Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Satinder Dhiman and Joan Marques (eds.) Spirituality and Sustainability 10.1007/978-3-319-34235-1_1
1. The Case for Eco-spirituality: Everybody Can Do Something
Abstract
Have contemporary approaches to economic and social development failed to address what many believe to be humankinds abiding need for spiritual growth? Can material advancement be more sustainable when spiritual development is seen as an integral part of the human development algorithm? Since our societies are human nature writ large, can it be argued that the solution to many of the current challenges faced by both the civilization and the environment lies in connecting sustainable practices with our spiritual awareness? While arguments can be made that the choice we face is between conscious change and chaotic annihilation, could each one of us begin to make a difference by integrating spirituality and sustainability as a way of life? This introductory chapter relies on the spiritual power of individuals to heal themselves and the environment. When we change our orientation from I to We, we transition from ill ness to well ness individually and collectively . Accordingly, sustainability is no longer seen just as a scientific or political problem; it becomes a matter of individual moral choice, with profound spiritual significance.
Future generations? Why should I care about future generations? What have they ever done for me?
Groucho Marx
A Man came into a Wood one day with an axe in his hand and begged all the Trees to give him a small branch which he wanted for a particular purpose. The Trees were good-natured and gave him one of their branches. What did the Man do but fix it into the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree. Then the Trees saw how foolish they had been in giving their enemy the means of destroying themselves.
Aesops Fables . (A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press, Worlds Classics: Oxford, 2008)
Conquest and Control: Disempowering Approaches
A Man and a Lion were discussing the relative strength of men and lions in general. The Man contended that he and his fellows were stronger than lions by reason of their greater intelligence. Come now with me, he cried, and I will soon prove that I am right. So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a statue of Hercules overcoming the Lion and tearing his mouth in two.
That is all very well, said the Lion, but proves nothing, for it was a man who made the statue.
Ever since the dawn of Industrial Revolution, our primary approach toward nature has consistently been that of the conquest and control rather than harmony and coexistence. The horrific consequences of this disempowering stance are too evident to recount. We believe that the most important eco-spirituality struggles will be won or lost during the current and the next decade. While the policy makers and governments can play their respective role, each one of us has to consciously adopt spirituality and sustainability as a way of life. Only an individual life rooted in the continuous harmony with naturea life based on moral and spiritual awarenesscan preserve the sanctity of the planet in the long run. When we change our orientation from self-centeredness to other-centeredness and nature-centeredness, we transition from illness to wellness individually and collectively.
Sensitive minds have always recognized that the most important issues confronting organizations and society at large are so profound and pervasive that they can only be resolved at the fundamental level of the human spiritat the level of ones authentic self. The following chapters will share the working hypothesis that wisdom, compassion, abundance, equity, equality, contribution, synergy, wakefulness, selflessness, and happiness can serve as the key drivers in healing our planet through spirituality.
Sustainability and Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary Approach
This book approaches the topic of sustainability in a broad interdisciplinary fashionin the possible manner of our total footprint on the planet, not just our carbon footprint . It proposes to bring together the two allied areas of sustainability and spirituality in a dialectical manner, with ethics acting as a balancing force and spirituality playing the role of the proverbial invisible hand guiding our quest for sustainability. It takes the view that, in essence, spirituality and sustainability are vitally interlinked and that there is no sustainability without spirituality.
We believe that the broad interdisciplinary approach proposed in this book is critical in addressing the multifaceted issues of environmental sustainability and in mapping our plenary future. We propose to integrate a number of disciplinary perspectives in science, marine biology, energy harvesting and conservation, environmental policy, cultural studies, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, socio-scientific framings of biodiversity issues, ecological economics and ethics across disciplines to address the environmental sustainability issues. As interdisciplinary researchers, we propose to re-examine the current (and long-standing) relations of disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the current disciplinary knowledge production more often obscures rather than fosters solutions to the most pressing, intractable problems which deepen, rather than eliminate, the environmental damage.
Everybody Can Do Something
This book explores the inherent relationship between sustainability and spirituality, and the role of ethical leadership in honoring and maintaining this interconnectedness. We believe that unless peoples moral and spiritual qualities are nurtured and developed, the best of sustainability efforts will not work. Our political and economic thinking needs to be attuned to spirituality rather than materialism, for no economics is any good that does not make sense in terms of our shared humanity and morality. We need to refuse to treat economics and politics as if people do not matter. After all, we are Homo moralis and not Homo economicus. We believe that the way to achieve sustainable, harmonious living in all spheres is through lived morality and spirituality at the personal level.
Likewise at the managerial level, we need to start viewing our organizations as living systems rather than as machines for producing money.
When everyone contributes their respective share in the cosmic scheme of things, it unexpectedly brings about the intended change in the entire world. The task may appear to be daunting at first, as the following story illustrates, but it can only start one step at a time.
The story brings home an important point: Do what you can to make a change and leave the rest to higher intelligence. If we want the universe to be a better, a safer place, then we all have to work together for it by inspiring others by way of example.
Defining Sustainability
Definitions of sustainability abound. The most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future , also known as the Brundtland Report, published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
