Isis BORGES de RESENDE, Brazil PLANETARY CITIZENSHIP PREVALENCE OF SPIRITUALITY IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS ATTAINING COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF LOVING-KINDNESS Existing mentality, customs, what is accepted by society as natural, as normal, defines human society. A society is what its values are. Ideas rule the world. When society accepts a situation as normal, no matter how extravagant and inhumane it is, that situation prevails and eventually it comes under the rule of law, legitimizing human behavior no matter how insane it may be. We still live in a world full of violence, wars and great social inequalities as a result of wrong human values. Adopted paradigms, customs, mentality and human values define human relations, social organization, religion, wars and violence.
This is absolutely clear. Notwithstanding its clarity, most people believe that the transformation of society depends on external factors such as politics, economics or technology. They are not aware that this transformation must be sought primarily by changing current values. The key to human evolution is to be found on the right action to change human values.
This can be done if certain requirements are met, such as: dreaming, wanting, knowledge, power and daring.
You must first dream, wish, believe that it is possible to construct a human society better, fairer, more harmonious, more loving, happier. Disbelief, lack of faith in the possibility of this transformation, lack of belief in human and spiritual values is the first major hurdle, which leads us to stagnation, failure and preservation of longstanding injustices.
The great humanist leader Martin Luther King said that “worse than the scream of the violent ones is the silence of good” and on another occasion said that “worse than the few that made us a lot of evil, were the vast majority who sat still doing nothing”. The first necessary step is to believe that social change is possible.
The second step is to want that change. It is not enough simply to dream of a just, humane, free and happy society. You need to want this achievement, and you must want it badly. It takes an act of conscience characterized by non-conformity with the modus vivendi and the resulting inner determination to act effectively to bring about this transformation. A kind of inner desire that is independent of circumstances, independent of existing difficulties. A kind of wanting that transforms obstacles into stimuli, where the challenges are welcome. The greater the difficulty is, the greater may be the impetus, the enthusiasm, the “heroic frenzy” in the words of Giordano Bruno.
With that effective, real, determined, fearless and bold willpower, it is possible to start a work for the transformation of existing paradigms. Our society tends to become used to its principles, not welcoming change. When an attempt is made to introduce a new way of thinking, the group attempting to do so is ridiculed for thinking differently from the prevailing society. If that group begins to grow, society changes from ridicule to frontal attacks. The group then must build a critical mass around the new flag that transforms reality, “turns the table” making that which was previously accepted to be denied with the establishment of new values in society.
But it is not enough just to want to get things done; you need to know what to do. Even to do the simplest things there is a right way to make it; while to do more complex things requires naturally more complex procedures.
It is essential to realize that life is governed by reliable cosmic laws. When Einstein said “God does not play dice”, he surely was saying that the cosmic manifestation is not a chaos; instead it is orderly, precise and reliable. The wise philosopher Krishnamurti in his book “At the Master’s feet” said there are two kinds of people in the world: those who know and those who do not know. He meant that the first group is the people who know that life is governed by eternal laws and the second group believe that everything is the result of chance. In Buddhism the first step of the eightfold path is the “right view”, the “right perception”, referring to the same perception of the cosmic laws of manifestation. In fact, the work of scientists is to discover and proclaim the laws of nature. In Hinduism this lesson is also found as the doctrine of the Law of Karma, the law of cause and effect. For every action there is a reaction. Therefore, when you want a result, you must be careful to take the right action that will lead to the desired result. In order to work towards building a better world, one must act on the causes that may determine this outcome. By and large, people want to reap what was not sown. But it is not enough simply to sow. It is necessary to effect the right seeding. Agriculture is a very expressive example. You must choose carefully the land where you want to do the planting; you must correct the soil, prepare the soil, compost it properly, choose the best seed, choose the correct time for planting in order to provide appropriate irrigation, protect the crop from pests and finally reap the result.
A social welfare policy to try to minimize social ills is undoubtedly of great value, but you need to create a world that does not require this kind of assistance. Thus, it is no good just taking care of the effects; you must go to the causes that produce human misery.
Moreover, an important question concerns the effort required to ensure correct sowing. There is no progress without struggle. A seed to be born must break the shell. The same happens with the birds that require some effort to break the eggshell. Still, in this matter, the continued effort is very important, for everything has its proper time. Nature does not make leaps. Nor can we pick fruits from a tree before it is harvest time. We must sow today in order to reap tomorrow, when in season. This ever going effort demands focus, concentration power, since without focusing energy is scattered, making it difficult to achieve the desired result.
We can now get back to the point that to achieve the construction of a just, harmonious and happy human society, one must realize that human beings are a gregarious species and human life is a life of relationships and that there are basic principles of human relations for the good life.
