Foreword
Dena Merriam is the founder and convener of Global Peace Initiative of Women. Under the leadership of women, the mission of this organization is to enable women, men, and young adults to facilitate healing and reconciliation in areas of conflict and post-conflict, and to bring spiritual resources to help address critical global problems.

Introduction
Dr. Vandana Shiva has, over the past 35 years dedicated her life to the protection of nature and defense of people’s rights to nature’s resources—forests, biodiversity, water, land. Dr. Shiva has played an important role in building the movement for GMO-free food and agriculture. She is the founder of the organization Navdanya: navdanya.org

Sacred Seed – The Orthodox Christian Tradition
His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is the 270th successor of the 2,000-year-old local Christian Church founded by St. Andrew the Apostle. Nicknamed the “Green Patriarch,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is a prominent leader in the environmental movement.

The Seed of Compassion
His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje is the head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu Lineage and guide to millions of Buddhists around the world. As an environmental activist, computer enthusiast, and world spiritual leader, whose teachings are often webcast live, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has brought the Karmapa lineage’s activities fully into the twenty-first century.

Seeds of a New Humanity
Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, is an internationally known writer and lecturer. She currently serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders from all the faith traditions.

Seeds and the Story of the Soul
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, PhD, is a Sufi teacher whose writing and teaching focuses on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition and an awakening to the importance of spiritual ecology. Author of several books, he has specialized in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of Jungian Psychology. He is the editor of the recently published anthology, Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth.

Seed as the Cosmic Principle
Swami Veda Bharati (died 14 July 2015) was a renowned meditation master. Founder of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International and founder of Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram in Rishikesh, India, he was also Spiritual Guide to the Ashram of late Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Author of more than twenty books, a poet and scholar, he travelled and lectured internationally for 67 years.

Seeds of Promise
A congregational rabbi for twenty years, Rabbi Rami currently co-directs One River Wisdom School and Holy Rascals Foundation. Rami blogs at ReligionNext with Rabbi Rami, writes a regular column for Spirituality and Health Magazine called “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler,” and hosts the weekly Internet radio show How to Be a Holy Rascal on Unity On-line Radio.

The Seed of Love
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, PhD, is a scholar and teacher of Sufism in the tradition of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Since 2004, he has served as Head of the Sufi Order International, and he is also the founder of Suluk Academy and Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. Pir Zia’s most recent book, Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest, was published by Suluk Press in 2012. Further information: inayatiorder.org and pirzia.org

A Little Seed of Awakening
Acharya Judy Lief is a senior student of Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who empowered her as a teacher in the Buddhist and Shambhala traditions. She has edited many of his books, including the recently published three-volume Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.

Seed of Wisdom
Swami Atmarupananda is a renowned scholar, teacher, and Monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India, a monastic organization dedicated to the teaching of Vedanta. He joined the Order in 1969 and spent many years in India engaged in monastic, scholarly, and spiritual training.

A Haudenosaunee Reflection on “Seed: The Power of Life”
Dr. Dan Longboat, Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky), is Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River. He is Director of the Indigenous Environmental Studies Program at Trent.

The Sacred Bond
Sobonfu Somé (died January 14, 2017) was an author, teacher, activist, and one of the foremost voices in African spirituality in the West. Sobonfu traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe, conducting workshops on spirituality, ritual, the sacred, and intimacy.

The Sacred Mystery of Physis: Honoring Seed in Ancient Greece
Christoph Quarch, PhD, is a philosopher, theologian, author, and coach in the fields of philosophy and spirituality, and teaches Ethics and Cultural History at Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has served as Ambassador of the World Wisdom Council and consultant to the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

The Seed—The Source
Sister Jayanti is the European Director of the Brahma Kumaris, with over forty years of experience of Raja Yoga meditation and its practical application in daily life. Her gentle voice and profound insights on spiritual solutions to everyday problems have touched the hearts of thousands around the world.

Seeds of the Spirit: A Call to Spiritual Action for Mother Earth
Kahontakwas (Diane) Longboat, Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation from the Six Nations Grand River Territory, is a ceremonial leader, healer, and traditional teacher of Indigenous spiritual ways. She offers ceremonies at the Sacred Lodge of Soul of the Mother, where a Sacred Fire burns for the healing of Mother Earth and the spiritual renewal of humanity.

Seeds and the Sacred
Mary Ann Burris is the founder of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health based in Kenya. Her work centers around the importance of tradition and culture in implementing health and development work, and the use of ritual and art for healing and building peace.

There Is No Life Without a Seed and There Is No Seed Without a Life
Venerable Bhante Buddharakkhita is the founder and abbot of the Uganda Buddhist Center in Uganda and the spiritual director of Flowering Lotus Meditation Center in Magnolia, Mississippi. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while living in India, and he began practicing meditation in 1993.

Listening to the Hidden Heart of Seeds
Angela Fischer is the author of several books on feminine spirituality and the oneness of life, and has lead seminars and retreats since her twenties. Integrating her work with family life, her focus has been on reanimating a genuine feminine spirituality, which leads to living women’s spiritual responsibility for life and the Earth, as well as recovering the feminine principle in both women and men.

