A deeper spiritual relationship with our planet can do a lot to minimise harm. How might more holistic thinking lead towards sustainability?
A healthy mind makes for a healthy body, and could make for a healthy planet. Giles Crosse meditates on a more respectful way of life.
Sustainability is about relationships. Treating each other and the planet around us with respect is the first step to avoiding pollution, over consumption, violence or war. But all too often such thinking is lost in the rush of daily life.
“The ethically valid way to prevent over consumption is by moral persuasion, by praise for those who practice moderation, and public shame for those who practice unreasonable greed,” explains Philip Appleman, writer and advisor to Our Future Planet. Deeper spiritual understanding can be the start of such a path.
“Transformation often comes from a realisation that as human beings we are part of an earth system, and therefore have responsibilities within this.” explains Anna Lodge from the Schumacher College. It offers spiritual teaching and learning on ecological and social problems.
“It is also immensely inspiring to realise you are truly part of something as utterly impressive as the earth. This realisation is often a spiritual experience but many people like to describe it in other ways, as a personal journey, deeper world view or a holistic experience,” she says.
Lodge believes the deep transformation people experience is a powerful motivation for change. She thinks a holistic approach is essential in understanding the challenges we face in sustainability and finding the solutions. Often, we want to find the simplest argument or way forward when the solution is in the wonderful complexity and diversity of the world we live in. So a holistic approach is really the most practical and one filled with opportunity.
Mind magic
“The concerns of the development movement are intrinsically related to those of the environmental movement.” Lodge continues. “The solutions to problems like climate change and pollution are complex and need to look at human needs within the context of the planet.” Such symbiotic thinking will be vital to delivering a truly sustainable future.
“Those involved in the forthcoming Copenhagen summit will indeed need to address the complexity of this to find real workable solutions. It is only by considering the implications and solutions within all perspectives that a resilient future can be found for people and planet.”
Lindsay Dyson is Administrative Manager for the Pachamama Alliance. It aims to build an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling society. “For me personally, I do think that spirituality can help guide us to creating a more sustainable future, if you are referring to a spirituality that reconnects us to all life on this planet and does not hold humanity separate from it.”
She thinks in terms of planetary culture, there has already been almost three decades of exploration of personal growth and self development. This has led society to a place where it will eventually grow out of individual ego-isolation, and people will see we have been unconscious regarding our impact on the planet.
There’s plenty to gain on a personal level too: “At Schumacher College we help people to become more respectful and enjoy diversity of life from their hearts, rather than it being something we rationally do or feel a guilty motivation to do so.” says Lodge.
“In a way, one could say, ‘How can you truly care for each other and your surroundings if you don’t care for yourself or your role in the world?’ We say that people ‘get it’ when they truly want, from the heart, to make a contribution to the world that improves it from all perspectives.”
Such change needn’t be achieved through hours of intensive meditation. Often the most simple acts have a deeper value. Gardening, cooking and actually taking time to sit and talk at dinner all lead to better planetary awareness and self care. These help us understand better the links that bind people and planet. Diametrically opposed to dashing into McDonalds, the contrasting environmental impacts mirror these different approaches.
Proactive passion
“We are awakening as a species, no small task, and the destination is no less than the transformation of humanity’s relationship to our planet, our home, our Earth.” reveals Dyson.
“When we are able to look out into the vastness of space and not quantify it, just be in the mystery of it, and know that our small protein-based species is not going anywhere for a long time, our spirituality will be earth based and will be sustainable.”
Such planetary thinking, with a humbler acceptance of humanity’s role within it, benefits back to individuals willing to make the effort. “When people engage with sustainability on a global level, we encourage them to take care of themselves and their immediate surroundings with the same passion, as one will feed the other.” continues Lodge.
“At Schumacher College participants are encouraged to take care of their body, mind, and social experience; to laugh and practically engage themselves with the planet we talk so much about.”
“A deeper process of looking at yourself, engagement with other people and the planet is essential to being effective in the work you do to improve things on a wider scale.”
“We find that once people have had the space to enjoy this and experience it for themselves they see the opportunity it holds. They are able to go back to their governments, businesses and NGOs and take on a very new way of working. So while this approach can sound complex, it has a powerful and real effect on the ground.”
Thinking of sustainability in our heads, hearts and hands illustrates how emotions and actions can play a role in our approach to life, and the resulting impacts this approach offers. Achieving some sense of clarity from the inside can make a big difference to external events, and might even one day push governmental finances in the right direction.
“Money well spent to try to achieve practical, sustainable, large scale energy alternatives would be ideal, wind and solar being the very best of these.” says Appleman. “Money thus spent would be far less costly and far more beneficial for our future planet than money spent on warfare.” Maybe spirituality can help find this way.
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