Chapter VII of Rio Plus 20 Document by Cho Tab Khen Zambuling (Alfredo Sfeir-Younis)
VII. The Art Of Making Choices
Life is the result of an infinite sequence of choices. And, it is on these choices that we need to focus on, so that we may have the possibility to change the outcomes we experience today. Many times, the problems we suffer from today are the direct result of what was meant to be a highly recommended solution (a choice), or an idea forcefully advocated, in the past. Global warming is the result of those past decisions and recommended solutions. Those well thought-out solutions of the past are often the source of our current day problems. This vicious circle must be broken. Why is this so? Are our decision-making processes faulty? Have conditions changed and, thus, the need for new decision-making processes to emerge?
As we look inside and outside ourselves, we ought to conclude that no one else has created those problems. They arise out of our own past. Thus, to establish a new trajectory for human transformation, we must focus on what we are doing today to garner a better collective future for tomorrow. Thus, there is a need for new choices if we are to attain new solutions. Today, the state of nature –i.e., the natural and human environment—is indeed the direct outcome of our past decisions. One known landmark is that of the industrial revolution, coupled with modern capitalism and globalization; they have all had deep-rooted negative effects on our environment. Industrialization has been one of the main sources of pollution and thus global warming.
Should we detach ourselves from those effects and just say: it is someone else’s problem?
Those past decisions are to be put into context. In some instances, for example, it was postulated that natural resources were infinitely abundant and, thus, amenable to high rates of exploitation –e.g., much beyond “the maximum sustainable yield”. Or, it was recommended to accelerate the pace of industrialization, or of traditional modes of transport, which have all resulted in high levels of air and water pollution. In turn, pollution has had major impacts on climate change and ozone layer depletion. Thus, it is a sequence of choices that have ended up with significant un-intended negative-external-effects from socio-economic development.
But not everything should be cast as the results of an “external to external” form of interaction (e.g., that industrial pollution, as an external phenomenon, causes global warming). Our individual and collective souls have also been involved in significant ways in creating global warming (e.g., anger and stress as an inner phenomenon, causes changes on the external stress and natural environment). Judging from the outcomes we see today (a results oriented perspective), the existing decision-making rationale has also been affecting both the gross and subtle levels of our existence. Pollution may also happen within the soul. One may call this “inner pollution”. We strongly experience the fact that our inner pollution impacts significantly the outer environment. How do we create inner pollution? We pollute our souls with bad thoughts, negative emotions, unnecessary beliefs, limiting value systems, twisted intentions, negative egocentric actions and many other forms of questionable behaviour.
At the gross level, we pollute ourselves via our bad eating habits and the negative ways we treat our bodies. This, in turn, pollutes our five elements of life: water (blood), earth (bones), wind (breath), fire (body temperature) and space. All these elements are fully present within our body. At the subtle level, we pollute ourselves via the power of negative thinking, affecting others and us. We experience this daily. Needless to say how much you affect others via your own personal or social behaviour (interactions). Because we are fully interdependent and interconnected, the external effects produced by our gross and subtle levels of existence also reach other people’s bodies, minds, and soul.
This is why it is essential to pay attention to the spiritual pollution within our lives. We pollute our spirit via distortions of the truth, creating unnecessary contradictions and rejecting our mission in this lifetime (whenever we happen to know what that mission is). The effects of negative thoughts are particularly acknowledged here. We know that thoughts do not disappear in outer space. Most of these thoughts stay in our minds and bodies for many lifetimes. Thoughts are energy, and as such, they may stay inside an organ, or in any gross or subtle space of our body, and affect the rhythm of our lives and cause major diseases. Having negative or positive thoughts also involves a decision.
There is an ancient saying that may be relevant here. It says that you could understand the quality of your life today by simply analyzing the thoughts you had in the past. Similarly, you will be able to predict the quality of your life in the future by analyzing the thoughts you entertain today. As a paradigm of the soul, this is an interesting dimension of human transformation and a practical way to recognize the power of your soul through the power of thinking and decisions.
Many decisions are made within a clear set of boundaries. In many ways, these boundaries are vanishing, as is the case with globalization and national policies. It is difficult to see domestic policies as separated away from international ones. In many ways, this is the result of the global markets and the way we are all opening to the rest of the world. But, you should also note that there are no boundaries, for example, between the air outside us (outer air) and the air we have inside our bodies (inner air). There is free flow from one medium to the other. As a result, it is not any longer possible to think that pollution of the outer air will not affect the quality (i.e., pollute) our inner air. Therefore, decisions having to do with pollution of the air are totally universally in time and space.
