The video footage of this new-year discussion is available for streaming or download from this page. (Scroll down to 247 and 246)

So, the time is right that everyone should push for peace now, at any price, because without peace we cannot build anything up. There are more pressing matters now than killing, my God! There’s global warming; there’s ice melting. And it’s not just the warming: after it has warmed it might get cold. And that’s even worse. If it’s warm, you can jump into the water, but if it’s too cold I don’t know if you have enough things to keep you warm when it’s freezing all the time. Because of the changes in the atmosphere, it might get worse and become freezing even, after the warming period. Sometimes the pollution damages the ozone layer and then maybe all the heat escapes. Then after a while we won’t have any heat, because then maybe too much pollution covers the sun and with too many changes then everything will get so bad and it might be freezing. That’s even worse also.

 

Start Now to Implement Life-sustaining Solutions for the Planet

I watched on one of the British channels before, there was a very scary documentary. They said that along with the global warming, the sun is also getting cooler somehow. So warming and cold: it’s too warm in some parts, and then some parts will be too cold. Or after the warm will be cold, and if it’s too warm then the ice will melt and then we’ll have floods. And if after that there’s no ice left to balance the things anyway, either the planet will become very heated or it could be very cold, because of too much cover or the ozone layer being broken.

 

So, many things can happen, and they could happen soon. Several decades are not long. So right now it’s time that all the people of every country should get together and think of the solutions quick, like biofuel or something with sustainable energy like solar power or wind power. You can install it in your home if you can afford it. Or, you can put money together and install one home at a time, OK! For instance, two of you could pitch money together and install it in your home. Draw a lotto to see who’s house gets installed first, so it’s fair. And then next time, pitch money together and install it in her home. When I lived in the, in the cave in the mountains I lived only with solar energy. I charge my phone with solar energy. I watched TV with solar energy. My fridge ran on solar energy. It’s a little complicated but you can learn. To save lives, we must learn. To save the planet, it’s worth it. It’s complicated but it’s not un-doable, you know. It’s simple enough to do it. You have to capture the solar energy into some batteries, and then you connect with those batteries to use it to run your household. At least you can save energy, and you save money in long run anyway. You can even sell it back to the government. In Spain it’s like that.

 

There’s wind power also; it might be difficult, but you can install a small wind mill. (D: A turbine, or wind mill.) A wind mill, the old fashioned way, it also does work. The turbine takes a longer time and a lot of money and maybe it’s not so ‘in’ yet, so you can’t get it so easily. But you can do that. Do what you can, OK? And go together in one car to work or go shop together, in one car. It saves money and saves energy. And if you can, buy a hybrid car,. They’re not that expensive. I got one; maybe it costs you in the beginning, but later it saves you a lot. It saves your life, too, and saves the life of everybody else! But you can check on the Internet to see which car is cheaper and more convenient for you. And soon in the future we will run it on biodiesel and biofuels like corn fuel, sugar cane or garbage. We can recycle garbage. And maybe we don’t even have to do that if they push the wave energy program! A long time ago in Norway they began that program, to use ocean waves as energy. That would be limitless. You can use it forever, just like the sun.

 

Energy is free everywhere actually. You can even harness power from thunder and so on. And that would be limitless, limitless! There would be no cost for anybody. It should be free for everyone, the basic things in life, like water and electricity – should be free actually, yeah! And it soon will be free. All this money that’s put into war, my God we could build a paradise on Earth! It’s about time everyone should know about this. So if you know of any of government important persons, you can remind them by writing or doing something. Do something in your power. Or, if you know how and where, just write. Write to the government. Remind them; help them; support them. Support their idea of environmental protection.

 

If we don’t act now, we won’t have any Earth left to even fight over with each other: no land to possess, no land to put the guns on or to install the cannons. It’s about time; my God, it’s the 21st Century already and we so called civilized humans are still fighting. I cannot believe it! Sometimes when I sit down, I don’t know how it’s possible. It’s not possible that we live in an era in which humans kill humans. How can we do that? How do you train such a beautiful, pure, handsome, strong, heroic young man to go into battle and just shoot someone like that? There was no quarrelling and no cause before, except the ‘big one’ somewhere behind telling him to go and do it: "That guy is an enemy; you go and shoot him for me." That’s it.

 

War Is Never a Solution

This is wasting human resource also. These soldiers are the most brilliant generation of our time! They’re there to pass down better DNA for the new generation. They’re not to go there; they’re not born to die. I don’t care if it’s to die a hero or die a what; it’s the same. It’s a waste of resource! Do you know how much money it costs to grow a man like that? At least a million dollars until he grows into maturity. Growing men is not like growing trees: it’s not cheap. And he has so much love from the family, so much friendship from companions, so much teaching from the teacher and the school – so much affection going on around him. He’s not just ‘nobody’ – he is somebody. He has family; he might even be married and have children already. But he is forced to go out there and shoot someone he doesn’t even have any enmity with. Isn’t that ridiculous? This is crazy, and we live in it!

 

My God, what kind of the world is this? It’s about time they stop all this – just stop it! We cannot tolerate this. It’s incredible that humans can kill humans! Even animals don’t do that. They might kill one for some reason, but they don’t go out and kill a whole mass like that. For the sake of whatever, I don’t care. I don’t care who is right, who is wrong; it’s all wrong.

For example, even now, I read in the media or saw on television that the number of deaths of American soldiers is exceeding the number of victims from 9-11. And that’s not counting the other people: the women and the children, the victims of war, the innocent bystanders. So war is never a solution. The more war, the more death; the more death, the more enemies; the more enemies, the more war, and so on. It’s a vicious circle, and there is no end to it. So we just have to stop. We just have to shake hands and forgive each other and then let’s go on with our lives, because there are so many pressing matters now. With all the money that’s spent on war, can you imagine? Africa would become like Europe if they used all that money on Africa, on one continent alone. And with all the money that’s still going into the war, we could build space ships. We could have more time, more energy and recruit more talent. Instead of all these young men dying, they would become living bodies of the future, building houses for the needy.

Let There Be Soldiers of Peace

If all the soldiers changed their jobs, we’d have soldiers of peace: buildings soldiers who bring medicine to the sick and build homes for the homeless. They are able-bodied, intelligent, strong and handsome. They are beautiful beings; it is a waste that that they go there and just die like that. Just one bullet like this. (Master gestures to show the small size of a bullet) Can you imagine? It can go anywhere from anywhere and kill one handsome, beautiful, aspiring, pure, energetic, young human being – just like that. Can you imagine? And it costs millions of dollars even, to raise him, and so much love from the family and friends so that he grows up like that. We cannot teach him hatred when he grows out of love. You cannot change that into hatred; this is not right.

 

You should continue to nurture the love that he has in him, the trust that he has with his family and friends, and with the nation that he’s born into. You cannot change that love into hatred and tell a young man who has been loved all his life until now, to come out and turn into a hateful person – and then use a gun to kill another person who has also grown out from the love of a mother and father somewhere, and who has somehow has been nourished and nurtured all this time like a beautiful flower in the garden with all love and care, attention and hope for the future. And then – boom, just like that – with one bullet, finished. Such a beautiful dream is gone, collapsed.

 

How many more generations until we can cultivate many young beautiful men like that? They are at their prime, and they are so inspired by heroism. We cannot use that to turn it into hatred for any reason at all, because it is wrong; it’s wrong. You who have children, you know that! You nurture your children up, not to just to die like that. Can you imagine all these mothers, all the fathers and all the loved ones, all his friends, even his neighbors – it’s terrible! It’s time we have to stop all this nonsense. Anyone with intelligence cannot tolerate this, cannot continue to support this kind of world, can we? (Audience: No) One doesn’t have to be a Quan Yin practitioner or a Zen monk to understand this. It’s just common for a human being to have this knowledge, this understanding that humans are born to live.

