Back Issue - January 2007

WHY VALUE LIFE ITSELF ABOVE ALL ELSE ?

What does it mean? And how does it help to limit climate change?

This Boiling Point continues the theme 'Surviving Climate Change: By Force, Persuasion or Enlightened Self-interest?' (Parts 1 & 2 in Back Issues: July 2004 and January 2005), and explores it more deeply.

RECAPITULATION

In the first of these Issues, I claimed that dictatorial force should be avoided at all costs, persuasion alone is not working and that enlightened self-interest provides the only durable solution to saving the planet from calamitous global warming and climate change. Enlightened self-interest starts at the opposite end of the conceptual and political spectrum from persuasion and force. It starts with a declaration of the highest order. This is to value the continuation of life on Earth in its present form above all else.

In order to realise this value, in the next Issue, I then asserted that a New Movement for Survival is necessary. In the meantime, and in order to help the Movement on its way, we have initiated the Declaration and on-line Pledge to 'Value Life Itself Above All Else !!!' on our web-site Challenge pages, together with supporting pledges in order to make the main commitment more real. However, as an outcome of this action as well as other recent experiences, I find it necessary to explore and communicate its wider implications.

IN THIS BOILING POINT

I address several questions: What does it mean to Value Life Itself Above All Else? What kind of meaning is intended? Why take this approach? Why choose this particular declaration? And, how to work with it?.
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What does this mean? What kind of meaning is intended?

These questions are taken together because the declaration is not intended to be understood rationally or intellectually alone. As stated previously, it is an openly declared value statement, and so derived from the right, intuitive, side of the brain instead of the left, analytical, one. Understanding can be derived from inner experience as well as through intellect, though complementary to it. In this instance, enlightened self-interest has a long tradition in western literature and can helpfully be compared with the eastern understanding of 'enlightenment' as an outcome of inner experience.

In the west, enlightenment is introduced, in de Tocqueville's words, as people's 'enlightened regard for themselves (which) constantly prompts them to assist one another and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state'...believing that 'it is the interest of every man to be virtuous' ... 'having found by experience that in the end it is commonly the happiest and the most useful track'. [1] Writing in 1840, de Tocqueville also warned of the dangers of materialism, which is deeply ironic, given the almost complete obliteration of the above sentiments by the culture of materialism that has replaced them. However, the idea of 'enlightened self-interest still persists', and has even been evoked by the head of BP oil company to utilise 'social and environmental values .. to enhance business performance'! [2]

In eastern philosophy, enlightenment is considered the highest goal of spiritual attainment for a seeker. It is described in the Yoga Sutra as 'a state of meditative absorption in which all thoughts, all activities and movements of a seeker's awareness have ceased'. However, in recent years it has been redefined 'as no longer incompatible with bodily activity, and with sensory and intellectual functioning'. In this more recent view, the enlightened one 'has no need of closing the eyes or of shutting off the sensory functions in order to perceive the all-pervading consciousness.' [3] One no longer apprehends the world as different from himself or herself. What is more, this understanding can be applied to living in the world and to tackling its problems. From this point of view, the declaration to love and value life itself above all else applies equally to all experiences of life, both within and through the outer senses.

However, the crucial difference between the western and eastern concepts of enlightened self-interest lies in the different understandings of 'self'. The western concept of 'self' refers to separate individuality. In the eastern one, the 'self' pervades everything; everyone and everything is the expanded 'Self'. This is the meaning of Self-realisation. [4] It is in the context of the second sense that the declaration to love and value life itself above all else is considered here to be 'enlightened self-interest'. Yet it does not preclude a rational recognition that taking a business-as-usual approach to climate change is against the interests of the individual also.

The understanding that the 'self' pervades everything is fundamental to the crisis of climate change all the other threats to the preservation of life in its present form. For all these threats can be regarded as the consequences of the almost universal assumption, in the west, that people are separate individuals, and therefore in competition with one another, dividing 'me' from 'others' and the 'outside world'; instead of being one with everyone and everything, regarded as 'myself in a multitude of forms'. The assumption of separateness is so pervasive in western thinking, as to be considered a self-evident fact throughout western philosophy and science, largely because of the unexamined assumption that we are identical with our physical bodies, and because science regards the physical world as the basis of reality.

