"We and the Earth share the same body" (Kozan)
One of the absolute presumptions in the discussion about ecological awareness is that the crisis of the natural environment would be at first a crisis of consciousness. Resolving our lifethreatening problems like drain of resources, change of climate, pollution of air and water and destruction of ecological cycles makes it necessary to transform our economical cycles into a sustainable development. That's what the conference in Rio 1992 postulated with every emphasis.
But why doesn't it work what most of people are aware of and try to put in practice?
What is the hindrance? Can we only say that it's because of power politics and injustice between north and south hemisphere that environmental policy is so hard to transform?
On my spiritual journey, I recognized that there are existing parellels between my own growth and my perception of the outside world. When I became aware of my own wounds, I received help from natural forces, animals, plants and ancient spiritual traditions to heal myself. I became aware that there exists an continuum of consciousness all over the time and throughout all forms of live. We are all interconnected. Destroying life means destroying myself and human mind and spirit, too. So it became much more urgent to become aware of what the nature of consciousness is and what effects it could have on the habitat conservation of natural environment.
In Tibetan Buddhism for example, the main issue is to turn negative mental states into possitive ones. This makes it necessary to recognize how negative mental states are originating. Respect for environment is only one obvious side effect of this journey.
One result of the most important previous environmental conferences was the broking of emission credit notes; that's a typical action that free market economy provides. We need a deeper consciousness transformation in the perspective of global environmental actions. Because we have responsibility for the next generations.
Read the following poem "Prayer of the Unconceived" for tasting what spiritual ecology could mean:
Men and women who are on Earth
You are our creators.
We, the unconceived, beseech you:
Let us have living bread
The builder of our new body.
Let us have pure water
The vitalizer of our blood.
Let us have clean air
So that every breath is a caress.
Let us feel the petals of jasmine and roses
Which are as tender as our skin.
Men and women who are on Earth
You are our creators.
We, the unconceived, beseech you:
Do not give us a world of rage and fear
For our minds will be rage and fear.
Do not give us violence and pollution
For our bodies will be disease and abomination.
Let us be where ever we are
Rather than bringing us
Into a tormented self-destroying humanity.
Men and women who are on Earth
You are our creators.
We, the unconceived, beseech you:
If you are ready to love and to be loved,
Invite us to this Earth
Of the Thousand Wonders.
And we will be born
To love and to be loved.
Written down by Laura Archera Huxley:
"More Recipes for Living and Loving"; in: "Higher wisdom: eminent elders explore the continuing impact of psychdelics"; edited by Roger Walch and Charles S. Grob; 2005, State University of New York Press.
