Adam Bucko - Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

Occupy Spirituality is a careful, thoughtful, and inspiring reminder that we dont have to choose between spiritual fulfillment and political engagement. Fox and Buckos dialogues enable us to spy the Promised Land of social justice through fresh eyes. This book will challenge your mind, complicate your politics, and reenergize your spirit!

Marc Lamont Hill, social critic, activist, and author of Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity and The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America

Thank you, Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, for nurturing the radical spiritual activism and moral imagination which is growing all our souls and changing our world.

Grace Lee Boggs, activist and author of The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century

The monologue of the Religious Right is over. And a new dialogue has begun. This book is a sign of that dialogue. You may not agree with everything on these pages (I didnt), but you cant help but be stirred to join the conversationand to dive into a movement that is reimagining the world. Fox and Bucko refuse to see faith as just a ticket into heaven, and they invite you to join themand to join Godin bringing heaven down to earth.

Shane Claiborne, activist, lover of Jesus, and author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical and Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?

One can hope that the next great social transformation will include not just political freedom and social justice, but a transformation of the human soul as well. One can hope that the activists of this era will be spiritual visionaries. One can hope that the contemplatives of this era will speak truth to power and take it to the streets. With this book, Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko increase the possibility that it will be so.

Kabir Helminski, activist and Sufi, author of Living Presence, The Knowing Heart, and Loves Ripening

These fresh and buoyant original voices summon us to radical habit change and life-giving compassion in action guided by wisdoms insightful eye. That is the mission of bodhisattva leaders and awakeners like Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, dedicated servant leaders who are fomenting a beloved community committed to witnessing and working towards social justice, peace and harmony, and higher consciousness.

Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within and Buddha Standard Time

The Occupy movement moves us from self-centeredness to other-centeredness. The most courageous act that any of us can do is to dare to care about others. Since our destinies are metaphysical we should start now and Occupy Spirituality. Let this book be our manual.

Sharon Gannon, co-creator of Jivamukti Yoga, author of Yoga and Vegetarianism: The Diet of Enlightenment

This book gives heartfelt expression to the marriage of inner and outer activism that has the potential to transform our world.

Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics and The Ascent of Humanity

In Occupy Spirituality, Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox remind us that authentic spirituality is action. Spirituality without engagement is empty. Activism without spiritual roots is dissipative and fragmenting. Spirituality needs to empower and inspire us to action. Sadhna (meditation) and seva (service) are complementary. Spirituality and Action need to reunite. In this time of corporate rule and greed, we need to heed the message of Occupy Spirituality.

Dr. Vandana Shiva, environmental activist, author of Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace, and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis

In Occupy Spirituality, our friends Adam Bucko and the Rev. Matthew Fox have begun a multigenerational conversation that is becoming critical to accomplishing the kind of change we want to see in spirituality today. Being deeply connected to the two ends of the spectrum of adult life, and looking together at the growing edge of spirituality and modern culture, they are helping all of us to find our way.

Netanel Miles-Yepez and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, coauthors of A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters

Occupy Spirituality brings to the forefront the need for spirituality in our lives and through us in the lives of nations around the world. Materialism and morality, Gandhi said, have an inverse relationship. When one increases the other decreases. The decay in our civilization today is caused by material greed. This may just be the blueprint for the survival of humanity. Everyone must read this book.

Arun Gandhi, author of Legacy of Love and The Forgotten Woman; President, Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute

Copyright 2013 by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief reviews, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Adam Buckos article My God Lives on the Street was first published in slightly different form in the Huffington Post, December 21, 2012. It is reprinted here with permission.

Cover art iStockphoto.com/mustafahacalaki
Cover and book design by Mary Ann Casler

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Bucko, Adam, 1975
Occupy spirituality : a radical vision for a new generation / Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: This book is a call to action for anyone interested in pursuing a radical approach to spirituality and using their talents in service of compassion and justice
Provided by publisher.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-686-2
1. Christian life. 2. Generation YReligious life. I. Title.
BV4501.3.B833 2013
248dc23

2013006211

v3.1

We dedicate this book in solidarity with the young everywhere who are seeking a world of values, not power games; of solidarity, not hierarchy; of fun, not dourness; of sharing, not hoarding; of sustainability, not extinction; of gratitude, not regret; of expansiveness, not tribalism; of respect, not domination. May weelders, mentors, and youthknow we are in the struggle together.