Quotes:
“Today, throughout the earth we seem to have unleashed powers that we can no longer control. We have exploited our natural resources so wantonly that we are in danger of exhausting them by the time our grandchildren have reached maturity. Because of these grave threats to the continuation of life on earth we are drawn together in the cause of peace. We seek peace with all peoples of the earth and with the earth itself.’
“We find ourselves alienated not only from ourselves, but from our sister and brother, and from the very roots of reality. We find ourselves alienated from the earth and its natural resources. Instead of living in peace and harmony and unity with the earth, we find ourselves exploiting it and performing acts of violence that degrade and spoil it.”
“We used to think that our natural resource were inexhaustible. Now we know that the end is insight. So the question arises: how can we enjoy, utilize, harvest these resources without destroying them? How can we moderate neutralize the powers that we have unleashed? How do we become true stewards and bring peace and unity to the earth and its peoples?
Somehow we must come to realize that the earth is not merely a resource for human exploitation, but that it is a gift, a holy gift, that has a vastly deeper worth than its value as purely an economic commodity. To realize this we must discover our own spirit.
All we need to do is look around us to see how the earth has been exploited in our own Comox Valley through uncontrolled mining and logging…..It is both possible and necessary that we restructure our economy, political system, community lives and personal living upon the ethics of peace, reflected in concepts of sustainability, participation and justice.
How do we do this? I believe that we have to use reason and analysis. But these alone will not free us from our alienation no matter how accurate or profound. We have to TURN AROUND.
It is necessary that we undergo a TRANSFORMATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS in order to realize that the earth is not merely a resource for human exploitation but is a sacred gift of worth far beyond its value as an economic commodity.
The way to this transformation of consciousness is through meditation, in discovering our own spirit in the cave of our heart. It means that we will have to enter into silence to discover our spirit and to subject everything else to it: possessions, possessiveness, desire and honor, body and mind. I believe that if everyone would meditate twice a day, 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening, that we would come to a deeper wisdom and fulfill our destiny: to live in peace and unity and harmony not only with other nations and peoples of the earth, but with the earth itself.”