Carreu in the Catalan Pyrenees, for his inspiring and articulate presentation of the links between connecting, empowering and liberation in the Engaged Buddhist dharma, and for Ecodharma's bold commitment to addressing issues of sustainability and social justice with the work of the collective in this remote and awesome region of Catalunya.

To Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, for his deep understanding of interbeing and his inspiring compassionate teachings.

To Jiddu Krishnamurti for his all embracing teaching and philosophy of freedom.

To Ramana Maharshi for his articulation of the Direct Path of Advaita Vedanta.

To Thomas Merton whose Thoughts in Solitude and The Way of Chuang Tzu were early sources of inspiration at a time of crisis.

To Ivan Illich whose radical thinking in many works of the seventies - Deschooling Society, Tools for Conviviality, Medical Nemesis, Shadow Works, - provoked a deeper look at the negative effects of an institutionalized world. The quotation in Practice is from a conversation between Nathan Gardels and Ivan Illich in 1989 published as The Shadow That The Future Throws.

To Charles Taylor for his study of the evolution of the modern identity Sources of the Self and his monumental work on 500 years of secularization A Secular Age.

To Keiji Nishitani, a key thinker of the Kyoto School of Japanese Philosophy, for his inspiring work Religion and Nothingness, whose deep grasp of the problem of nihilism in the modern age transformed my understanding of the human predicament, and whose articulation on the role of conscience in Buddhism brought down to earth what had once seemed to me a philosophy remote from everyday life.

To Naomi Klein whose courageous book This Changes Everything - Capitalism vs Climate Change forcefully reminds us of the work we still have to do.

To Robert Sardello whose extraordinary exploration of Silence has opened new avenues of interiority that invites us to participate in the neglected field of heart-consciousness whereby we can experience a deepening bodily resonance with the world and others.

To the Permaculture Research Institute of Kenya for their practical commitment to building resilient communities based on sustainable models of food security and land regeneration.