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Widening Circles: A Memoir
In this absorbing memoir, well-known eco-philosopher, Buddhist scholar, and deep ecology activist /teacher Joanna Macy recounts her adventures of mind and spirit in the key social movements of our era. Macy's autobiography reads like a novel as she relates her multi-faceted life experiences and reflects on how her marriage and family life enriched her service to the world.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
23 people are currently reading
856 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Macy
59 books418 followersDr. Joanna Rogers Macy (1929-2025), activist, ecologist and author, was one of the pioneers of engaged Buddhism. Her online work includes the article "World as Lover, World as Self"; "Bestiary" (an ode to wildlife); Nuclear Guardianship, her testimony at the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, 1992; and The Vegan Vision, on the ethics of a vegan diet. Her other books include Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems, World as Lover, World as Self and Rilke's Book of Hours.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
September 15, 2010
This is one of the most extraordinary autobiographical journeys I've taken...the way Joanna Macy reflects on her journey and relates it to the Dhammachaka is profound. The wisdom and candidness in which she conveys her life story and unfoldment makes me want to queue this book up for read number two.
April 2, 2015
I loved reading Joanna Macy's memoir, which covers her life from birth through her early 60s. Her life is inspiring, thought-provoking, and adventurous. She mentions and provides some insight into the ups and downs of her family life, but she does not delve much into details - probably to protect her family, which I totally respect. However, it leads her life to seem too good to be true at times.
However, I was certainly filled with admiration for her. She has an amazing capacity to throw herself into life - leading to her becoming very engaged with many people and projects and studies throughout the world where she was able to apply her compassion, intelligence, and many talents. I mostly felt like she was a kindred spirit - like me, only more so: my best qualities and longings magnified, unleashed. It made me think about my past and the experiences and parts of my temperament that have limited me.
I will be attending a workshop with Joanna in September. She is 86 now and still going strong. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Buddhism, forging a healing relationship with our planet, social justice, and learning about an amazing woman.
However, I was certainly filled with admiration for her. She has an amazing capacity to throw herself into life - leading to her becoming very engaged with many people and projects and studies throughout the world where she was able to apply her compassion, intelligence, and many talents. I mostly felt like she was a kindred spirit - like me, only more so: my best qualities and longings magnified, unleashed. It made me think about my past and the experiences and parts of my temperament that have limited me.
I will be attending a workshop with Joanna in September. She is 86 now and still going strong. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Buddhism, forging a healing relationship with our planet, social justice, and learning about an amazing woman.
April 1, 2017
This is the activist's version of Eat, Pray, Love. It is a deep, powerful and facinating true story of Macy's life which spans coutries, religions, philosophies, social movements and true loves. It is amazing how many expereinces she has had in her lifetime! Very inspirational!!
November 16, 2025
Joanna's writing captures an inspiring and inspirational life full of reflection, intention, progression, and activism. From a broad lens of theology, systems thinking, deep ecology, and collective activism, Joanna has created movements and joined many others to build a bridge between reconciling modern ways of life with the beings and ecosystems needed to keep a balanced and thriving planet. In the wake of nuclear bombs and fallout, the military industrial complex, and oppression, Joanna and her family enveloped different cultures and ways of living throughout the world. She and John Seed created the Council of All Beings to bring back into the picture our extended kin and the impacts that humans have on ecosystems. A valuable read, beautifully written with many Buddhist teachings and thought provoking parallels into our own ways of living.
November 9, 2021
Reading this book at this point in my life meant so much to me! Especially witnessing Joanna struggle with anxiety even at later points in her life after so much spiritual and self work made me realize it wasn't something that ever really goes away, but something that you learn to manage better.
Her journey has been so incredible and I consider her a mentor and a guide just from taking in all the wisdom and lessons this book had to offer.
Her journey has been so incredible and I consider her a mentor and a guide just from taking in all the wisdom and lessons this book had to offer.
May 29, 2019
Having read her book on climate change, "Active Hope", I wanted to know more about this writer and in "Widenig Circles", I have found a great writer and historian. This book reads like a good historical fiction, although it is totally nonfiction. Her autobiography contains the elements that have created her as an exceptional human being and activist extraordinaire.
July 18, 2019
I found the beginning of this book to be more engaging then the last 1/4. Joanna certainly is an interesting person, traveling and writing of her adventures. She is brutally honest And doesn’t hold back in describing life as an activist in countries all over the world. The last 1/4 of the book dragged a bit for me, as it was less personal and more of a resume of her work.
December 24, 2019
This is the second time I have tried to get through this book. I got over half way this time. Another reviewer said that they liked the idea of Joanna Macy books much better than the actual reality of them. I totally agree with this. While there were some things I liked, over all I didn't care for this book. Eventually I got tired of trying to drag myself through to the end.
March 27, 2022
Maybe the most important book I've read in the last decade, Macy's memoir provides stories to live by and a road map for how to live and stay active, honoring the earth and its beings, in dark times.