It is interesting to note also that the same may apply to outer and inner water and to all the five elements of life. Then, if our soul is polluted, this will pollute all the outside elements of the external natural environment. It should be easier to accept that pollution of air and water, environmental destruction, effects of traffic congestion, etc. –which is a result of our decisions–are all affecting the state of our bodies and souls. When we breathe purely clean air, our lungs will provide excellent oxygenation to our blood, which, in turn, would irrigate our brain better. This process will bring clarity in thinking, less stress, and happier behaviour.
Everyone knows how the quality of the external environment affects our decisions and the allocation of our material resources. This is so well known that it affects how we make decisions regarding where to take our vacations. Specifically, most people choose natural and human environments that will make them happier, peaceful and joyful. These are often identified with those natural environments of highest quality. Even the willingness to pay for those vacation spots within pristine environments is increasing at a geometric rate. Prices are very high and those who can afford those prices pay for them. Eco-tourism and other forms of rural adventures are extremely popular among consumers of high quality leisure. This is why attention must be paid to the adoption of an approach to life that recognizes explicitly what happens in our souls –in our inner environments—as a result of our interactions with the external environment.
The proposed solutions to today’s problems must be carefully scrutinized. Otherwise, as it has happened in the past, we would be creating, once again, the causes and conditions for the unfolding of negative outcomes of development and human transformation. A poor decision would be, for example, to cut down a natural forest to resolve the demand for furniture and, thus, leave us without such a crucial element of nature. For some people this example may be seen as exaggerated, but this is not at all the case. Just see how much furniture is made out of hardwoods from tropical forests. The same is true of fisheries, where we are willing to over-fish a variety of ocean fishes to satisfy a demand for a specific delicatessen (shark fins) in a particular country.
History has demonstrated that not all decisions that are linked to the functioning of markets (supply and demand) bring the right solutions. The market orientation of many solutions may run counter to a long-term positive and sustainable human transformation. During a rather short period of time, humanity has witnessed fast, steady and transcendental material changes affecting all we do over space (spatially) and time (inter-temporally). Many of us have experienced these changes in such areas as communications, transport, medicine, trade, migration and globalization, to name a few. At times, the net impact of these changes is very difficult to measure, or to rationalize, whether they are positive or negative. What we know is that many people have benefited and gained from material changes, while a huge number of people are still behind. This is to say, we experience very mixed results. Those negative changes are manifested, for example, in the form of poverty, inequities, discrimination, environmental destruction, epidemics (HIV & AIDS), and much more.
We also experience fundamental shifts in our daily lives. These shifts are both individual and collective. In this new millennium, perhaps, it is this collective dimension of human existence that we would need to focus most of our attention. One reason is that human welfare will depend much more on how we nurture the human collective, as a collective, than simply thinking about human welfare as an arithmetic sum of nurturing separate individuals. Population and demography are playing an important role in carving out our human collective destiny. Now that we are more than six billion people, inhabiting what looks to be a small planet, there is an increasing tendency for one group anywhere to influence the lives of groups everywhere. Thus, air and water pollution in developed countries not only affects their inhabitants but it affects the lives of everyone on Earth. Today, this situation applies to practically everything we do.
As so many changes are happening at every moment and in every sphere of our lives (industry, informatics, infrastructure, medicine, agriculture), it is difficult to predict what their accumulated effects are on the people and on all living beings. Despite the great advances in science, these are not powerful enough to give us the definitive hard evidence to make appropriate decisions. Knowing is not sufficient any longer. In part, this situation reflects the fact that what may look good to one individual may be the opposite for the collective.
Therefore, in measuring and evaluating how well we are making decisions today, it is not possible to look just at ourselves individually. We need to focus also on how we are affecting our collective existence. And, assess the extent to which our individual decisions result in a type of phenomena that impact the whole (all of us) and not just a few. Actually, global warming is not the only example of a collective dimension of human lives. The destruction of the environment in general, human insecurity, hunger, violations of human rights, gender discrimination, war and conflicts, etc., are all examples of the collective challenges facing humanity today.
Global warming is an outcome of choices that relate to our material and spiritual transformations. It is not all about pollution from industries and transport, although this is extremely important. It is much more than that. While what is being shared here is from a book on global warming, what we share here may also apply to many different aspects of human life. At the core, we must make decisions that are essential to nurture the mind and the soul. These are decisions that are established to create a new awakening on the relationship between nature and inner transformation. While much is discussed on the scientific evidence behind global warming, yet a few dare to explain the spiritual dimensions of this phenomenon. Spiritual growth and human transformation are in the end the essential ingredients for making peace with the environment, healing the world, and finding effective solutions for a better future.
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