Building our new Collective Destiny
“WE THE PEOPLE”
A PLANETARY CHALLENGE BEFORE RIO PLUS 20!
AN APPEAL TO ALL CITIZENS OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER 1: “TREES FOR PEACE”
1. We recognize that The planet will not be saved by established governments. They have not done so to date and there is no indication that they will do so in the future.
2. Knowing that It will be people –we the people- who will steer a course for all to thrive on this planet with concrete actions and programs that everyone can understand and act accordingly. To each global citizen, the area where you live now must become the landscape for your focused action. This area is where you must apply yourself, as much as possible, toward the greater good. If all of us follow such a strategy we will cover the Planet in no time at all.
3. Understanding that Rio Plus 20 may achieve some goals, it is most probable that the results will result in a collection of declarations. Because of the politics involved, most often than not, these types of conferences take a minimalist approach. One hopes that Rio Plus 20 will be an exception to the rule. Only people’s actions will stir the governments to act in ways that matter.
4. Therefore we appeal to all citizens of the world to unite, and begin to act right now, much before the Conference takes place. Specifically, it is proposed three global programs that you can carry out wherever you live. These programs are: “Trees For Peace”, “Bees For Peace”, and “Greens For Peace” (Vegetable Gardens). This first Chapter of the Appeal will concentrate on “trees for peace” so that all communities may begin right now on the ground.
5. Recognizing that this program will not only contribute to enhance our natural environment (greening the Planet) but will also assist in poverty alleviation and peace building everywhere. This is why it is called “Trees For Peace”. Each tree will represent a symbol of peace.
6. The main goal of the appeal is to plant 10 million trees before Rio Plus 20. This will offer a clear example that “we, the people” may really advance the environmental agenda which is so much needed today.
Trees-4-Peace
Peace is of individual and collective responsibility. There is only one world and one humanity for those of us who live upon the Earth.
To attain our state of collective peace we should consider the following:
First, that peace is a state of being and, as such, it needs to be self-realized within ourselves. There is no level of material wealth that is capable of buying peace. Our inner peace is a condition for collective peace.
Second, there will be no inner peace unless we enter into a process of self-healing. Healing from anger, dispossession, insecurity, emotional instability, negativity…. Healing is a condition of inner peace, and inner peace is, in turn, a condition for collective peace.
Third, that collective peace is not just about human beings. It is about the peace of all sentient beings. It is about the peace of all living beings and all sentient beings. This is the real meaning of collective peace.
Fourth, that a healing process may be sought after using traditional means that is geared directly to the person who needs that healing, or, this healing process can serve that same person via healing another person or another sentient being (another living being).
Healing is seated within the global collective. Therefore, healing goes beyond an individual and all human beings. Nature plays a role in our healing for all living beings and all sentient beings. In this regard, healing belongs to an infinite plane of consciousness, that includes a matrix of actors, actions and environments. Thus, it is possible to heal oneself by healing other human beings, by healing nature (natural environment), or by healing sentient beings. This is one of the most important ingredients in the expansion of the true wisdom and the essential mechanisms behind a healing process.
Thus, in the nature of this proposal, for example, by healing nature, one may, in turn, heal oneself, attain inner peace and, in the end, attain collective peace. Therefore, it is important to share with all the news that we can heal ourselves by healing animals or nature in general.
The Trees-4-Peace (from now on referred to as “T4P”) is a global program for healing both humanity and nature via the healing of nature. This is to say: by healing one you will heal the other, and by healing the other you will heal yourself.
The foundation of this program is based on the premise that we can attain inner and collective peace, world peace, by healing nature. The opposite is also true: if we do not heal nature it is actually impossible to heal ourselves.
It is essential to note that this proposition comes from experience and not from a theory, although there is now plenty of scientific evidence that this is the case. We have to try it and, only then, we will be able to see the results. This experience is often possible by embracing a fundamental spiritual law: The Law of Interdependence. Everyone and everything is all interdependent. The genetic codes of human beings (a) are interdependent among themselves, (b) are interdependent with all the genetic codes of nature (all living beings), and (c) are interdependent with all the genetic codes of the spirit (i.e., this should be approximated to the architecture of our “missions” in this lifetime).
To establish a simple and yet effective way to heal people and the Earth –and based on some unique experiences of healing drug addicts and depressed people via healing nature—this is a proposal for planting all varieties of trees in every community across the globe. This is not forestry. This is not reforestation. This is not development. This is not about material advancement. Although, planting trees in this way may produce a similar impact.