God’s Gift of Life Is for Love, Not War

 

There’s nothing worth dying for. Nothing! God doesn’t give birth to you so that you have to die for something. Except to find God, there is nothing really worth dying for. People should be given hope, inspiration to live, not to die. Remember in one of my poems, I said that I don’t ever want to grow up to be a hero, to keep the war and die? It’s not my job, is it? It’s nobody’s job. You’re not born to grow up just to keep a war and then die for it. Isn’t that ridiculous? We should never have a war anyway; we’re so backward. If it hadn’t been for you, the Quan Yin practitioners who grace this Earth, who bless the atmosphere with love and universal energy, this Earth would soon be ‘kaput’ (meaning "ended") already. So, we’re just holding it and waiting for humankind to wake up more and do something. If not, it has to go. We can leave it sooner or later anyway; we don’t care. But it’s such a negative way.

 

Suppose the Earth became kaput now, we could go up to a higher level. We are already there and we already have our ‘security card,’ but the people out there, if they die like that, they will be living in shock in such a state of stupor, for a long, long time – thousands of years – before they wake up. And then their atmosphere will manifest in another kind of world again, and they’ll war with each other again, because they haven’t finished their thinking process. They haven’t gotten to the understanding about peace and "Love thy neighbor." They haven’t done that. So if they wake up again from their stupor after thousands of years, they’ll do the same thing again.

Peace Costs Far Less than War

 

I therefore really hope that this is the time they understand this very simple concept. Even a child understands peace at all costs. But peace doesn’t cost anything: that is the thing. Only war costs something. War costs human resource, war costs emotional upheaval, war costs tremendous financial resource and every other resource of humankind. All this equipment they build for war could be used to build houses, to build railways for the tram, to build underground train stations or build bridges for the poor countries.

 

And all this money – billions of dollars – something like $7 million per day or week in Iraq, for example, and how many weeks or years have already gone by? Do you understand how much that is? You don’t because it’s too much. It’s too much for us to even want to think about. It’s just too ridiculous when people are hungry or starving and don’t even have the basic things like clean water to drink. And we spend tons of money and tons of human resources, tons of world metal resources or any resource just to build a killing weapon. This is beyond imagination! No wonder our world is lagging behind, compared to all others in the galaxy.

 

But mind you, be happy. Our Earth is getting better of course, number one. Number two, our Earth is still better than many other planets. There are worse planets. There are planets whose people are evil, just pure evil. And they will harass you day and night. Some of the warlords have been born there; I don’t know how much longer; I don’t want to see. It’s terrible. Even if they repent, they don’t even have time to pray. Can you understand that? That’s why they have to stay there forever, because they don’t have time for anything. They’re just running and running, running and hiding, running and hiding, all day long, with no time. It’s such mental torment that hell even sounds better. So at least we’re born on this planet, where it’s half-and-half, and we’re pushed to go nearer to God. But even then I don’t know if I could ever get used to the kind of people who go out and kill each other like that. I mean, if you want to be a soldier, you have to have instilled in you the hatred; otherwise how can you kill? Just killing at random like that, killing as ordered. There’s no turning back. If you turn back, then you are killed too, by your own people for betraying your country.

Use Earthly Resources to Build and Help Others

 

We should use all this money and intelligence and time and resource to train people to love and to build. This makes more sense, yes? We should use it for a peaceful purpose. The soldiers are so strong and healthy and in the prime of their life, and they also very idealistic. When we are young, we are very idealistic; we are heroes. We want to do good for the world. So this good and pure energy and enthusiasm has to be used for a peaceful purpose, for building the world and for helping the needy. That is the kind of heroism that the young people love to spend their energy on; they will love it. Suppose any government tells the soldiers, "Look here: no more war, you go out and build houses," they’d be very, very happy. They would be relieved. They would feel that this is really what they want. I bet you that’s what would happen. Any soldier – you ask them – they would want to do that.

 

We can retrain them. There’s still time. Because they are young, they can learn fast. What I mean is that their youthful inspiration and heroism and idealism should not be misused. It’s a waste. The young people are the best. You tell them what to do, and they will do it. They are so eager to serve, they’re eager to learn, they’re eager to do something good because they’re full of energy. If they are used for war, it is a pity. It’s a misuse of their purity and their idealism. So it’s better to use the soldiers for peaceful purposes. We can keep the army. Keep it and use it to build things up. In the Philippines, they are trying to do that. That is a very good idea, and I hope they will. Maybe the Filipino soldiers should do that first, and everyone else will follow. We have to start somewhere.

 

Our world would have been a paradise a long time ago if we did not have so much war going on, which is wasting a lot of the energy, finances and resources of the Earth. There’s no need to believe me; you know it yourself. This is terrible; so now I hope that all signs of peace are coming our way. It is coming, and I hope more will come. The true peace really must come, because that’s the only way to survive on this planet, my God. We must use our time now, to change the course of history; otherwise we’ll all die together. The good and the bad, the powerful nations and the weak nations, will all be gone.

 

Being gone is no problem; the problem is that not all of the people on the planet are ready to integrate into paradise. After they’re gone they’ll still stay in shock or in misery. And that state of mind will keep them for a long time in a hellish existence, worse than this planet’s. They’ll be warring with each other in that kind of existence and then wake up and become human again, warring with each other again. Have you heard of those stories that in some of the big major battlefields, sometimes those who have psychic power can see that the soldiers in their astral forms are walking around and trying to fight each other still? Or, looking for the fighting or thinking that the war is still going on, because if you’re not enlightened now, you won’t ever be. Not after you die; you just suffer more, because you can see more. With a body you can shield yourself from some of the emotional distress, and recover or don’t see the suffering. But without the body you’ll see more; you’ll see the naked misery in hell and you will suffer more and more. And this is terrible.

Making a Model for the World

So the question is not whether I care that the planet is still alive or not, it’s just for the people who live in it. They have to know this concept; they have to awaken to this peaceful solution, to the real human purpose, to build up the peaceful atmosphere, to find God or to remember God at least, and to be at peace with each other, just like God wants us to be, like one time paradise. Otherwise if they die like this, they will suffer more than what they do now. You understand me? That is the reason why they have to stop the war and begin to build peace now. Otherwise if they die, it would be terrible: more terrible than being alive, more terrible than the war in Iraq, more terrible than 9-11, more terrible than any terrorism can ever cause you to feel.

 

So that’s the reason we practice hard, we really pray for peace in our way, and we’re pushing for it inside our hearts. And then peace has to come; people have to stop. Just stop like that! Just shake hands, with no conditions. There shouldn’t be any condition for peace at all because both sides will gain. Maybe you lose one piece of land but who cares? If Noah and the flood ever come again, you’ll lose everything. You’ll lose the whole land, not to talk about one piece! Because suppose a typhoon like Katrina comes, we would also lose billions of dollars for nothing. So if we lose billions of dollars or a piece of land or even a country for a peaceful purpose, let it be. Why do we need a frontier? Why do we need the country anyway? If you don’t have Egypt, you can go to live in Germany. If they dissolve the border, for example, between your countries and you become another citizen, why not! Just like me, I’m Aulacese and I’m British and now I’m in Germany, who cares? And you guys even come from England, Finland, Poland, Greece, Croatia, France, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Romania, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechoslovakia, Africa, Ukraine – welcome! Bulgaria, Italy and Israel even. (Congratulations, your country is getting good. We celebrated your country’s peace with the Palestinians for one week. We had cakes and dancing, just to support more peace and make it more real, make it getting better, like a little push.) Where else? Sri Lanka, Columbia, Belgium, of course Germany, India, Armenia, Australia, New Zealand, Iran – Oh, wonderful. It’s international, a big United Nations, and we are happy together. (Applause)

 

This is a model for the world to follow. So your actions of coming here have many meanings. Number one, you of course want to see me, your lovely Princess; that I understand. (Applause) Second, you want to meditate together, which is very important, and third… eating! (Laughter) But the most important thing is that you make a model; I let you come so we can realize peace in one section of the world. Because we are all telepathic, I told you already. And if we are peaceful here, we will be peaceful everywhere. (Applause) This is a mini-model for the world to follow; this is how the world should be, and they should follow our example, that we live peacefully together. Here no one cares if we are from Iran or Czechoslovakia. We eat the same food and we sit on the same floor, if you have a seat at all. So here you fighting for property and also for food, but in a loving and peaceful way. And we are so happy; even you can sit in the corner like that. This is all we need, just a little square and we’re so happy! So whatever you do here with us together, it will affect the world. Whatever you do in your house, in your group meditation weekly, it will affect the world. And then it will change. Some people learn slowly; some people learn fast. They better learn fast! There’s not too much time. But they are learning fast.

Be Prepared to Act Positively and Quickly

 

I think the world is getting very aware now that they must do something. There’s no more excuse to say they don’t know; they do know, because what affects the neighbor affects you. Imagine if all the people from the lowlands, when the flood arrives, they don’t have time to build a Noah’s boat. They will not know and it will hit them quick, according to the reports, which is logical also unless a miracle happens. Imagine these people who have nowhere to go and who will then all run into the city, to higher land, where there’s no flood, no disaster – where do they go? They’ve lost everything by then. At that time there’s too many people for us even to go and rescue or to help because there’s so many, and then they will have no home. They will have lost everything; there’s nothing to lose anymore and they will be very chaotic. They will go looting the cities, and they might even have worse war than we’re having now.

 

So, whatever affects them, affects everyone. It’s not like, "OK, I am the President, it doesn’t concern me." Or, "I am the Governor, a high official; it doesn’t concern me," or, "I live on the high land; I don’t live next to the sea; it doesn’t concern me." It does concern everyone because if they come in hundreds of thousands at the same time, hungry, stressed, disoriented, starving and confused, they’ll do anything. They will be like so-called zombie soldiers and that’s the worst you could ever be confronted with. They don’t know anything anymore at that time. It’s too big a grievance for them to even keep their mind together. And there’s no weapon that can stop this kind of war. It will be terrible.

 

So we’d better be prepared, and whoever has the authority and the power must use it to change the way we live our life. We have to clean up our planet, and quick.

This writing from Tolstoy came in 1893, elucidating his earlier work “What I Believe” that he wrote nine years before. After the original work, Tolstoy was much inspired by his correspondence with many from America.

The document serves as a great historical souvenir regarding non-violence movements around Tolstoy’s time. It is very inspirational to read, reminding us of the constant compromises Christians make today, at the expense of the integrity of their life and faith.

Here’s to an end to that.   

Many people feel that humankind is on the brink of a change, but what escapes many of us is how much food relates to this leap. The inefficiencies that make up the way we feed ourselves are mind boggling. The effects of our food production system on the environment is already devastating, not to mention predictions for the future. Our atmosphere will not survive, if we do. Read on to find out why.

While it was never the intention of this site to moralise or criticise people for their own lifestyle choices, it must also be said that the inhumanity of the way we feed ourselves it just as mind boggling as the economic inefficiency and environmental unsustainability. Thus, in accord with this site’s purpose of looking at ways that the collective ideas about life can create positive policies for the future, we need to look at inconsistencies in our value system. And animal food production cuts a rather large hole in the integrity of our values.

Yes, this is an article on the global effects of meat production. It could be just the article you don’t want to read, for many people comfortable with their lifestyle choice as a meat eater. But before we do on, let me assure you that absolutely no adverse health effects can be experienced in cutting back or eliminating meat from one’s diet. How do I know? Of the many healthy vegetarians I know, one is a large, energetic toddler, another is a weightlifter and personal trainer. If anyone was to experience problems, it would the latter. If anyone is the picture of health, it would be both. Don’t believe me? The loss will be the entire planet’s. Here’s why.

Meat Production and the Environment

The relationship between these two is yet to enter into the public consciousness. But beneath the scenes, a battle is being played out. In a sense, it has already been lost for the meat industry, as even if they succeed in convincing the world’s population to continue living as we have, soon enough the world will not be able to sustain this demand. Many agree that this change has begun and is quickening exponentially.

Here are the basic facts about what toll meat production is having on our planet. I’ll present them in the order I think we need to understand them. Bear in mind, this is a summary and simplification of the available information. See the notes for further reading.

• Trees are more important than we think. They store carbon, prevent evaporation and generally keep the earth’s water and air in healthy balance. Problems like desertification, salinity, erosion and
• After rapid increases in demand for meat accompanying exponential population growth (that continues today), today 30% of the world’s ice-free surface is cleared for animal production. In central America, two thirds of rainforest have been cleared for grazing since 1950. The meat-vegetable diet requires seven times more land than the vegetarian diet.
• Raising animals for food uses half our fresh water and pollutes even more, devastatingly so near intensive factory farms.
• The unaccounted environmental effects of the animal food industry include transportation emissions,

Recently, in a gathering of Master and disciples in Austria, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the importance of understanding other cultures in minimising conflict. It is true that in most countries we experience a total lack of positive information on, or representations of, other countries. Our knowledge of the world is limited to the evening news which incidentally - but equally competently – leaves us with fearful impressions of the world and other cultures (while presenting local incidents as isolated results of individual deviance).

We need more access to positive representations of far off and different peoples to counter the negative impressions we are left with each day. The Master suggested that Her disciples should become involved in creating documentaries about their own countries, with whatever equipment they have available, to show the world their humanity. The idea is that no one will harm a friend. Thus, if we are given good impressions of different cultures, traditions, dress and tongues, we will be less likely to jump to negative conclusions, experience confusion and misconception, or even engage in conflict. The documentaries, as they arise, will be shown on the not-for-profit, all-positive TV station sponsored by  Supreme Master Ching Hai, SupremeMasterTV and contributed to the association that has grown out of her grace and example.

In the science of conflict management it is well known that confrontation usually arises from lack of communication and understanding. Instead of looking and differences and jumping into defensive positions, we ought to seek out the good in others, and communicate to others the good about ourselves ? before the need to get defensive. We should be familiar with those around us and be clear that we wish to cooperate and be friendly, despite difference of culture or lifestyle. This could also happen on the international scale ? more than it is.

I for one agree with the Master, though before listening to Her, it hadn’t struck me how media and communication could play an extremely positive role in creative Heaven on Earth. We need to know the good things about everyone now. Because all people are good, and they act it, when they are not bombarded with misrepresentations of each other, but can see each other for what they are.

[We pick up the conversation after the pleasantries. This article will be completed tomorrow! But I admire both these beings so greatly that I couldn’t help but post it prematurely].

It’s important to create positive energy.

Yes sir. And you’re pushing with your books, gently.

There is too much negative energy around us so desperately we need positive energy.

That’s right sir, and it’s coming, it’s coming.

We have to produce it.

Yeah, we are doing it.

Everybody can do something to be more positive, to think in a more positive way, to avoid hatred.

I hope all the presidents become like you, you know, doing positive things, writing positive ideas for people, because being a president ? maybe you are too modest to realise it or to think about it ? but being a president is a tremendous power to wield, to help. If that president is positive, it’s tremendously good for that country and the world. Just sadly, some other presidents do not follow your example!

Yeah. Unfortunately.

We just want to thank you and express our appreciation for what you do [hands Mr. Drosnevik the Shining World Leadership Award], for your country and the world.

Thank you.

You’re welcome sir, thank you! Here, it’s made with crystal, I know it doesn’t mean much to you, but it’s our heart.

Exactly. And that’s why it is important.

Yeah. You can use it for a paperweight, no?

No, no, not just for a paperweight.

It’s to remind you that people do appreciate your kindness.

Thank You. Shining World Leadership Award. You are too kind.

No sir, it’s correct what we’re doing, and this is from us, just to show you that we appreciate it and that what you have done has not gone unnoticed, and for other people also to follow your example. That’s the meaning. Not that you really need it. You don’t need anything, it’s just for other people to follow. You know, to magnify the kindness, for other people to make an example of. When you do something good, the real good people like you are do not need any reward or recognition. That we know. But it’s good to magnify a shining example so other people may follow. Maybe, maybe not, but we magnify it anyway so maybe other people can remember it ? not you remember because whatever good you do I’m sure you forget very quick because you have too many things to do ? but for other people to remember and to follow your footsteps if they choose to do so, we don’t know but we hope so.

Yes, thank you.

If every president in the world is acting like you do, we become heaven.

We have some work to do first.

Oh, so what are you planning to do now?

I don’t like to plan too much, I follow my feelings, intuition, spontaneously.

That’s good sir.

I tried to plan as little as possible then the good things come on my way and they have to and I just take them.

Right. Yeah. That’s good ? you’re so enlightened. I’m surprised, because being in the position that you are, sometimes it’s difficult to time even to reflect about your great self. Very difficult, but you managed somehow! Congratulations. Because sometimes the political power could be very overwhelming.

I know that!

And it doesn’t let people survive spiritually very easily. But you’re a touch guy, huh? Tough here [the heart].

It’s very difficult. I had to go through different stages myself, through different experiences. And it’s important, as you know, that difficult experiences you overcome with positive energy and then you can become a better person out of it. If you surrender yourself with negative emotions, if you become sad or depressed and so on then you are lost.

Yes but it’s very difficult to get out like that.

This is the most important principle in life. Whatever comes on your way you must face it a positive attitude, positive energy. The most single important thing in your life, not to surrender to some negative emotions, to sorrow, to anger, to fear or depression…

Oh, it’s difficult sir. Everybody knows that, but how many people can do like you do, get out of it?

I can see. I meet so many people that know everything about spirituality but they don’t live according to this.

Maybe they want to, sir, but they’re overwhelmed by the majority of the negative influence.

That’s why my books try to help people, you know, how to face these kind of challenges in the world and to overcome. My books are at the same time on two levels. One is a personal level: how an individual could become a more balanced person, a whole person. Then, at the same time, if somebody becomes a more balanced person then they will see how unbalanced this world is and will try to do something to improve it.

That’s right. That’s right.

So I also show the unbalances of this world. But on the other side, when the people of the world will be balanced then the world will be balanced too. When people are not balanced, the world cannot be balanced. There are so many politicians who do not have inner peace, who are not a balanced person, and they lead the world!

That’s a problem.

How can they lead the world, they cannot lead –

-Themselves. That’s right sir. Yes, it’s the same. You are saying such wise stuff like the Chinese in the old time, they said: ‘first, you have to cultivate yourself, then you can take care of a household, then you can manage the country, and then you can pacify the world’. Four steps: self, family, country ? then the world.

If you start with the world or with the country and not with yourself then we have a problem.

That’s why the world is chaotic. Because some people who belong to a political party, that’s how they got this or that position, without training themselves to stabilise themselves first. It’s the problem, but maybe we’re short of trained persons?

The problem of politics is that it focusses [on the] the ego of the people so that somebody must show how good he is, that he is the best, so if you are in an election for example, you must speak to everybody ‘how good I am, I am better than the other people around’.

It starts with the ego already.

Yes, exactly.

So what do we do now?

So it’s very difficult for politicians then to overcome their ego, and they start to believe then how good they are because they speak all the time how good they are.

They convince themselves first, before anybody else.

If they convince themselves then we have a problem.

So what do we do? I mean somebody also has to tell people what they are, no? If they don’t tell, then the people don’t know, no? Suppose I run for president, what do I do?

It’s very difficult in the state of the world today for people with higher consciousness for example to come through these processes of elections and power and competition.

They don’t want to anyway, sir.

Yes. Most of them do not want to enter this. I understand them quite well.

But then we are left with just the ego, like you said.

Yeah and this is the problem. That’s why I say that we have to, yes of course there are enlightened politicians here and there, and there will be more and more, but we need a new generation of politicians, and they will come out of the conscious people around the world, so we try to raise the consciousness everywhere. The more and more there the more there will be consciousness politicians.

High consciousness politicians, ah, that’s good.

The crux of it is this: as we are inherently positive and good beings. Thus positive acts/causes carry positive reverberations/consequences through the world much further than negative acts/causes do. We, as positive beings, respond more to a measure of goodness than to an equal measure of the opposite ? or at least we are beginning to. Human nature is not neutral. ‘Good and Evil’ are not a dichotomy with equal influence over humanity

In a cumulative process, we are recognising and internalising more and more positivity. Those who are waiting patiently for the economic/social/political system to be changed/reformed/replaced should know it is far more effective to celebrate positivity than to criticise negativity. We need to let go of our doomsday wishlist for civilisation and start recognising the good in us. For example, if we tell a leader that he is having a negative influence because of this or that, the ego in him will get defensive and no good will come of our observation. Alternatively, tell him that one thing (even if out of ten) he has done is excellent and positive, and something subtle but powerful will light up within him. The encouragement is far more valuable than the criticism, because it is far more easily heeded and taken on board.

With more positive reinforcement in all aspects of society we will begin to identify with and thus internalise more and more positivity, leading us into a natural state where we recognise negativity as external to our nature. As this becomes more of a norm, our world will change without the need for revolution or disaster. Any effort to cling to the primitive false identity will then be like swimming against the current ? futile and exhausting.

I’m not sure what this means for Spirit & Politik as it was founded with different means in mind. But I no longer wish to reflect the tendency to view positive and critical thinking and commenting as having equal weight and use in creating a better world.

(http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Erjensen/freelance/lastsunday1.htm)

Robert Jensen is a Texan, but probably about as far removed as you can get from the conservative cowboy that springs to mind. And that’s about as much of a compliment as you can get.

This article is a gem. Robert recounts his change from pessimism to optimism about the world, breaking up conceptions we might hold about how optimistic or pessimistic people are said to view the world.

In his younger years, he looked for answers about the state of the world, which he saw could be improved. At that time, all he found was a mish-mash idea of an immutably negative ‘human nature’ somethign that at once justified and explained-away both the evils of the world and his own “smug” place in it.

This kind of passive acceptance of the world, he says, is actually pessimistic, because it needs as a basis a negative human nature. It avoids any responsibility for our world and its future.

But something started to shift in me in 1988, when I went to graduate school and had a chance to learn more about how the world works. I started to study and realized that the world was far worse off than I had ever imagined, that the suffering was deeper, and that the problems were rooted in powerful institutions not easily dislodged.

That’s when I stopped being cynical and began to feel hopeful.
Now, that may seem counterintuitive. How did a deepening sense of the scale and scope of injustice and suffering make me hopeful? Because I started to understand that the problems of the world were not simply the product of an inherently evil and stupid human nature, though we can all be evil and stupid at times. Instead, I started to think about how systems and structures of power shape us and channel our behavior. I came to realize that the authority structures that so bend our lives are powerful and deeply entrenched. I also realized that most of the channels that the dominant culture offers us for working to make the world a better place are themselves deeply embedded in those authority structures, so that often the solutions become part of the problem. I realized that the analysis and action that could save us has to be more radical than I ever could have imagined, at a time when the culture is more depoliticized and right-wing than ever.

In a world where activists and hopeful people are often labelled as overly critical and pessimistic, Robert’s insights ought to be highly valued – and least by some they are. Best of luck to him.

(http://www.ru.org/91inaya.htm)

Sohail Inayatullah has written an excellent article summarising what many forward thinkers will be the fate of our system and what metamorphosis or replacement awaits it and why.

In this short article we glimpse many futures and are led to think about what trends, developments and changes might lead us there. Good food for thought and life-changing ideas.

In looking at the politics, I don’t expect that change will be initiated from the politicians, from above. The pressure and the change must come from the foundation, from the people’s consciousness. And then the behavior of the politicians and of business leaders will start to change and we can create a better world. – Dr. Janez Drnovsek

Supreme Master Television, the international satellite/internetTV station dedicated to all things positive and humane, interviewed the remarkable President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Janez Drnovsek. Slovenia’s president is a compassionate man who lives the contradictions between economics and such issues as social welfare and animal rights. We could say that he blances the past with the future – an arduous but necessary task.

Being a man openly concerned with the spiritual aspect of life, his success in politics is an anomaly, though increasingly less so as time goes on and people identify more with their spiritual rather than material being. Nevertheless his views on the interaction between the spirituality of the people and how they choose to govern themselves will be valid for a long time yet. He has played a role in both ‘socialist’ and ‘liberal’ political parties, demonstrating his allegiance to a higher ideology- one that is more fundamental and essential to human life.

The thought of President Drnovsek extends beyond Slovenia to the people of the world. In establishing the Movement for Justice and Devlopment he aim is broad: “to raise the consciousness of people… around the world.”

Broadly, Slovenia’s president represents the neohumanist movement. He identifies issues of the day with percision based on real understanding of the divine nature of each human being. The workings of the world today are often in contradiction with this latent property. The very nature of our system, being divided into materialistically identified groups precludes our very divinity!

Sometimes I say that politics ideally defend the interests of humanity as a whole. But they are always about the interests of some groups of people or of nations with economic interests. We can speak about geopolitical interests, but who defends the humanity as a whole? Who defends the earth? No one!

Talking about the challenges of the day, the president is aware that they will continue as long as the meta-ideological trends and materialistic paradigms, that give rise to tribalism and individualism, continue.

And just imagine what the people, perhaps living thirty, forty years from now, will think about the generation that could have stopped these developments, but didn’t. What will they think about us if we don’t act, if we don’t move, if we don’t change these patterns of behavior, of politics, of big business, sometimes also big media and so on; that we will just allow this to go on, all because of benefit and profit and greed, because of selfishness, of eternal struggle between some groups of people or individuals or nations.

On education and the reproduction of society, Dr. Drnovsek knows that we must critically observe how we socialise and educate our children. They must be allowed the freedom to develop their natural inward self-intimacy, from which comes empathy and compassion. Presently, we are overrun with the pressures of surviving in a competitive individualistic society.

Education is very important. I think that education should contribute to the formation of the consciousness of children. This is much more important for them than to have an accumulation of all kinds of knowledge. They have to develop awareness in themselves, a consciousness or feeling that we are human beings who are interdependent, who must care for each other; that we cannot survive without this kind of connection or solidarity with other people, other living beings, animals, nature and so on. And of course they should be taught how to overcome their selfishness, not taught to do things just for themselves such as how to succeed, how to make a career or how to earn as much money as possible. These are old patterns, ones that cannot ensure the survival of humanity. So new methods should be taught. But this is not easy because then we need teachers and parents with a high level of consciousness. Also, we don’t have so much time to pass all of these tasks to our children. We have to educate them properly, but at the same time we must do our job; we must first raise the consciousness of the people, and then act in a way that will stop the destruction of the climate, of the planet and also to ensure even more just laws that will stop these wars and conflicts that go on repeatedly over time because of greed consciousness, the desire to prevail over others and so on.

He speaks of the unfortunate necessity of calamity in preceding the necessary change. Such events though terrible for those who face the brunt of them, contribute to an awakening within each of us- an awakening that is important for the positive evolution of humankind (not to speak in terms of ‘survival’ of the ‘human race’. We must look on an even grander scale than that. Humanity would be better if it ceased to be rather than follow a track into the world that materialism, tribalism and individualism – etc. etc. – creates).

That’s why it’s very possible that a kind of shock will be needed. I think that we have had these kinds of shocks; we already now have more and more natural catastrophes, and probably there will be more and more serious ones, and it will become more and more difficult to ignore and to forget. For example, the catastrophe that happened in New Orleans, which everyone very quickly tried to forget – the conditions, our responsibility for doing nothing before, and for responding badly during the crisis. Even the media backed off; everyone just tended to forget, instead of really thinking about it. But this could be just the beginning. So, another catastrophe, perhaps even bigger than this one, might follow. Something must be changed in our societies, in our states. Unfortunately this one was not enough. But I have faith that bigger shocks are on the way; and probably they will help to wake up humanity’s consciousness, together with our efforts, so that all of us will be aware of the state of the world, that the future is in danger.

Dr. Drnovsek speaks of an energy that can spread, an infectious positivity that infects the religions and atheistic alike.

I think that we start to create positive energy when we overcome our selfishness, when we and become aware of other people, when we are compassionate, when we feel the suffering of others. At this point, we start to create positive energy in our positive thoughts, positive feelings, and by doing positive things, like helping other people and animals. So we need a lot of this.

Raising the consciousness means to create much more positive energy for everyone everywhere. It means making more good, in order to create those effects. And the media and these kinds of programs are very important. We have the stories to make everyone conscious, but generally we do not use them enough. So we will have to spread much more positive energy everywhere in the world. I think that basically all the religions want to make human beings better, to do good things, to develop the values of honesty and also understanding and helping other people. So let’s focus on this and try to gather all different concepts, to raise the consciousness of humanity.

Elsewhere…

What is important, if we speak about religions, is that every religion is good if it is sincere, if it is deep. Every prayer is good, because every prayer creates positive energy. People, through religion and through prayer, try to come nearer to the higher universal consciousness. So it’s important that the religion is really sincere and deep; it can help. It can help the individual who is religious in this way and also it can help other people. So this is the most important; but this we cannot achieve through laws, I think.

Finally…

…everyone has to do what he or she can…

What we have in our society is a kind of fanatical rationality. So much material progress has been made under the doctrine of rationality that it reigns spureme, unchecked. The result is that many aspects of our lives, our societies and our world are intellectualised when in fact they require emotional inquiry as well as intellectual. For example, according to the rational realist, economic progress is sometimes more important than the wellbeing of those whom the progress is supposed to be serving. This type of ‘rationality’, cold intellecualism, is not rational at all. Our reliance on it comes of our misunderstandings about ourserlves and what ‘makes us tick’.

Emotion is sometimes needed to contribute to a more humanistically favourable rationality. It is well known that unchecked by rational thought emotion can lead to unfavourable outcomes and outbursts. Children often provide plent of examples of this but so do many adults who have not trained the capacity to think things through. Nevertheless Emotion itself is not less rational than intellect. It is another tool for us to use in this world, alongside intellect. Rationality would be a balanced use of each, governed by a higher faculty: wisdom. It is the latency of this higher faculty that causes our undervaluing emoition and partaking in fanatical rationality.

The social and the natural…
Is there a big difference between males and females? The issue is certainly confused, being wound up with social evolution itself. But are there any basic non-variable factors? Physically, yes; emotionally, maybe; intellectually, probably not; spiritually, no. The purpose of this essay is not gender equality. The genders are equal, but not in the fanatically identical sense espoused by ideological extremes. It may be that each gender has skills the other lacks- and it may be that we’ve got it all the wrong way around.

The purpose is to ask how might society be different today if women played a greater role in its organisation and reproduction (reproducing the economic and political world- not just the biological). Further, the purpose is to suggest a desirable scenario for the future, wherein social change has afforded women a respected role in governance. The obvious question is begged: what particular skills or traits are held by women more than men that would bring about a better future, and herein lies the difficulty because much of our interpretation of gender identity is wound up in the very mechanisms of our societies. What aspects of gender roles in our society are artificially constructed? Is there a reason to preserve patriarchy?

It is also suggested in this essay that many of our assumptions about the positive characteristics of women are true while the negative ones are mere social constructs. The biggest of these lies is that women are less intelligent and thus less suited to roles of leadership and governance. The biggest misconception is that emotion clouds rationality.

We might like to make some general statements: women are more nurturing and encouraging; women are more forgiving;

The myth… women are less rational because emotion clouds rationality

Rationality can rightly be said to be a higher virtue than emotionality. Emotional responses are often the worst, it is rationality that prevents emotion from committing various offenses. Yet emotion is an important but missing part of our makeup, and needs its representation in the decision-making process. Unforunately, the ‘emotional irrationality of women’ is thus often put at odds with the ‘rational clarity of men’. But how true are these generalisations and how much are they social constructs? To make emotion and rationality mutually exclusive is a mistake.

We live in a world of unchecked ‘rationality’ which is employed in the acheivement of materialistic goals. This is represented in an overwhelmingly male dominated decision-making world. In this world, it’s not that ‘basic emotions have been conquered by these men in favour of a superior rationality’: it’s that important and necessary emotions are suppressed in favour of a reductionistic and mechanistic instrumentalism. In a world where individualistic economic goals are disjoined from social and environmental ideals, any emotion is irrational.

The now famous but forever relevant case of infant milk formula marketing in the global south should be now introduced to the argument. A group of human beings employing other human beings, and together calling themselves a ‘company’, decided to bring their product to vast new markets- one of which was the Filipino poor. However the product, proved fatal in that environment. Poor quality water and the lack of ability to properly sterilise it meant that infants died in the thousands and became sick in the millions. Yet, on the basis that directions for preparing the formula were on the bottle, the product was allowed to be marketed with such techniques as supplying new mothers in hospitals with ‘free samples’ of the product. Once having used the sample they would be forced to use it forever because their breasts, unused, would stop producing milk. A common argument employed by the company (there were more than one- but one in particular) was that feeding children with breast milk was inhibiting the woman’s social life and destroying their figure. Even after it was perfectly clear that these practices were killing children, the companies were allowed to continue and have been doing so since.

What type of thinking led to these decisions? On the part of the company, no one individual felt responsible for the deaths and sickness of the infants and the suffering of the mothers. Each were instruments of the company, themselves struggling to make it through a life of economic pressure.

On the part of the government, the presence of this company in the Phillipines was no doubt seen by the as ‘good for the economy’.

Even the least critical thinker will have seen problems regarding America’s policy and action in the last century. These problems have been amplified in the last five years with the invasion of Iraq. It is an undemocratic war in which a few leaders usurp control of vital American institutions and ignore the will of the people, all for a purpose which is anything but clear. It is sloppily executed with devastating disregard for anything and everything including Americans, Iraqis and world public opinion. This extreme minority is empowered by the corporate media which many still assume to be impartial, allowing the contradictions even as the suffering becomes more and more obvious and tragic.

I am not an expert in these areas, leading me to wonder why Beverly has given me the honor of opening her book. It must be that like me she sees a more important theme running subtly through current affairs, a theme that starts with each of us, but will resolve future outcomes for our entire civilization.

This theme is based on the need to understand the cooperative and ‘spiritual’ capacity of human beings and how this understanding or lack of it is reflected in our societies. Or we could say it regards the evolution of our collective paradigms and society. I say ’spiritual’ for lack of a better term. What I refer to is actually: the recognition of the virtues inherent in humankind; individual introspection and respect leading to heightened empathy and sympathy; measurement of success disjoined from material measures, and; something that exists independently of religious traditions.

This presence or absence of such spirituality determines the state of affairs within a nation and the world. As has been said in China since the time of Confucius (perhaps recently put to one side, temporarily):

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right (Michael Garofalo, 2003: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/kft1.htm).

This progression, a gem of common sense, leads to peace and harmony. However we see the opposite in institutionalised practice. The consequences are clear. If only we had a functioning world to compare with ours, we could start going forwards instead of backwards. But where does this misdirection start from really?

Materialism and the old Enlightenment

Capitalist-friendly liberal assumptions dominate decision making in the largest industrialised economies, notably America, Britain and Japan, and also in international institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. These assumptions are less ‘liberal’ in the classical sense and more ‘realist’ in a utilitarian sense: going under the guise of an egalitarian liberalism. These assumptions that turn our economic world result in the ignoring of the human being except as an economic unit. Wellbeing is measured by a state’s success, which is measured by economic indicators, e.g. GDP and FDI, rather than actual human benefit or satisfaction, or even a standard of material living. Where did this ridiculous idea come from?

The ideas that built modern age evolved, more recently, from the concept of ‘rationalism’ that took over in the ‘Age of Reason’, roughly the 1600s. The idea was taken further in the European Enlightenment of the 1700s, becoming ‘empiricism’. The ultimate implication of rationalism and empiricism was a rejection of things deemed unreasonable and not testable. What was ‘empirical’ to the men who brought about the further scientific and philosophical revolution of the Enlightenment, was that if a thing could not be objectively and repeatedly proven by physical tests and examinations then that thing would not exist and not factor in the intelligent person’s thinking. Such a ‘thing’ was a metaphysical, spiritual or divine aspect to a person.

The empiricism of the Enlightenment was a reaction to the dogmatism and abuse of religious and political power. It was a reaction against the traditionalist culture which was perceived as enabling the oppression of the population of Europe. It was seen that if an institution’s claim to power was discredited, any ‘enlightened’ man would lose faith in the traditional mechanisms of the old world. The popular acceptability of independent reasoning and self-determination in society led to the spreading of not only an intellectual trend but also of a means for liberation. It was indeed an ‘enlightenment’ of sorts for humanity leading to great scientific and social advances. Thus we hold liberalism to be the champion philosophy of the modern age. But it has limitations which are becoming clear as our world changes exponentially quickly. Like any ideology, it bundles concepts and skips over issues.