June 7, 2018
Engaging account, filled with wonderful anecdotes and reflections. Inspiring and informative.
June 26, 2020
A fascinating life of a passionate former CIA analyst/peace activist/ecologist/Buddhist mystic.
October 30, 2021
The author shared about her life which was far from the average in my humble opinion. Interesting but not what I expected. A little disjointed.
January 29, 2022
A mandatory read for every young person who seeks to live a life of great purpose and service to the world.
July 31, 2025
Life changing, if you consider Joanna Macy a teacher. The depth and breadth of her journey, and the insights she found along the way, is remarkable. Brought tears to my eyes almost every chapter.
October 13, 2013
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one,
But I give myself to it.
I circle around God, that primordial tower.
I have been circling for thousands of years,
and I still don't know:
am I a falcon, a storm,
or a great song?
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours
- translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
The above poem is the source of the title for Joanna Macy's memoir, Widening Circles. Macy has led a pretty amazing life, and I liked how she describes becoming a more open-minded person, even though she doesn't necessarily fully embrace traditional concepts of God or of re-incarnation despite her long-standing allegiance to Buddhism and Christianity before that. Humanist is more how I would describe her.
The author calls attention to a problem I have with more eastern religions/philosophies -- that closing oneself off from the world to be pure and in prayer/meditation doesn't seem to accomplish much in the physical real-world plain of our existence here and now. I could really appreciate that she came around to doing so many activist things. Seems to have a good bit in common with Unitarians and Friends.
Overall, this is a well-written, thoughtfully-reflective book, one I can readily recommend to philosophically-minded persons, especially those who have ever struggled with despair in the face of the seemingly colossal, contemporary societal and environmental problems. I did lose some respect for the author when she admitted that both she and her husband were not monogamous in their marriage, and were not initially forthcoming and truthful with each other on this. However, I set my judgementalness aside, and was able to appreciate her life-long search for God, meaning, and the higher self that connects all of life.
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one,
But I give myself to it.
I circle around God, that primordial tower.
I have been circling for thousands of years,
and I still don't know:
am I a falcon, a storm,
or a great song?
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours
- translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
The above poem is the source of the title for Joanna Macy's memoir, Widening Circles. Macy has led a pretty amazing life, and I liked how she describes becoming a more open-minded person, even though she doesn't necessarily fully embrace traditional concepts of God or of re-incarnation despite her long-standing allegiance to Buddhism and Christianity before that. Humanist is more how I would describe her.
The author calls attention to a problem I have with more eastern religions/philosophies -- that closing oneself off from the world to be pure and in prayer/meditation doesn't seem to accomplish much in the physical real-world plain of our existence here and now. I could really appreciate that she came around to doing so many activist things. Seems to have a good bit in common with Unitarians and Friends.
Overall, this is a well-written, thoughtfully-reflective book, one I can readily recommend to philosophically-minded persons, especially those who have ever struggled with despair in the face of the seemingly colossal, contemporary societal and environmental problems. I did lose some respect for the author when she admitted that both she and her husband were not monogamous in their marriage, and were not initially forthcoming and truthful with each other on this. However, I set my judgementalness aside, and was able to appreciate her life-long search for God, meaning, and the higher self that connects all of life.
June 5, 2013
I heard Joanna Macy in an interview with Krista Tippett on On Being and fell in love with her. A wise woman, she converted to Buddhism, became an environmental and peace activist, and a translator of Rilke. My favorite part of the conversation was her discussion of Rilke, the meaning she has found in his poetry, the impact he has had in her life, and her reading of several poems. Unfortunately, this was not discussed at all in her memoir.
I loved the beginning--the first pages are exquisite. She talks about a maple tree at her grandparents farm where she would spend the summer and the way the light would filter through the leaves and the way she would feel settled and still when she climbed it. It becomes an object of intense emotional importance to the young Joanna.
Her later life was fascinating too--she lived in India, Africa, and Tibet, plus spent time in Sri Lanka. I got a bit bogged down in her descriptions of Buddhism because of some of the specialized terminology, and the end didn't have as much resonance for me as the early chapters, but overall, a lovely memoir.
I read this over the last couple of months in bits and pieces.
I loved the beginning--the first pages are exquisite. She talks about a maple tree at her grandparents farm where she would spend the summer and the way the light would filter through the leaves and the way she would feel settled and still when she climbed it. It becomes an object of intense emotional importance to the young Joanna.
Her later life was fascinating too--she lived in India, Africa, and Tibet, plus spent time in Sri Lanka. I got a bit bogged down in her descriptions of Buddhism because of some of the specialized terminology, and the end didn't have as much resonance for me as the early chapters, but overall, a lovely memoir.
I read this over the last couple of months in bits and pieces.