This is about the collective healing of nature and humanity. The aim here is collective peace through inner and outer healing and should not be confused with other programs. The idea is to contribute to the attainment of collective peace via planting trees equal to the number of people inhabiting Planet Earth. This is to say, between 6 and 7 billion trees. As we approach those numbers nature will be tremendously instrumental in our inner healing and inner peace and, therefore, to the creation of all conditions for collective peace.
Collective healing will bring collective peace. It is as simple as that!
Our Collective Vehicle
Most systems of human transformation are based on instruments that are calibrated to a single individual. Curing someone of a given disease, for example, is often carried out with prescriptions and methods particularly defined for that individual. Curing is a localized phenomenon. One example is that of someone who cuts its finger, or has a headache. In this case, all actions would be defined in relation to that particular individual.
Healing, on the other hand, is not a localized phenomenon. It is a process that has to go far beyond the individual who is in need of that healing.
More often than not, when one refers to healing, one is referring to issues of anger, deceit, depression, fears, etc. Based on very practical experiences, to be able to address those states of being one requires going far beyond the individual itself. The process of healing may involve the whole family (like constellation therapy suggests), it may go beyond processes and issues of this lifetime, or it may be clearly related to the whole environment (human and natural environments). The development of environmental medicine demonstrates the great importance of including the quality of the environment –as a decision variable– in addressing all sorts of diseases.
Today, we are challenged by the need to find processes and instruments of human transformation that are truly and verily collective in nature. This is to say that the future of human welfare relies on, or it is dependent upon, the creation of a “collective vehicle”. This is a vehicle in which every one and every thing is included –we as apart of the environment, and the environment as apart of ourselves.
In particular, making peace with ourselves will never really materialize unless we make peace with our natural environment. One is an integral and indivisible component/part/dimension of the other.
The importance of constructing the collective vehicle is heightened by a situation where one sees the great limitations we have to self-realize collective values. These values ought to sustain humanity along this new millennium. It is evident that the individualistic and material-based-values of humanity are often successfully attained, even at the expense of serious decay in collective welfare. One reason for this is the fact that we are operating successfully within the realm of another vehicle, which may be called the small vehicle. Thus the individual values of competition, achievement, success, exclusion… are all possible because of the quality of our small vehicle in us. This vehicle is fueled by knowing, having and doing. Many words are used to express the existence of this small vehicle: intelligence, memory…
However, the absence of the collective vehicle is limiting us in the self-realization of our collective values. In particular, the values that are most difficult to attain are those of love, compassion, caring, sharing, solidarity, equity, justice, freedom, interdependence, security, peace… In order to self-realize those values we need to construct the right instrument: the collective vehicle.
One way to construct this collective vehicle is via the self-realization of collective peace.
And, it will be via the attainment of collective peace, that we will attain all the other collective values. In essence, experience demonstrates that it is impossible to attain collective peace without, for example, attaining at the same time collective justice, collective freedom… This is the new paradigm for the attainment of collective peace: the paradigm of the self-realization of collective peace via collective healing and inner peace, and these two via the healing of nature. It is via the healing of nature that we will make a significant contribution for the collective vehicle to be constructed. This construction is essential to all of the above goals and objectives.
And, the contribution of the T-4-P will materialize via the planting of trees equivalent to the number of people inhabiting the planet today. The T-4-P is only one in a series of complementary programs geared to construct the collective vehicle for collective human transformation.
Who Is Responsible
Every individual or organization is responsible for planting these trees.
The T-4-P is designed for all of us to participate, whether as single individuals, or as part of a family, or as part of a local organization. All actors, in all their roles are to be part of this tree planting program.
There are a few examples to illustrate the different possibilities.
First, I as an individual could plant one tree in the back of the house or in a nice pot inside the apartment or the room where I live. Or I as a father could plant five trees to include my immediate family. If I do not have the terrain to cultivate, I could ask permission to others, or local authorities as to where I could plant the trees. There are hundreds of tree planting programs that would be extremely happy you contribute to them. If one does not have time, you may go to a tree planting program and make a contribution to the planting of a number of trees. However, you should make sure that the trees were planted.
