Declaration for All Life on Earth


( een A4-poster is HIER verkrijgbaar )

PREAMBLE

The earth is an evolving living entity. Every form of life on earth is an important part of this living entity. Accordingly, we, as individual human beings, must cultivate the awareness that we are all members of a global community of life and that we share a common mission and responsibility for the future of our planet.

Every one of us has a role to play in the evolution of our planet, and to achieve world peace each of us must live up to our responsibilities and obligations. Up to the present time, few people on earth have been fully satisfied with life. We have faced conflicts all over the world in competition for limited resources and land. This has had a devastating effect on the global environment.

As we enter the new millennium, more than anything else, the realization of world peace depends on an awakening of consciousness on the part of each individual member of the human race. Today, it is imperative that every human being bears the responsibility of building peace and harmony in his or her heart. We all have this common mission that we must fulfill. World peace will be achieved when every member of humanity becomes aware of this common mission when we all join together for our common purpose. Until now, in terms of power, wealth, fame, knowledge, technology and education, humanity has been divided between individuals, nations and organizations that have possession and those that do not. There have also been distinctions between the givers and the receivers, the helpers and the helped.

We hereby declare our commitment to transcend all these dualities and distinctions with a totally new concept, which will serve as our foundation as we set out to build a peaceful world.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

In the new era, humanity shall advance toward a world of harmony, that is, a world in which every individual and every nation can freely express their individual qualities, while living in harmony with one another and with all life on earth. To realize this vision, we set forth the following guiding principles:

  1. Reverence for life: We shall create a world based on love and harmony in which all forms of life are respected.
  2. Respect for all differences: We shall create a world in which all different races, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, traditions and customs are respected. The world must be a place free from discrimination or confrontation, socially, physically and spiritually, a place where diversity is appreciated and enjoyed.
  3. Gratitude for and coexistence with all of nature: We shall create a world in which each person is aware that we are enabled to live through the blessings of nature, and lives in harmony with nature, showing gratitude for all animal, plant and other forms of life.
  4. Harmony between the spiritual and material: We shall create a world based on the harmonious balance of material and spiritual civilization. We must break away from our overemphasis on the material to allow a healthy spirituality to blossom among humanity. We must build a world where not only material abundance but also spiritual riches are valued.

PRACTICE

We shall put these principles into practice guided by the following:

As individuals:

We must move beyond an era in which authority and responsibility rest in nation states, ethnic groups and religions to one in which the individual is paramount. We envision an "Age of the Individual" not in the sense of egoism, but an age in which every individual is ready to accept responsibility and to carry out his or her mission as an independent member of the human race. Each of us shall carry out our greatest mission to bring love, harmony and gratitude into our own heart, and in so doing, bring harmony to the world at large.

In our specialized fields:

We shall build a system of cooperation in which wisdom is gathered together to derive the most from technical knowledge, skills and ability in various fields, such as education, science, culture and the arts, as well as religion, philosophy, politics and economics. As the young generation: In the 20th century, parents, teachers and society were the educators of children, and the children were always in the position of being taught. In the 21st century, adults shall learn from the wonderful qualities of children, such as their purity, innocence, radiance, wisdom and intuition, to inspire and uplift one another. The young generation shall play a leading role in the creation of peace for a bright future.

May Peace Prevail on Earth

 

Comment

This "Declaration for all Life on Earth" has been taken from the website of the World Peace Prayer Society at http://www.worldpeace.org/declaration.html and has been presented as well to the "Seeds-of-wholeness" conference at http://www.seeds-of-wholeness.org/ ( push the button "Prep.Documents" )

I like this declaration very much because of its conciseness whereas the charter of the earth can be seen as a more elaborate instrument to evaluate policy of all governmental, commercial and non-governmental agencies and organisations.

However, there is an even shorter statement, although that statement can be understood only in a special state of heart and mind, that is that state of holy communion with the divine:

May Peace Prevail on Earth

Like all other prayers this prayer can never get fulfillment when the interests of the whole of life is not being taken into account. So it is wise to foster a clear image of those broad distinctions which - taken together - constitute "the Whole of Life" on our planet and visualize how this great blessing of Peace will influence all these sectors..

A proposal for such a broad enumeration of these various fields of life is:

  • the noosphere (that is the totality of all our thoughts, ideals and feelings).
  • the biosphere,
    (that is plants, fishes, birds, animals, mushrooms, bacteria and virusses.
  • the atmosphere,
  • the lithosphere,
  • the technosphere,

Of these "-spheres" only the last one - our technosphere - is in complete command by humanity - but only if we organize ourselves appropriately..

So let us unite for peace as world citizens and reform our technosphere aaccordingly to become an instrument for worldpeace! This is in my opinion a good background for global stewardship and responsibility which should be a prerequisite before being allowed to serve in a Constitutional Office of any national state or not-yet-reckognized state.

Leonard Kater

( created 19 may, updated 04 June, 2002 )