February 26, 2015
Devoured this book in the first two weeks of the new year. I'd like to write a letter to Joanna to thank her for this book. It wove together so many of the paths I've been down and so many of the questions I've had in the past five years. I could identify with so many parts of her journey, listening to her was like replaying parts of my own short adult story. I wonder if everyone feels this sort of resonance because Macy herself is so open and vulnerable and human? It seemed like more than that to me... not everything, but many things -- the travel, the exploration of systems theory (in my case network theory), attraction to Buddhism, questioning of cultural standards like monogamy, risk-taking, cooperative endeavors -- and the way all these things fit together for her -- the way she wrote about it made me shiver with recognition. She was blessed with many opportunities, graced with the strength to take advantage of them, the curiosity to learn through her life, and great capacity to love and connect. An inspiration!
November 19, 2016
This book was so interesting to me. I loved it. One of my favorite parts:
"What happened then felt so primordial, and so important somehow for the ongoing order of things, that I imagined at moments whole populations gathered below our window beating drums and cymbals. Clearly, this physical call and response was the primary phenomenon of the cosmos. How else do the planets swing so steadily in orbit, how else do the starfish attach to their rocks? Here the wildness inside me and the tenderness that tore me were married. Hence the laughter and the languor; yet at the edges, there was terror too - of the lies and the longing that waited in the wings. It fit my sense of life's seriousness that there should be this outlawed and irrefusable dimension."
"What happened then felt so primordial, and so important somehow for the ongoing order of things, that I imagined at moments whole populations gathered below our window beating drums and cymbals. Clearly, this physical call and response was the primary phenomenon of the cosmos. How else do the planets swing so steadily in orbit, how else do the starfish attach to their rocks? Here the wildness inside me and the tenderness that tore me were married. Hence the laughter and the languor; yet at the edges, there was terror too - of the lies and the longing that waited in the wings. It fit my sense of life's seriousness that there should be this outlawed and irrefusable dimension."
April 25, 2008
...joanna's honesty in her memoir is both inspiring and unsettling at times. the trust that she places in the vulnerability life brings is simply wonderful-the reader joins joanna through her many life changes and varying paths of philosophy, belief, and practice. perhaps the most inspiring (and deeply unsettling at some moments) is the lack of apology found in joanna's voice. she speaks her truth in hopes that the truth does not destroy...
anyone with interest in the origins of the peace corps, the civil rights' movement, anti-nuclear organizations, nonviolence campaigns, and buddhist theology will learn valuable lessons from joanna's history shared in widening circles.
anyone with interest in the origins of the peace corps, the civil rights' movement, anti-nuclear organizations, nonviolence campaigns, and buddhist theology will learn valuable lessons from joanna's history shared in widening circles.
May 25, 2012
So inspiring. Renewed my commitment to conservation work and reinforced the importance of it. Reawakened my interest in Tibetan Buddhism and the benefits of its practice. Reminds me that there are so many options as far as how we define ourselves and how we choose to live; and that many of them are outside of boxes.
Joanna Macy is one of the few true heroes to emerge from American culture in modern times. I can't wait to read more of her work.
Joanna Macy is one of the few true heroes to emerge from American culture in modern times. I can't wait to read more of her work.
July 22, 2008
Very interesting autobiography. Somebody of my generation with a very different life experience. I admire what she has done and admire her husband for sticking with her. Certainly someone who has been on the eco/Buddhist lecture circuit if not the originator of same. For the most part well written and fascinating as her circles widen.
November 29, 2015
Macy is an interesting person and has had a fascinating life. I would probably have ranked her higher except for the sense of her throughout the book of her "neediness" (that why she embarks on all of these interests is not so much intellectual but attempt to fill some void) and her utter unawareness of that.
March 13, 2016
A marvelous, honest memoir from a teacher on Buddhist philosophy, system theory and deep ecology. I picked up this book because I had been reading another book of hers - "Active Hope". The memoir follows her spiritual transformation and her call to create a better world through new programs to heal the climate, address poverty and nuclear systems that destroy creation and people's lives.
January 5, 2008
I like the IDEA of Joanna Macy's books so much better than the real thing. She's an amazing theorist, but not such a great writer. I was very excited by the first 80 pages or so, and then I got bored.
December 28, 2007
Wonderful autobiography of a thoughtful, heartful individual whose life spans the last half of the 20th century and reflects and responds deeply to what is going on in the world.
October 14, 2008
A fascinating spiritual memoir.
March 5, 2009
Joanna Macy is one of my heroes, and in this autobiography she explains how she developed her amazing compassionate perspective on the world and social justice activism.
July 31, 2011
Not a quick read, but a worthwhile read. Peace Pilgrim, meets Peter Paul & Mary, meets Siddhartha, meets Peace Pilgrim, all crafted in the voice of an academic and poet.
March 6, 2016
Wonderful memoir, and so inspiring, especially about her endless sense of adventure and courage through her life.
October 8, 2016
I love Joanna Macy. I just struggled with the pacing...but I adore her perspective and her life is a beautiful testament to courage and persistence.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews