With speaker Satish Kumar - Editor of Resurgence Magazine, international teacher of reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity, and presenter of the BBC's Earth Pilgrim documentary.

Saturday 18th June, 3pm at the Friends Meeting House, York Street

Does moving towards low impact lifestyles require personal and emotional transformation? What part do spiritual beliefs play in our ecological awareness? Is reconnecting with nature central to this change?

A free talk, 3 - 4pm, followed by tea, cake and a workshop for discussion til 6pm. Come, listen, eat cake and share your thoughts.

The venue is the Friends Meeting House, York Street, BA1 1NG - that's just round the corner from the Abbey. 

Satish Kumar

When he was only nine years old Satish Kumar renounced the world and joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. Dissuaded from his path by an inner voice at the age of eighteen, he left the monastic order and became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi’s vision of renewed India and a peaceful world into reality.

Fired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through deserts, mountains, storms and snow. It was an adventure during which he was thrown into jail in France, faced a loaded gun in America – and delivered packets of ‘peace tea’ to the leaders of the four nuclear powers.

In 1973 he settled in England, taking an Editorship of Resurgence magazine. He has been the editor ever since. He is the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures in Britain. He founded the Small School in Hartland, a pioneering secondary school (aged 11-16), which brings into its curriculum ecological and spiritual values. In 1991 Schumacher College, a residential international centre for the study of ecological and spiritual values, was founded, and Satish is a Visiting Fellow.

Following Indian tradition, in his fiftieth year Satish undertook another pilgrimage: again carrying no money, he walked 2,000 miles to the holy places of Britain — Glastonbury, Canterbury, Lindisfarne and Iona, meeting old friends and making new ones along the way. This pilgrimage was a celebration of his love of life and Nature.

In July 2000 Satish was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education from the University of Plymouth. In July 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from the University of Lancaster.

In November 2001 he was presented with the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Abroad.

His autobiography, No Destination, was first published in 1978 and Satish is also the author of You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence (2002),The Buddha and the Terrorist (2004), Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life (2007), and Earth Pilgrim (2009).

In 2008, Satish presented a 50-minute documentary - Earth Pilgrim - for the BBC as part of the Natural World series. In the programme he introduced the Dartmoor scenes and sights that most inspire him and contemplated the lessons they hold for humanity. A highly acclaimed documentary that mixed Eastern philosophy with the Western landscape of Dartmoor, the programme was watched by over 3.6 million people.