The scientific method, enthusiasm and freedom finally birthed in the enlightenment were the major contributors to new technologies and the force that brought on a speedy industrialization. After this came new trends in modernisation, imperialism and finally globalization: interwoven processes that are still changing and evolving together. Notwithstanding change, to this day the idea of empiricism (and the Positivist scientific method) has been at odds with religion. But not only religion: bundled together with religion in the ‘irrational’ category is the concept of spirituality. This bundling is a mistake necessarily made, due to the enthusiasm of the time, but one that is contributing to the crisis of the age.

In the post industrialised and ‘intellectually evolved’ nations, it is very unfashionable today for an intellectual person to even imply the possibility of a metaphysical aspect of life. Such thinking is deemed to be extremely unproductive: given voice and audience, it would supposedly direct civilization backwards to the dark ages when the Church and state oppressed the people of Europe for ends of their own.

Even if there were no good evidence for the spiritual side of life, the belief in it would still make this world a heaven for us and future generations. Spirituality can thrive in a non institutionalised environment. The only temple required is one’s own body.

A Tribal world?

If in the 17th century Descartes’ followers institutionalised the practice of vivisection (live dissection) on the basis that animals had no souls, what could be done if humans too are thought of as mere machinery? Resource wars? Human experimentation? Genocide? We see it all, over and over again. Our problems are directly related to this materialistic idea, which is most popular among an ambitious, ethnocentric, fatalistic and aristocratic elite. Empiricism is still the scientific paradigm that one must display in order to justify to others their worthiness of world-directorship. In contrast, for ordinary people with no need to prove anything there is an unspoken belief in virtues: sympathy, compassion, selflessness etc. Unfortunately ordinary people are not allowed and are incapable to make decisions in our limitedly ‘representative’ ‘democracies’.

Once can see how the hot-headed policies of the day are related to anti-spiritual and materialistic notions about humankind. A lack of faith in the inborn positivity of people governs aggressive ‘revenge’ policy. The assumption that people are purely physical phenomenon – self-aware bags of flesh and bone – allows policy to depart from the precepts of the most popular religions, to which many our leaders profess to belong. These religions all not only hold that the human is divine, but also forbid killing. While outwardly these religions are practiced or even claimed as the source of inspiration, the unspoken materialistic assumption can clearly be observed.

The same materialistic assumptions allow us to divide each other into groups and justify the culture of group behaviour. For example, as we do not recognize a divine identity of any description, we thus identify by default with our material and social aspects: race, class, religion, you name it. This means: ‘defending our group against your group, at the drop of a hat and without much need for forethought. Wars that seem to be caused by unfortunate cultural or religious contradictions, or humanitarian interventions, are often really about resources and having ‘the good life’. The world has adopted this materialistic dream. The habit of firstly identifying with race or culture is through and through a result of the materialistic paradigm.

But if we replace this paradigm with a belief in the commonality of human divinity then what justification is there for this type of tribalist behaviour? In the place of nations and cultures ‘owning’ people and their identity, there would simply be a colourful globe. History and culture would not have such grave implications for our identity and belonging as it does for us today.

Taking away materialistic, racist and tribalistic notions, then an international conflict or an act of terrorism would be understood as a malfunction of the entire system – not the result of the inborn personal deficiencies of individuals. If a group were to attack, it would be acknowledged that the attacked had first been attacked in some way, though perhaps not militarily or obviously. The original problem might come from some unrecognised ignorance on the part of the attacked, in which case and the whole misfortune could even be perceived as a chance to re-examine international relations and search for the fault. Of course this is hypothetical because only in a receptive international world could such a country exist. In a world receptive to such nations, terrorism would be unknown. Otherwise, such a nation would be taken advantage of and brought down to level.

Today we could say not without an element of truth that much of our problems are all because of a few awry leaders, take your pick of examples. To an extent this may be true. Our system of ‘democracy’ operates in such a way that a certain wealthy and well connected demographic selection, can come into positions of government far more easily than any old commoner from the working class. We need only take a glance at America and its dynastic corporate and political families, and their ambitious supporters, to get a good idea of this.

Our responsibility for the little and big pictures

This should not be an excuse to evade responsibility for our world, our nations and ourselves. We ought to look at our own lives and see how closely the actions of our state have reflected the assumptions we make and the way we live. We might then begin to understand that our own mentalities are not as far removed from the exclusivist policies of the state as we would like to believe.

For example, Americans, thought of as the ‘guardians of western civilization’, are known across the world for their consumerist lifestyles and individualistic notions. Likewise, US government policies above all reflect the supreme value of material wealth, irrespective of the policies’ effects on other nations. The righteousness of ‘national interest’ is the justification and motivation. How much of this can we say we represent at the individual level in our own societies? Many of us will likely admit that within our own nations are microcosmic copies of the international world. Perhaps our local societies show less tragically obvious symptoms, but the basic mindsets are the same. We are, in our modern capitalistic societies, more or less forced into a defensive and selfish position: personally, socially and internationally.

There are those of us who realize that there is no such thing as an isolated ‘national interest’ in such a globally connected world. Going against the flow, we see how one nation’s interest is entirely dependent on the interest of all nations, as each depends on the others for their material sustenance and peaceful existence. We look at ourselves and our societies critically, and ask whether such isolation and paranoid defensiveness is necessary or useful in creating a world we can live in and be happy.

Beverly is a part of a new movement in patriotism, which recognizes that a nation is a part of the world and that the world will not function through violence and fear.

Human nature or divine nature?

Many a discussion between ideologists comes down to the lowest denominator of all social theories… ‘human nature’. For some it is both the defence of the system and the reason not to hope or strive for better one. For yet others it is the reason not to care at all… seeing as ‘people simply cannot be trusted to forgive and forget’. But how much of is this truth, and how much is it part of a vicious cycle of belief and self-fulfilling prophecy on the behalf of all humankind?

The fortunate truth about ‘human nature’ is that it is nothing in particular. We learn to reflect the dominant paradigms of society as we grow. We scarcely like to recognize this capacity to be ’socialized’. As much as we do not like to think of ourselves as products of a system, we also hesitate to question the societies that gave birth to many of our own ideas, ideals and assumptions. We could probably redefine what many of us call ‘human nature’ as ’social nature’. If there is a ‘human nature’ then it isn’t something we are born with. Conceiving of human nature as a fixed thing, especially as an inbuilt biological impetus to protect one’s life and prosperity, is narrow thinking. This myth, if it allowed to permanently strangulate us, will doom humanity to fulfil it; and will doom the world a permanent state of ‘crisis management’ or worse.

It doesn’t have to be so. Looking in small and unexpected places, one can find infinite exceptions to the dominant assumptions about people. And when the pressure to scrape a material survival is off, our divine nature is given a chance. Our divine nature is constantly struggling with our habitual, socialized selves to break forth in the world and re-create in the image of our inherent goodness. It is always with us: so all that is needed for it to blossom is a little patch of earth and a little rain in the form of truly free thinking.

There is great hope for humanity. Even these ‘dark times’ are far progressed compared with previous centuries. What makes the negative more visible is new technology, used almost exclusively for the purpose of private profit seeking – and otherwise taken full advantage of by forces that wish to create and dominate a social and economic food chain. Yet people have their civil and social rights, to varying but improved degrees, if not yet their economic rights. (Economic rights will only become reality when it is realized that human beings are not inherently selfish entities: when the myth of deserving and undeserving is exposed as a functionary of an oppressive and artificial society).

