Chapter XXVIII of Rio Plus 20 Document by Cho Tab Khen Zambuling (Alfredo Sfeir-Younis)
XXVIII. Call For Action: The Spiritual Forum
To resolve the global warming and the inner warming we all face, it requires action of all sorts. Some of these actions will continue to be at the material level, and would be of a very traditional type (bringing the level of pollution down). Other actions will be at the more subtle and spiritual levels (meditation to diminish inner anger). Naturally, each person, each society, will discover what is best in that unique environment. However, we together must take many forms of collective actions. Probably, these collective actions will be the most difficult ones to embrace and implement.
Here, we will narrow the number of suggestions and focus mainly on a proposal that will be under the title of The World Spiritual Forum. This is a proposal for an institutional arrangement, for the moment lacking, that should be seriously considered at this juncture in human history. The Forum is founded on a number of premises and it responds to a specific background, which may be worth outlining here. The world of the future will be extremely different from the one we are experiencing today. At the core of our intent here, it is the important consideration that a new human reality will only be the result of a new state of consciousness and coherence. In the last few years, we have been given many warning with regard to climate change. In 2004, we saw the Tsunami that hit Asia. Thousands of lives were lost. And, coupled with that, globalization as an economic and social phenomenon, has negatively affected millions of people.
Today, global warming represents another major warning and, as a wake-up call, right action must take place. To change the course of humanity demands a new process of human transformation, which cannot take place in isolation from our natural environment. It is not just material or outer transformation. It must also be spiritual and inner transformation. In the past, material solutions have dominated all that we do. Obviously, we live in a material world and thus, these material solutions are important. However, we observe that there are many material solutions that are not sufficient for sustained human betterment. In this new millennium, the challenge is to revise these material solutions and move beyond traditional means and processes.
Public and private policy makers, and the international community in general, play a vital role. Institutions, like the United Nations, are at the center stage of those challenges and solutions. However, for long lasting solutions, we need not only the participation of the different actors but also to embrace a new set of values, with a new human perspective. One of the missing links at the United Nations, for example, is the creation of a permanent World Spiritual Forum. It would be in this Forum where these challenges will be addressed in terms of the material and spiritual welfare. The spirit of the original declaration of the United Nations in 1944 clearly recognized that human freedom, for example, would only result from material and spiritual growth, together. Today, it is not any longer possible to think just about material satisfaction through material solutions.
To seek material growth alone, without spiritual growth, is a false proposition and a very dangerous one too. With the same token, if there will be a debate on the eradication of poverty, it is essential that the debates pay equal attention to the material and spiritual dimensions of poverty. And, these apply to all our collective challenges. Otherwise, one would continue to observe that many parts of the world are becoming materially rich at the expense of being spiritually poor. The importance of the inner spaces of life and the spiritual dimensions of human activities apply everywhere: government, business, economics, politics, environment, civil society, research, technological change, and all aspects of our human lives. Thus, if countries are to focus on diminishing external global warming, they must also address inner warming of all living beings. If we were to engage in a process of positive human transformation, and if we were to target the most sacred aspects of our lives, it is important we take action now. Time is of essence.
The challenge is clear: we must write the history of this new millennium with the hands of the spirit. This is an act of generosity and respect with all the future generations following us. This is why, it is important to expand this traditional notion of material betterment to include the betterment of the human spirit, of our human consciousness, and of our inner souls. It is necessary to revise our wealth creation to include our spiritual wealth as well. We know by now that higher levels of material betterment, without inner spiritual growth, will result in more poverty, inequality and social exclusion. Thus, we exalt the need to focus on our spiritual capital. As we should not separate the body and mind, we should also not separate the mind and body from the spirit. Our spiritual reality is at the foundation of all we do, including all of our professions and daily practices.
Within this context, it is important to recognize the fundamental importance of indigenous peoples and indigenous knowledge, particularly within developing countries. Indigenous peoples’ understanding of traditional medicine is an invaluable asset for humanity as a whole and to future generations. They have been custodians of our Planet and have created many positive conditions for the healthy transformation of humanity. They have greatly emphasized the need to improve the quality of our natural environment, the protection of our biological diversity, and the management of socioeconomic development patterns. In the interim, there is no doubt that in order to recover and strengthen our identity, we need a major process of healing and reconciliation. This is healing of the most profound nature and reconciliation with our selves and others. All our activities have a healing quality. We know that being in love is a healing experience. We know that serving is also a healing experience. We know that respecting and being respected is also a healing experience.
We need to learn from each other as we have the responsibility of our children’s future and of future generations. It is in our hands to give them a good future – it is our responsibility. Today, there is much interference, many disturbances and violence. We need to give them inner peace. The essence of spirituality, of all religions, is inner peace. Inner peace is the best medicine. It is very inexpensive to have inner peace – we just have to learn how to have inner peace. It is very near and present at any moment.
The way forward requires three fundamental steps.
First: the basic distinction between our outer global warming existence and inner warming. Most of what humanity and leadership is doing to attain some acceptable level of global warming is to grab the outer elements. And in doing so, we are attempting to use more sophisticated technologies in production, consumption, disposal and trade. We have seldom gone beyond the management of physical outer global warming; despite the fact that we know that there are so many other forms of warming. These remain totally unattended. Of course, the results are clear: stress, anger, despair, very high suicide rates in teenagers, increased trafficking and prostitution of young girls and of highly illegal drugs, and so on. Global warming is in many ways a state of consciousness. It is an inner state in each of us, with individual and social connotations. Therefore, if any progress is to be made we must focus on its inner values, its inner dimensions, and its inner realities rather than on its outer elements alone. This approach will demand a different discourse, a different attitude, a different system of education, and a different way of facing life in all its dimensions within this planet.
Second: to recognize the importance of the “human presence factor”. Many of our meetings and many of our institutions are filled with people who advocate and promote environmental management, but who are not coherent with their inner environmental self. Many people need to experience a state of normal inner warming. As long as you have not had that experience, everything tends to stay in a state of abstraction. We simply cannot promote that which we have not integrated and realized. How can we allow those who are experiencing high levels of inner warming within themselves to sit at the table to negotiate a new Kyoto Protocol? How can we trust those who are in deep inner warming to resolve the problem? This is an element we must understand and strive for in the next few years. Yes, the future leaders of the world, some of whom may become the most effective machines of environmental destruction. This is simply not acceptable. This presence factor also applies to our teachers, our political and spiritual leaders, and to everyone who is in an influential position. We must take massive steps to assist and contribute to diminish inner warming of those who are making decisions that affect each and every one of us. We must get closer to them now. We must approach them with huge respect and compassion, but with a firm and unequivocal message that diminishing inner and outer warming is the objective.
Third: to diminish global warming through immediate actions. Diminishing global warming must be an intrinsic element of all we do. We must address this phenomenon within every institution and organization, as a coherence factor as well as a performance factor. We must diminish the warming taking place among religions, ethnic groups, and all possible communities of interest. This is a step we all feel comfortable with, although it has proven to be the most difficult one to attain in practice. Global warming in action means addressing it in every aspect of our human existence.
In service to humanity
With love
Cho Tab Khen Zambuling
(Alfredo Sfeir Younis)
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