A New Consciousness for Earth
“We live in a shrinking world in which the heritage of conflict and competition, and the growing gap between the developed and developing world will have to make way for a New Culture of Convergence and Cooperation, if the rich promise of the New Millennium is not to dissolve into conflict and chaos.
Unprecedented human interventions in the environment have upset the delicate ecological balance that enabled Mother Earth…to survive for billions of years and become a unique crucible for the evolution of consciousness. Ruthless exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources has created havoc, and, if allowed to continue, may result in a series of major ecological disasters that will disrupt life on this planet in the twenty-first century.
We do not lack the intellectual or economic resources to tackle the problems. Scientific breakthrough and technological ingenuity have given us the capacity to overcome all challenges. What is missing is the wisdom and compassion to do so. Knowledge proliferates, but wisdom languishes. This yawning chasm needs to be bridged before the end of the decade if we are ever to reverse the present trend toward disaster.
The astounding communication system encircling the globe today seldom uses its tremendous potential to spread global values and foster a more caring compassionate consciousness. On the contrary, the media is full of violence and horror, cruelty and carnage, unbridled consumerism and unabashed promiscuity, which not only distorts the awareness of the young, but dulls our sensitivity to the problems of human suffering and pain. What is urgently needed, therefore, is a U-turn in our educational and communications policies. We need to develop carefully structured programs on a global scale, based clearly and unequivocally on the premise that human survival involves the growth of a creative and compassionate Planetary Consciousness. The spiritual dimension must once again be given importance in our thinking, and for this we must draw upon the great reservoir of idealism and spiritual values provided by the rich religious traditions of humanity.
We need the courage to think globally, to break away from traditional paradigms, and to plunge boldly into the future. We must so mobilize our inner and outer resources that we can in the twenty-first century, consciously build a new world based on mutually assured welfare, rather than on mutually assured destruction.
As global citizens committed to human survival and welfare we must structure a worldwide program of education - for children and adults alike - that will open their eyes to the reality of the dawning global age, and their hearts to the cries of the oppressed and the suffering. There is no time to be lost, because, along with the emergence of global society, the sinister forces of fundamentalism and fanaticism, or exploitation and intimidation, are active and well.
Let us, then, with utmost speed, pioneer and propagate a new, holistic Consciousness based on the following premises:
1. That the planet we inhabit and of which we are all citizens - Planet Earth - is a single, living, pulsating entity; that the human race in the final analysis is an interlocking extended family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, as the Veda has it; and that differences of race and religion, nationality and ideology, sex and sexual preference, economic and social status, through significant in themselves, must be viewed in the broader context of Global Unity.
2. That the ecology of Planet Earth has to be preserved from mindless destruction and ruthless exploitation, and enriched for the welfare of generations yet unborn; and that there must be a more equitable consumption pattern based on limits of growth, not unbridled consumerism.
3. That hatred and bigotry, fundamentalism and fanaticism, greed and jealousy, whether among individuals, groups, or nations, are corrosive emotions that must be overcome as we move into the next century; and that love and compassion, caring and charity, friendship and cooperation are the elements that have to be encouraged as we transit into our New Global Awareness.
4. That the world’s great religions must no longer war against each other for supremacy, but mutually cooperate for the welfare of the human race, and that, instead of feeding the dogma and exclusivism that divide them, a continuing and interfaith dialogue must nurture the golden thread of spiritual aspiration that binds them together.
5. That a new, holistic education must acknowledge the dimensions of the human personality - physical, intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual - and seek a harmonious development of the integrated human bring.
Ever since I first saw it two decades ago, I have been fascinated by the amazing photograph taken from the moon, showing our planet as it really is: a tiny speck of light and life, so beautiful and yet so fragile, ablaze with the fire of consciousness against the blackness of outer space. This Earth, looked upon in so many cultures as the Mother, has nurtured the evolution of Consciousness from the slime of the primeval ocean billions of years ago to where we stand today. Now, in a dramatic reversal, it is we who must nurture this Earth, to repair the scars that in our hubris we have inflicted on her, and safeguard the welfare of all creatures that inhabit her today and in millennia to come. This further evolution of our consciousness must surely be the guiding vision for all of us in the attempt to structure a humane society in the twenty-first century.”
…Karen Singh, 2006, excerpted from The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads, by Ervin Laszlo (Comments By Members and Partners of the Club of Budapest).