Second, you may join a local group and decide as a group to plant the number of trees equivalent to your community. This will clearly open up dialogues and define instruments that in the end will clearly enhance the collective vehicle of your community. You may decide to join a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) who specializes in such programs.
Third, a national government may decide to open up land areas for tree planting programs. These governments may join with individuals, NGOs, or corporations to plant thousands of trees to reach the national target equivalent to the number of inhabitants in that particular country.
Fourth, corporations may plant trees equivalent to the number of employees with their organizations. Similarly, a ministry of a given government, or the government as a whole, may plant trees equivalent to their respective number of employees.
Finally, given the spaces that are in the hands of governments or in the hands of the private sector, major corporations may assist in attaining the national targets. In such corporate programs, it is important to determine the type of tree planting and tree varieties that would benefit the community at large and set aside interest to use the program for corporate profits. Such an attitude will limit the construction of the collective vehicle. It will have the opposite effect.
In one word, there is room for all sorts of networking and coalitions to make the demanded contribution to the healing of our planet and attaining collective peace.
How Are Tree Varieties Chosen
Anyone can choose the tree varieties. This is not about just one tree variety. For example, a community may decide to plant fruit trees of different varieties so that the tree planting fulfills not only the needs for healing the Planet but also the economic needs of the community.
The governments may suggest (not dictate top down) some tree varieties they may put at the disposal of people at free or smallest cost. What is important to retain here is that there are some tree varieties that are not suitable for your environment. BUT, this is something that people will have to resolve as a collective. Experience shows that most often than not, local people know very well the trees they want and the varieties that could successfully survive within their own environment. Here, there is no mentality of plantations. This is grass roots based planting as they see fit within their process of collective healing.
The land where this takes place varies according to circumstances. It may be a garden, a field, a marsh, a forest, a wasteland, etc. It is up to those who are planting and the environments they are facing when they decide to plant.
Who Does The Maintenance
The planting and the maintenance are carried out by those who planted the trees, unless an organization, like the government or a private corporation offers those particular services.
The individual who planted the trees must continue interacting with them and make sure they grow and bear the fruits expected at the personal and the collective levels. It is you and your contribution to healing and world peace.
The Role of the ZIHT
The Zambuling Institute For Human Transformation (ZIHT) is the principal sponsor of such a program. However, sponsorship must not be equated to financing. This must be done by each actor on its own right. External financing must be an exception rather than the rule. This is a different paradigm. This is a paradigm of collective healing and not material development. In the past, external financing has dominated and has imposed other values that are totally foreign to this program.
The ZIHT has suggested this new paradigm, the possible approaches and various solutions. In this capacity, the ZIHT is very interested in the impacts on collective healing and will try to monitor those impacts and disseminate the results. The ZIHT will also put at the disposal of communities a website where they can report their achievements and the fulfillment of national targets. The website will be: www. tree-4-peace.com.
The Role of Different Actors
Local and international NGOs may be directly involved in the financing, seedling distribution, and tree planting programs. Also, they may offer technical assistance and their infrastructure facilities to carry out local programs.
Government could play a fundamental role if they understand the true purpose of such a program: collective healing and collective peace. Each tree is an instrument of healing and peace. It is not just another dollar. Governments may facilitate lands and free seedlings of the sort the people would like to plant in their own territories.
Local churches and faith groups have proven to be extremely effective in mobilizing and assisting local communities. They should be fully involved, and help in the monitoring and maintenance of those programs.
The private sector may indeed support these programs in full. For example, this may be done by making available millions of free seedlings of fruit trees, of indigenous trees, and so forth. Corporations may take responsibilities of highly eroded areas where industrial plantations may be the solution. The private sector should not crowd out local communities with their efforts.
The Super Network
All actors in a community, in a country, or in a whole region of the world may form super networks of mutual assistance and support. This will have a tremendous impact on healing and collective peace. One example, may be the T4P Program for Latin America. Such a program may have a unique super network to plant as many trees as inhabitants of the region. There may be super networks across all regions too.
A Critical Next Step
The only fundamental step that will be taken is a major spiritual blessing so that the program is successfully carried out. Every individual or community may start by doing the same in their own spiritual tradition or faith.
Please do not look for phone numbers, addresses, internet sites, guidelines, leaders, followers, money, or any hierarchical organizational framework in order to get involved. Just plant your trees of peace, and send photos of the process and the names of the tree varieties to the internet site announced below.
www.trees-4-peace.com