The Charter of Planetary Citizenship (1st World Spiritual Forum – December 2006, sponsored by the Planetary Union) proclaimed:
“We are the world, cosmic beings. Thus we have the power to turn it into a better world. .... Like it or not, we are inevitably responsible for the world we have, by acts or omissions. .... Each one of us is a link in the chain that binds all creatures. You need to create the collective consciousness of individual responsibility”.
By means of this collective consciousness of individual responsibility it will be possible to create the indispensable universal collective consciousness of universal loving-kindness.
The Charter concludes with the statement, which is the basic principle of our dear PLANETARY UNION, saying:
“Aware that the building of a just society depends on the transformation of each individual human being, I promise to act – with love, understanding and solidarity – engaging the best of my ability and skills to build a free, egalitarian, fraternal society, seeking to protect all life in our planet and to build a just and dignified social organization, recognizing that my family is humanity and that I am interdependent with all living beings”.
We need a new philosophical view of existence. Human misery is not just physical. Moral misery, ethical poverty is worse than physical misery. In a poor world it is possible for human beings to be happy sharing bread. This new vision of philosophy must be based on the perception that human beings are all interconnected, they are all interdependent: from the macrocosm to the microcosm the web of life is one and the same. When a man hurts another he actually is hurting all mankind, and, by the same token, is hurting itself. Human beings are all made of the same clay; we are all in the same boat together, forming a unit.
Cosmic manifestation is characterized by harmony. This is the essence of life. When humans are in tune with this basic feature of the cosmic manifestation, that is harmony, everything is beautiful, everything is happiness, all is loving. When you move away from harmony, life becomes painful, suffering prevails. Only love can build. The only healthy way of human relationship is that of loving-kindness. “There is no way to peace, peace is the way”, Mahatma Gandhi taught us. It follows that there is no ideology superior to solidarity.
It is worth remembering the Letter of Paul to the Corinthians:
“Though I speak with tongues men and of angels, but I have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal;
Though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”.
Annie Besant summed up this vision of the unity of life in a mantra:
Oh, hidden Life, vibrant in every atom,
Oh, Hidden Light shining in every creature,
Oh, Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness
May all who feels himself as one with Thee
Knows that he is therefore One with every Other.
We must act in harmony with the irrevocable law of nature that only love can build. Love conquers all. Love is irresistible. Love is not an emotional issue. It is a law of nature. It is the law of cosmic harmony.
Deity, shinning white, manifests itself in only three colors (red, blue and yellow). Humans, like the deity, are one and triune at the same time. We are one but we manifest in a threefold way by means of action, feeling and thought – act physically, emotionally and mentally – and what characterizes the evolution is the development, the flowering, the fundamental qualities of the triune divine inner nature: the will, wisdom and love (Atma, Buddhi, and Manas in theosophical terms), in our transient vehicles of manifestation: physical, emotional, and mental, which make up a unit inside and outside.
Human evolution takes place through the development of qualities. It is useless to fight against ignorance: we need the wisdom; useless to fight against inaction: we need the energy, will power; it is futile to fight against insensitivity, it is necessary to develop sensitivity, love. Human beings need physical, emotional and mental nutrients for this development.
Also, it is necessary the application of scientific, philosophical, psychological, sociological, anthropological development for this to take effect. We must build a collective consciousness of individual responsibility, to reach that world of peace, love and happiness.
Moreover, sociologists and anthropologists have taught that society evolves through imitation and suggestion. It is essential to disseminate positive examples and to foster a perceived responsibility of the news media that it needs to publish and broadcast the kind of news that represent healthy nutrients to society. Television, in particular, which has a huge reach of humanity, should be focused to the dissemination of ethical values of solidarity, of sharing.
In Brazil, the nonprofit organization that I represent is classified as one of public interest. It is called the Planetary Union and it has devoted its efforts to spreading ethical values, especially on its own TV, the TV SUPREN, which transmits daily, for twenty-four hours, to dozens of cities in the country and the world through the site www.tvsupren.com.br.
With this perception and action, we believe it is possible to create gradually a critical mass to change the current paradigms of egoism, individualism, consumerism and attachment to material goods, to paradigms of selflessness, simplicity and solidarity. It is noteworthy that an idea is irresistible when its time is come.
When we are dreaming, we know how to do what we want to, we realize that we must also have the power to act. This power is activated by the power of positive thinking, by determination, by the will, self-confidence, by word, by prayer.
But it is useless to have the power unless we use it: “In vain the heart will conceive and the mind outline if there are not ready hands who will execute these designs”, says a holy text.
May mankind realize the fullness of loving kindness with a commitment to lighten the heavy burden of suffering of the human race, as expressed in his book “The Voice of Silence” by H.P. Blavatsky:
“May your soul listen to all the cries of pain, as the lotus opens his heart to absorb the morning sun.
Do not let the penetrating sun dry a tear of pain before you yourself have wiped it off the eye of the sufferer.
