Satyagraha Leadership Retreat at the Garrison Institute, April 11-13
The Satyagraha Project invokes the lineage of transformative environmental and social thought that began with Ralph Waldo Emerson and flowed through Henry David Thoreau, influencing Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., underpinning American civil rights, peace and environmental movements. It explores how this lineage applies to today’s urgent problems, technologies, and worldviews.
Environmental advocates and all those concerned about climate change rightly say at this juncture we must change the world; the wisdom tradition of which Gandhi is a key part teaches us that to succeed in this, we must be the change we wish to make in the world. Gandhi’s satyagraha, King’s agape, and the contemporary Sri Lankan movement of Sarvodaya, each share a common foundation of moral courage, deep compassion and love for all. Each is also an instructive example of a supremely effective movement for social change.
The Garrison Institute Satyagraha Project traces this thought lineage back to the earliest days of American Environmentalism, seeking the pathways that will take those roots forward, reintroducing this conceptual framework into public debate, helping infuse the climate change movement with the moral courage and wisdom needed to become transformative.
The Satyagraha Leadership Retreat explored these issues in a two-day retreat held at the Garrison Institute April 11-13, 2008, in coordination with a larger campaign in the New York area related to Gandhi and satyagraha organized by the Satyagraha NYC Forum. Events included the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha and programs offered by Judson Memorial Church, Asia Society, the Rubin Museum of Art, Syracuse University, The Nation Trust, and the Tricycle Foundation. The timing of these events coincided with the 60th anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination and the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s.