The 'Self' is distinguished from the body in eastern philosophy, resulting in a completely different notion of what constitutes reality. It is fundamentally important because, as Neale Walsch was quoted as saying, in the last two Boiling Points: 'human beings would never do the things they are now doing to the earth, much less the things they are doing to each other, if they thought they were doing all these things to themselves' [part 2 note 5, in the most recent Back Issue].

From this viewpoint, not only is climate change primarily a spiritual problem, but one which will only be solved by a leap in global consciousness from identification with being a separate individual to that of being one with everything.

Impossible and far-fetched as this may sound, it is a corollary of Neale Walsch's and other world teachers' thinking, that humanity is now faced with a once in 500 year solid wall of apparently insuperable crises which necessarily precedes an unavoidable leap into a different view of the world (the last being in the Renaissance) if a civilisation, or, in this case, humanity as a whole, is to survive.[5] The Mayan calendar, which is more like an accurate record of creation and evolution, in nine accelerating stages over the last 16.4 billion years, similarly predicts a leap in consciousness for humanity by the time it terminates, in the astonishingly short period of time up till October 2011.[6]

Why take this particular approach?

If we were to re-trace the human contributions to climate change we would have to start with the behaviours of governments, business and private individuals and households, and progressively derive the habits, attitudes, priorities and values that lie behind them.

By far the most effort so far put into persuasion to avert climate change has been into changing behaviour. I believe this is part of the reason why that effort has been so unrewarding. An almighty effort is put into agreeing, for example, the Kyoto protocol, but it is almost immediately undermined by those countries which try to take the minimum action to fulfil their obligations, or refuse to take part and try to undermine the actions of others to uphold them. Companies that agreed to take part in the EU carbon trading mechanism to support the protocol, prevailed on the UK government to lower the emissions threshold to the point that it failed to have that effect [7]. George Monbiot cites a news item which revealed that carbon emission permits were indeed handed out so generously that the British government's consultants calculated that 'power firms would be making a windfall profit from the scheme of around £1 billion, while doing nothing to reduce their emissions'! [8]. On the other hand, a rise in ethical purchasing and recycling has been reported, on a personal and household level, suggesting a direct connection between behaviour, habits and attitudes. [9]

At the root of behavioural habits lie the mental ones, that make physical connections in the brain. Not only do mental ones result in considering continuous economic growth as taken-for-granted, and the consumer society and financial debt as perfectly normal, but they fail to register unsustainable activities, such as low-cost air-flights, or the advancing signs of climate change. When catastrophe does strike, such as the tsunami in Indonesia, the mud-slides in Honduras, or the desolation of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina, the majority of people have not made any preparations for coping with them, either in their minds or in the practical changes they could make.

Resulting states of denial can either be overt: making out that climate change is not happening, as do the contrarians; unconscious: often in the form of forgetfulness of recent reports of extreme events and incorporating them into one's belief in normality; or confused: doubting what is happening oneself, and spreading one's doubts to others, most damagingly through the media. Moreover, denial is not confined to private individuals, but is exhibited, and even orchestrated by governments, as described in Back Issue of February 2002 Creeping Denial - and Facing it Head On'.

Although that issue was written some time ago, denial keeps happening in new forms, most recently in the inconguency between the action called for by the UK Stern Review and that taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his mini-budget on 6 December 2006 [10]. A disturbing recent development has also been a growing trend in subordinating scientific evidence to unalterable ideological positions. As the gap widens between the evidence and the vested interests that are affected by it, the more stark this form of denial appears. It has surfaced in some notorious persecutions of climate scientists by the Bush administration in the US, and refusals to be swayed by evidence in the UK media as well. This is, ironically, the mirror-image of hitherto unrealistic expectations on governments to take action on scientific evidence alone, and has brought the reputation of science itself under attack, and not just because 'science's triumphs are poisoning the planet'. [11]

And we are just at the start of climate-related disasters, which are in great danger of being met with fear, panic, aggression and repression (the latter on the part of the authorities) rather than as the essential spur to a fundamental leap in alternative values.