It is not necessary to identify various ideologies and how the contribute or not to world problems. All of the ideologies: liberalism, socialism, etc., are masks for more important meta-ideologies which exist independently. For example, much of politics today is seen as a tug of war between liberalism and socialism- deemed as opposites. But more importantly there are materialistic liberals or socialists, and spiritually minded liberals or socialists. It is the individuals deeper interpretation of the human being and life that dominates his or her behaviour, not his or her superfluous and transitory ideologies.

Peace starts with us

History, if one cares to look closely and with an open mind, shows that one of the greatest spiritual legacies of recent millennia, Christianity, was hijacked by the Roman Empire for political means. It seemed to Constantine in about 300AD that the best way to deal with this growing threat was to assimilate it. Hence the notable difference in the demeanour of Christians before and after that date.

However through time interest in spirituality survived outside from the religious scene as it always does. More people are turning away from dogma and looking for real spirituality, either within their religions or elsewhere. In recent times this spiritual interest is thriving despite the increased material threat for a growing portion of the world’s people. It could be that the social and environmental problems of the day are heightening our awareness of the need for a broader view. It could be that as the contradictions of the system become more and more obvious we realize more and more that peace starts with us. No one is excused from the responsibility to create a better political, social and environmental world.

We are taking great joy in reinventing ourselves as responsible citizens, world-citizens and self-interested and self-respected individuals. In time this will undoubtedly turn the tables and bring a favourable outcome for humanity, even if only after some calamity. After all, it has been said by more than one authority that ‘we reap what we sow’.

The movement Beverly is a part of is not spiritual in an explicit sense (In fact it is often opposed to the dominant and conservative religious groups in many countries, personified by the American ‘religious right’ and its propaganda outlet Fox News). But the ideas and assumptions that govern the movement make it far more spiritual than the exclusive dogmas and traditions that pit human against human; God against God. The movement has been called the New Enlightenment, or the Second Enlightenment which will replace the materialistic ‘rationality’ of the 18^th century Enlightenment with a new, humanistic rationality in which respect is held not only for people as social and political actors, but as beings who are in the world, but not of it. Great tribulation will have gone into the building of this New Enlightenment.

These changes have nothing to do with those who seek to document them and predict them. Theories and ideas might be useful in spreading untruths and abstractions, but they are absolutely useless when it comes to the rediscovery of what is already within us. But, if perchance you are interested in reading more on these topics, a website has been set up called Spirit & Politik: www.spiritandpolitik.info. I hope you find the site inspiring. You will find links to the ‘neohumanist’ and ‘futurist’ community around the world, as well as my own articles which expand on the topics raised in this foreword.

Individually, we constantly recreate ourselves… all we need is a little hope, imagination and diligence. Together, we constantly recreate our world, and it could be heaven or hell. We each have to dream harder about the person we want to be, and world we want to live in. Probably, we’ll all be forced to do so anyway. The future is bright!

A complete mystery to many scientists is how ‘the mind arises from the biology of the brain’. The question is a mystery because it contains a fatal assumption: that the mind arises from the brain. The inability to explain human consciousness is something common to all materialists, who reduce all reality to the interaction of physical matter.

Should we accept this materialistic paradigm that has come to dominate our lives? Would there be separate consequences for humanity in accepting or rejecting it?

We ought to look into our history to get an understanding of how this mechanistic world-view came to dominate our society. Because western civilisation has become the globalising force in our world, and become in modern times the most technologically (militaristic-ally) accomplished society, it is the ideas that accompanied this society’s rise to power and influence that have been, and are being adopted by the rest of the world. So for the purposes of this article, which aims to expose ideas in the context of dominant paradigms, we are following the ideas that influenced the rise of modern Western society.

Ancient Greece

Both metaphysical and mechanistic visions of reality are present in the philosophies of ancient Greece. A metaphysical element was often assumed to be present in life, but emphasis was generally put on rationality and the rational process of ‘knowing’. One would hence need perfect reasoning to understand ‘truth’. The assumption that truth was something that could ever be understood, or than man might be allowed to rely on himself for it, is a trait of rationalism carried into this age.

The Socratic method, a question and answer process which carved away at falsehood by exposing contradictions and untrue assumptions, is the epiphany of this. One must be in a constant state of questioning in order to find truth, which proved as elusive as if it were all to be an absence of mentally understandable concepts all together. While the idea that one should question popular assumptions and expose hypocrisy in one’s self and others could be constructive for society, it requires a dedication to the mental process and a restriction of one’s energies therein.

Whatever value the metaphysical held for Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others, it has been overshadowed by this belief in rationality. The path to truth and knowledge has been restricted to the mentally and physically knowable reality, and both have come to be understood in purely mechanistic terms.

However even this rationalism became subservient to the Church.

Christianity and the Dark Ages

Christianity died in all but name when in 300AD it was hijacked by the Roman state under Constantine, even to the extent that valuable information was deleted from the bible in a mass campaign. Since that time the Church has denied and repressed the spirituality of its members, preferring the method scholastica disputatio, where faith answers to reason and evidence, as position which was conveniently compatible with the church’s desire that the divine would stay inaccessible to man, except via the tradition of the Church.

No major revolution in thought, practice or institution has since healed this ailment of modern Christianity and continued to be called Christianity by any name. Thus neither spirituality nor rationality had been supported by the church or state in the West until the enlightenment, with the exception of the Renaissance, limited to Italy.

From The Copernican Shift to The Enlightenment

The dark ages, or the middle ages slowly came to an end throughout the last thousand years with the slow rejection of the oppression of the feudal systems. Humankind was, before that time, the divided property of various overlords and kingdoms and dominated in mentality by various dogmas (with more or less similar conditions in other developing civilizations elsewhere in the world). People had little value other than what can be got out of them and social mobility was difficult. Copernicus started the ball rolling in the 16th century, renewing the concept of the free-thinking, if not politically free, individual.

The concept of civil liberty, the social contract and the natural rights of humankind (actually, ‘man’) were developed in the Age of Reason (17th century) and flourished in The Enlightenment (18th century), when the mechanistic view of the universe and humankind was finally set in stone.

The 18th century Enlightenment, upon which our scientific paradigms along with the paradigms which govern the technological world are based, was a reaction to old traditional and religious conservatism which was seen as hand in hand with oppressive feudalism. The emphasis of the movement was on progress through science and rationality. The enlightenment was the philosophical brother of libertarianism and the spread of democracy and the passing of feudalism. It was a philosophy which helped make possible great change, giving birth to our modern world.

With great enthusiasm the intellectuals of the 18th century greatly expanded on all fields of knowledge. The barriers of prejudice being finally removed, the new rule was that what could not be tested and proven in repeatable physical experiments. They were reactionaries, fearing the dark superstition with which some would dominate the minds of others for the sake of their own wealth and prestige.

The Enlightenment held that is not reasonable that life has a spiritual aspect, or that human beings are more than matter. Today, to depart from this premise in an academic science other than philosophy, is to depart, absolutely, from ‘rationality’ and ‘plausibility’. A theory that cannot be tested and physically observed, doesn’t receive credibility and it is considered foolish, according to the dominant paradigm, to investigate it further.

As science progresses further, it has become evident that this enlightened way of thinking has not greatly improved the lot of humankind, despite huge increases in knowledge, technology and science. It is apparent to many, and should be to all, that the old class stratifications that existed within states have been replaced by an international class stratification. So after so much technological and political advancement, we are still waiting for the liberation of humanity.

It is not the explicit agenda of this journal to ‘prove’ the existence of a ’soul’. But it will be shown that there is a link between the problems of modern humanity and the ‘rationality’ which dominates the intellectual, technological and economic worlds.