And the Last Shall Be First
Established in 2004, the Poverty Initiative’s mission is to raise up generations of grassroots religious and community leaders dedicated to building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor. Contributions from: Shailly Barnes, Adam Barnes, Rev. Liz Theoharis, Rev. Kathy Maskell

Seeds and the Miracle of Life
Aliaa R. Rafea, PhD, is a professor of Anthropology at Ain Shams University, Women’s College. She makes use of anthropological perspectives to understanding issues related to religion, politics, and culture. Author and founder and chair of The Human Foundation, she is also active in several Egyptian NGOs.

The DNA of Our SOUL Cannot Be Genetically Modified
Swami Omkarananda is the Spiritual Director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Los Angeles. She is passionate about building inter-faith community, networking, Vedanta, Vedic ecology, permaculture, and helping people to develop spiritually.

The Power and Importance of the Seed: The Heritage of Nature’s Intelligence
Acharya David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri) is a recognized Acharya and Pandit, a master teacher of Vedic knowledge in India, where he is also known as Vamadeva Shastri. He is the author of over thirty books on Yogic and Vedic subjects published in twenty different languages over the last thirty years.

The Interbreath of Life and the Seeds It Scatters ‘Round Our Planet
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph.D., founded and directs The Shalom Center. He has pioneered the development of Eco-Judaism through the Green Menorah organizing project of The Shalom Center and the Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth, as well as through such books as Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology; and Torah of the Earth: 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought.

The Rejuvenating Power of Seeds
As Mugema (grand chief), Chief Tamale Bwoya supervises cultural development, serves as spiritual arbitrator, facilitates purification ceremonies, and ensures stability of the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda. At recent international conferences in Kenya and Japan, he received two spiritual revelations addressed to the world’s spiritual chiefs.

Our Great Little Relatives—Seeds!
Rev. Doju Dinajara Freire is a Zen Buddhist nun, dancer, educator, and author. She teaches meditation at Dojo Zen Sanrin community in Fossano. Rev. Freire has been the European representative for the Global Peace Initiative of Women, helping to organize programs related to the sacred feminine and interfaith.

The Seed and the Tao
Nan Lu, OMD, is a Taoist master who has the unique gift of cross-cultural communication and the ability to interpret essential, timeless spiritual and healing truths with clarity, depth, compassion, and humor. He is a high-level Qigong master and a longtime doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

The Parable of the Sower
Rev. Richard Cizik is the President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good and a leader of the “new evangelical” movement in America. He is an ordained minister, speaker, activist, writer, and public intellectual for a new kind of religious leadership that cares for the earth.

The Secret of the Seed
Sraddhalu Ranade is a scientist, educator, and one of the leading scholars on the teachings of the late Indian sage, Sri Aurobindo. He leads retreats, delivers talks, and conducts workshops on a range of themes including Vedic philosophy, ecology, and worldview, integral education, self-development, Indian culture, science and spirituality, spiritual evolution, and yoga.

Seeds Are the Transcendent Stuff of Life
Author and lecturer Blu Greenberg has published widely on contemporary issues of feminism, Orthodoxy, and the Jewish family. Among her many public roles, she chaired the first and second International Conferences on Feminism and Orthodoxy in 1997 and 1998 and is founding president of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

The Stunted Seed
Teny Pirri-Simonian, an adult educator, lay theologian, and researcher in the Sociology of Religions, is a member of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicosate of Cilicia, Antelias, Lebanon. She has written extensively on the role of women in the church and society, and on women living together in religiously pluralist societies. She is an advisor to the Global Peace Initiative of Women.

The Seed-ing of Consciousness, Seed-ing of the Heart
Tiokasin Ghosthorse is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota and has a long history with Indigenous activism and advocacy. He is a board member of several charitable organizations working to bring non-western education to Native and non-Native children, and is the host of First Voices Indigenous Radio.

Seeds and the Cosmic Seeding of Oneness
Sufi Rehman Mahaiyadeen is the founder and the servant at the Sufi Circle Lahore, dedicated to composing human personality through Sufi zikr and muraqaba (meditation). Moreover, he serves as the director of Green Living Association—an organization for Environmental Peace focused on building responsible, peaceful, and globally-aligned future generations of Pakistan.

The Language of the Seed
For many years Anat Vaughan-Lee has been working with groups and dreamwork in the Sufi tradition, which encourages the deep feminine way of inner listening. Together with her husband Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, she is involved in raising awareness of the deep ecological crisis of the Earth and has helped in the creation of the recent publication Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, as well as its rich and informative website.

Cosmic Ecology and Diversity: Lessons from the Vedas
Sri Swamini Svatmavidyananda Saraswati, a longtime disciple of Paramapujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati of India, is an accomplished scholar of Vedanta. For several years, she has led an active satsang community in the United States, serving as the Spiritual Director of Swami Dayananda’s USA center: Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam based in Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Oregon.