"This book should be made mandatory world-wide for all heads of state." Lissa Wolsak, Author of In Defense of Being.
"A Future to Believe In is a message the world needs to hear now!" Bill McKibben, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.
After four years in creation, Alan Clements brings us a visionary new book, A Future to Believe In: 108 Reflections On the Art and Activism of Freedom. In it he weaves the wisdom of hundreds of the world's most creative and courageous thinkers - artists, activists, scientists, and risk-takers - in with his own most compelling life-lessons, questions, and discoveries, from his forty-year long pursuit of truth and freedom - an epic journey of world travel, spiritual exploration, scholarly study and political activism, that has taken him from the sacredness of monastic silence deep into the dark heart of war zones.
An iconoclastic blend of radical cultural commentary, edgy political punditry and provocative life-inquiry, this field guide for revolutionaries, and a model for a new society, is designed to liberate the human spirit - igniting gutsy transformation in one's daily life and nonviolent political change around the world. Burma's Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, with whom Clements co-authored the acclaimed book of conversations, The Voice of Hope, calls this global movement a revolution of the spirit or the awakening of a new language of freedom. By fearlessly fusing timeless spiritual values with nonviolent political actions, we can unite and co-create a future to believe in.
"Alan Clements' magnificent book provides a courageous and intelligent compass personifying our aspirations for freedom and wisdom, and in so doing, offers insights on how to shape a future that gives life hope; make this book your guide, mentor and friend." Dr Helen Caldicott, Author of Nuclear Power is Not the Answer and If you Love this Planet, Founding President Physicians for Social Responsibility.
"In this radiant book is a new consciousness." Lowry Burgess, artist, professor, creator of the first official Non-Scientific Art Payload taken into outer space by NASA in 1989.
"This book provides the essential wisdom - the spiritual intelligence - to learn to listen to the planet, to life - the core intelligence of nature and the human heart." Derrick Jensen, Author of Culture of Make Believe.
"A Future to Believe In is a treasure, not a mere book." Paul Hawken, Author of Blessed Unrest.
"At a time when the contemporary spiritual landscape has become dangerously gentrified and domesticated, Alan Clements restores us to our senses - wild and elemental. He summons the voices of those who, along side him, have not traded their souls for the market-driven need to be tame or acceptable, and points us to the wilderness of true, engaged, fiercely authentic awakening. This is why we are alive-to set freedom free, in ourselves and for others, in every aspect of our lives from the most mundane daily task, to the most profound political act." Kelly Wendorf, author and editor Stories of Belonging
"This book is the music of wisdom, a dance with the finest places of the human heart. You will want to keep this timeless treasure within reach, so you can open it to any page, and let a paragraph or a line ignite you again to the truth of your own being." Joanna Macy, Buddhist teacher, activist and author of World as Lover, World As Self.
About the Author: "The greatest gift a book can offer is the wisdom that elevates our consciousness into compassionate actions that honor the interdependency of all life. This book delivers that gift with poetic beauty, fearless grace and the bold reality of what it means to be human. Reading it will inspire you, provoke you, keep you up at night, and most of all, change you." Cheryl Richardson, bestselling author of Take Time for Your Life. ALAN CLEMENTS is a world dharma teacher, performing artist, human rights activist, and the founder of the World Dharma vision. As one of the first Westerners to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Burma, he lived in a monastery for many years training in Buddhist psychology and mindfulness meditation. In 1984 he was forced to leave the country by the dictatorship, with no reason given. He has returned numerous times to witness and document the human rights violations. Clements is the co-founder of The World Dharma Institute which offers an innovative video training program exploring World Dharma - the art and activism of freedom. The Program finds its roots in Alan's newest book, "A Future to Believe In." www.AFutureToBelieveIn.com Clements is also the author of a number of other books including Instinct for Freedom (nominated for the best spiritual teaching/ memoir by the National Spiritual Booksellers Association in 2003, and The Voice of Hope - Conversations with Burma's Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which moved Alice Walker to write, "Every leader on the planet should read this book at least once." Clements has been interviewed for Nightline, CBC Canada, Talk to America, the New York Times, Newsweek and Time magazines, Yoga Journal and other media. In addition, he has presented to such organizations as Mikhail Gorbachev's State of The World Forum and delivered a keynote address for Amnesty International's 30th year anniversary. www.AlanClements.com.