But let each boiling human tear drop in your heart and remain there, and do not dry it up until the cause of pain has been removed”.
All human problems have a single root, the lack of internal development of divine qualities of will, wisdom and love. Lack of will power brings about disbelief, omission, stillness. Absence of wisdom results in ignorance, the illusion of separation, in individualism, greed and selfishness. Lack of love results in disaffection and insensitivity.
These absences can only be overcome through the development of the very qualities missing. Darkness is dispelled by light, disbelief by faith, ignorance by wisdom and insensitivity by love.
With these values it is possible to attempt building the kind of social organization we dearly aspire: free, equal and fraternal.
Just as in the physical body, it is not enough to have a good heart. We need to have all the organs healthy. Likewise, in the social organization some essential social qualities are required. Freedom without the complementary balance of other qualities may be the cause of some evil. On the other hand, equality without freedom may well lead to an inhuman social organization. Therefore, true manifestation of life can only take place under freedom. These two fundamental principles: liberty and equality can only be built by means of brotherhood, love and solidarity. Fraternity is the cement that unites and, thus, makes possible the creation of a free and egalitarian society. In other words, only with the cement of brotherhood, love and solidarity it will be possible to build a free and egalitarian society.
Obviously, the social organization must be perfected evolving from our existing organization for social competition into an organization based on solidarity, which recognizes the brotherhood of all human beings, as expressed by the motto “One for all and all for one”. It will become a social organization which will provide for all its members "fair livelihoods”, with the active participation of all in political, economic, cultural and social affairs in an earth-wide context.
Today’s world requires a global vision. We can no longer afford the insane attitude of countries and governments competing and fighting with each other. All of humanity makes up a unit. The kind of citizenship that we must foster is world citizenship. It must be reached by consensus and by harmonious political and economic integration of all people, respecting their cultures, religions, traditions, environment and local languages, with the participation of all countries in a global fraternal unit, built by true love.
Krishnamurti said, in one of his discourses:
“You are not American, neither Russian, nor Hindu, nor Muslim. You exist, not attached to these labels and words; you are all humanity because your consciousness, reactions, faith, believes, ideology, fears, anxiety, loneliness, sufferings or pleasure are the equal to all humans beings. If you change, this will affect all humanity”.
If two different people go to an isolated and desert island, solidarity is the only healthy way of behaving. One could kill the other. They could through stones on each other. One of them could submit herself (or himself) to the other. But healthy relationship could only happen through friendship, companionship, solidarity. This is the case between 2 people or 6 billion people.
At the end of World War I the Versailles Treaty, the one that put an end to the war, forbade the German to have weapons. It imposed hard loses e established heavy debts because of the war. Strictly speaking, it was sown the seed of the World War II. Germany had no conditions of paying the debt, people became miserable, hate was installed and they only need the presence of a mad man, nationalist, to create the stage for the new play, the World War II. When the war finished, the winners realized the big mistake they had done before, with this war debt of the World War I, and changed their position radically. They approved the Marshall Plan, of aid to the countries that lost the war, especially Germany and Japan. The result is obvious. Germany and Japan are two of the most prosperous countries in the world and their relations with the countries that won the war are harmonious.
Today we can see wars against terrorism, although Mahatma Gandhi said that “there is no way to peace, peace is the way”. We consider terrorism not exactly as an ideology that can be changed by force. It is an insane reaction of the weaker towards the powerful, a kind of revenge. Violence generates violence.
We need to act in conformity with the irrevocable law of nature that says: love builds and hate destroys. We need to conquer the minds and hearts and the best way to do it is taking care of them, supporting them, material aid, even spiritual. Why revenge does not exist today in Germany and Japan? Why? Because a new mentality was created, a new perspective. This new mentality was built because there was an attitude of help, aid, solidarity and compassion. Love is irresistible.
We need to create a new Marshall Plan. The billions of dollars that are spent in weapons would be enough for this. A magazine called “Aventuras na História” (“Historical Adventures”) printed in Brazil in December 2009 informed us that in 2008 1 trillion and 500 million dollars were spent in the Armies. That means 4 billion and 100 million dollars per day. In the 20th century more then 100 million people died in wars. It is about time we change this culture of wars.
In the Letter of Planetary Citizenship, approved by the 1st World Spiritual Forum, held in Brasilia in 2006, sponsored by the Planetary Union, it was declared:
“We are the world, cosmic beings. ... Like it or not, we are inevitably responsible for the world we have, by acts or omissions. ... Each of us is a link in the chain that binds all creatures. ... We are the crew of Spaceship Earth, we are the earth itself, and it is essential the loving union of all for a happy journey, for the preservation of humanity and planetary life in this wonderful saga of our Mother Earth spinning harmoniously toward infinity”.
With will, wisdom and love, we human beings shall achieve global citizenship, building in our world a free and egalitarian society based on human fraternity and therefore harmonious, wise, just and happy.