Turn On!
Healing the Planet
CultureRenewal Initiative
Urgent
Message to Spiritual and Religious |
As you know, in these most desperate of times, the crash course humanity has inflicted upon itself is rapidly accelerating. Society you may say is in decay. The cause as I see it is alienation from "Heaven, earth and the community". Being cut off from the Source we are "thrown upon ourselves". Because of our inability to Be we have taken refuge in having. Hence, the forces of the ego - materialism and individualism - have totally overpowered us. Society therefore is in the grip of a collective self-addiction. Because having can never compensate Being, our greed for more is unstoppable. It is resulting in accumulation on the one hand and deprivation on the other. For instance, 5% of the world population (USA) is consuming one third of the total energy available on earth. The interests of science, technology and capitalism (STC-complex: prof.dr. E.Vermeersch)* have become (too) closely intertwined. It has become a cancer growth with science inventing, technology applying and capitalism making profit. The sad thing is, that multinational corporations are deliberately and ruthlessly promoting egoism, greed and addiction, thereby destroying the fabric of life: local communities, cultures, economies, traditions, religions and ("above all") nature, exploiting resources, markets and cheap labor to the benefit of the few, creating huge masses of uprooted, hungry, oppressed, desperate, angry, violent, sick and displaced people. * E.Vermeersch "Through the Eyes of a Panda", 1994 Brugge The effects on Mother Nature are devastating. Major threats are loss of biodiversity, pollution, climate change and water shortages. Moreover, environmental scientists warn us for immanent catastrophic events. They talk about a "new extinction wave" putting an end to the world as we know it. Governments - it seems - are not going to help us. They are serving the interests of big business, instead of taking care of the well-being of their people. They increasingly tighten the grip on people through global control, militarism and oppression. "Freedom and democracy" more and more degenerate to hollow rituals. The result is a disintegration on all levels of society. Both individuals as well as society have become burn-out. Hence, we are now confronted with our own helplessness. The only option left is to return to the Source - to die to the old - in order to become reborn as A New Self. Transformation of Self and Society consists of subsequently fitting in into "Heaven, earth and the (new) community", once again. I have been working on this for quite some time now. It ran into the "Healing the Planet" initiative, to begin with A New Spirituality. Many will recognize the elements, that are proposed. That is great. My aim is not to invent the wheel once again, but to bring people together. The sooner this will take place, the better. One of the painful facts of modern life is that we have become objects. To the political system we are just a repository of votes, while to big business we are only "consumers". Through this, our original subjectivity - our inherent Self-sovereignty - has been destroyed. We have been cut off from our Divine Spark within. The same is true with regard to the Community. The latter is the reflection of the God-given "Web of Life". Both state and economy have been degrading it into a reservoir though, which they can draw from randomly. It has contributed a great deal to the de-humanization of mankind. As said above, "To have is the inability to Be". This includes a special responsibility to all those, who in the name of the Divine are guiding other people. Obviously, this guiding of people has become a total failure. It is the main reason why materialism could have developed in the first place. Too long we have been thinking, that a compromise would be acceptable, often because of our own material self-interests. In the context of a world, that is rapidly deteriorating, this cannot be carried on anymore. The saying of Jesus: "It will be easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" has indeed to be taken literally. We all have to understand, that unbridled greed and solidarity are excluding each other. It is of utmost importance to realize what opposes spirituality and religion. The true adversary is not a "competing" religion or sect. What threatens spiritual life is materialism and individualism (Unless you cherish the cynical view, that "at the end of the day" the latter will impoverish life to such an extent, that it will favor religion). Hence, it will be crucial to existing spiritual e.g. religious individuals and groups to define their common denominator. Talking together is certainly an important first step. The next has to truly create a base of action, with which everybody can identify. I call this common base "Existential Consciousness"*. It consists of "(Wo)man being rooted in Heaven, earth and the community". Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Jew, an Agnostic or belonging to an Indigenous Faith or some New Religion, everybody shares the same context of life: our spirit as part of the "Great Spirit" (God, Allah, Cosmos, Consciousness, Intelligence, Nothingness), our body as part of nature and our psyche (soul) as part of the community. It is existential. I therefore want to make an appeal to all spiritual people worldwide to discard differences, accepting this our existential situation as a starting point - Unity in Diversity - in order to cooperate in turning the tide: to reverse having in Being. * See "Existential Consciousness" A surplus value in this regard is the "Maternal Dimension of God". We all know, that our image of God is hopelessly one-sided. It is one of the major reasons, why people become disinterested in organized religion. Patriarchy, like it functions until this very day, still stresses an intellectual approach toward the Ultimate. Something hat will prove to be catastrophic. A way out is to start including the "feminine" aspect of the Divine. This doesn't come as a surprise. Aren't the Madonna, Kuan Yin, MatriDevi, Shekinah (and Allah in his Aspect of the Merciful) far more "popular" with the people compared to Her male counterparts? People are longing for "feminine" values like interconnectedness, peace, tolerance, reconciliation, respect, love, joy of life, justice and sustainability. Hence, we are inviting you to support our interreligious and multicultural initiative, consisting of emphasizing the "Maternal Dimension of God" as revered in the various traditions. In order to bring people, groups, centers and organizations together, we initiated the Universal Mother Council. It is an umbrella network. Those who join share their interest in a "feminine" world view, while keeping their own spiritual/religious identity. We kindly invite you to participate. We don't have too much time anymore! * See: "Universal Mother Council" The answer to hatred - for which we ourselves are responsible a great deal - is not increase of State control e.g. violence, but empowerment of the Community. The true cause of chaos lies in the fact, that society has been built on the State on the one hand, and unorganized masses on the other. More State control will not change this. On the contrary, the spiral of violence, both within and without will be unstoppable. Why? Because it is based on a wrong concept of the structure of society. On the other hand, we are part of the universe. Hence, “As Above, so Below”. Everything is “organically” interconnected. Translated to society, it means, that the Community is the Living Body of humanity. It constitutes the foundation of society. Hence, the Community should regain its original rights and responsibilities. It should be based on Self-sovereignty e.g. Community Democracy. It should consist of bottom-up organized multi-layered echelons of Self-ruling bodies, to start with the individual, the family (group), the street, the neighborhood, the commune, the city, the county….up to the State and the Commonwealth, all having a close relationship with each other, based on cooperation, consensus, subsidiarity* and solidarity, itself exercising control over major aspects of social life. By bringing back Self-rule to the Community, modern life will "automatically" being steered in the right direction. It is the only way to achieve multi-ethnic integration, tolerance and respect. Self- and mutual help will flourish, "re-inventing" e.g. ways of basic health care, environmental protection, decentralized economic activity, a new educational system, care for the elderly, law and justice, peace, security and last but not least: meaning of life. *Subsidiarity is the key concept. It was first developed by J. Althusius (17th century), regained popularity in 19th century America, revived by Catholic social doctrine (1931), became the cornerstone of EU law (1992) (however, unfortunately already largely corrupted), valued by regional initiatives, promoted by the UN Development Program (1999), while increasingly favored by socio-ecological thinkers. It is recognized, that through subsidiarity “systemic” collapse can be avoided; people are able to solve problems on basic levels; through greater coherence people start caring about each other and nature, while political involvement is stimulated. Cooperation and mutual help guaranteeing peace, stability, happiness and prosperity. In short, VERY urgent to become introduced by Communities worldwide. Spiritual and religious organizations are invited to take the lead! The Ultimate is All-Embracing. Han Marie Stiekema Sermes
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