Habits lie behind behaviour, and attitudes lie behind habits. The importance of changing attitudes is now becoming recognised, and is explicit in the UK government's initiative to launch its Climate Challenge and Fund in January 2006. However, even at the launch, the Environment Minister, Elliott Morley, offered no solution to the contradictory messages that the public receives by way of: encouraging cheap air-flights, airport and runway expansion plans, road-building programmes and encouragement for increased private car sales and usage.

Clearly other priorities of the government conflict with changing atitudes to climate change, and in similar fashion, other priorities inform corporate avoidance of reducing carbon emissions through the carbon trading scheme, and other priorities feature higher than saving domestic energy, for households. One can observe that people's actions derive from what ultimately matters to them most, [12] which may cause some people to reflect, but it leaves out most people who have never thought about the question, let alone reflected on it deeply enough to change their habits.

Nevertheless, an appeal to that minority to demonstrate their commitment to valuing life itself above all else, and snowballing out to appeal progessively to others, is the central idea of the New Movement for Survival.

Why choose this particular declaration?

It came to me initially as a flash of inspiration through reading Neale Donald Walsch's book 'Tomorrow's God', which has featured in the last two, now Back Issues, of Boiling Point. His perspective, moreover, accords with the eastern view of enlightenment conveyed above, with respect to regarding the world as not different from oneself. In Neale Walsch's view, which I have quoted twice before: "The opportunity now placed before humanity is to preserve life in its present form by pre-serving life in its pre-sent form. That is, in the form in which it was sent to you before you began changing it. That was its pre-sent Form." [13] However, I have adopted a simpler wording than Walsch for the declaration to love and value life itself above all else, so as to avoid debate about just when life may have been pre-sent, and in what condition, and whether it is not, in fact, continually changing.

Alternative declarations are difficult to find and to compare with this one. What one might term 'spiritual environmentalism' is a very new field. Those who are either looking for spiritual solutions to environmental problems or for environmental applications of their spiritual convictions are still relatively rare. Even as well known an environmentalist as Vandana Shiva drew only a modest attendance for her recent talk on Earth Democracy within the Alternatives programme at St James's Church, Piccadilly in London. According to its own publicity material 'Alternatives is a place of inspiration, well-being and community in the heart of London. We are dedicated to the exploration of diverse ways of living and being. We honour all spiritual traditions and welcome people of all cultures.' But the programme and its audiences do not, as a rule, engage in applications of its principles to current social and political situations.

Vandana Shiva PhD is a physicist, environmental activist and feminist, and founder of of Navdanya, a national movement in India to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources. In her book of the same name, she says 'Earth Democracy is about ecological democracies - the democracy of all life' and that 'living democracy recognizes the intrinsic worth of all species and all people'. She is not attempting an overall declaration of intent, but the above is one of nine principles which are compatible with valuing and loving life itself above all else. [14]

Nevertheless, a number of other challenges, if not specific declarations, have become evident over the past few months. One of these has taken the message of 'Be The Change' out from an annual conference of that name into a workshop developed by the Panchamama Alliance in the US and called: 'Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream' [15] The process of bringing the workshop to more and more people is described as a social movement. And it is certainly one that we would like to work with, and have approached the UK organiser in order to do so. The only outstanding question is: how.

How to work with it?

When we first invited people to sign the pledge to 'Value Life Itself Above All Else !!!', it quickly became evident that many people signed it willingly, almost without reading it. This was particularly obvious on the first occasion that we included it on sign-up sheets at our stall at an environmental fair. Our response was to devise some supporting pledges, which begin with simple lifestyle changes and then progress to ones which require deeper reflection and consideration of priorities and values. They are all given on the Challenge page of our global site, but we have no means of telling how much more effective they are, at least until enough of those who have signed also state they want to help to join a supporters e-mail group and help to build the New Movement for Survival.

Furthermore, there is much more involved than mere intellectual assent, to recognising that 'human beings would never do the things they are now doing to the earth, much less the things they are doing to each other, if they thought they were doing all these things to themselves'. All of us are so conditioned by our upbringing and living as separate individuals, in a world that cannot conceive of unity, that we have to un-learn many bad habits of thinking, attitude, belief and prejudice, that are so instinctive as to feel an intrinsic part of us. Here I am expanding on the conclusion to the Back Issue entitled: 'By Force, Persuasion or Enlightened Self-interest?', where I wrote that what is required 'is not just a mental paradigm shift but also a deeply felt one, that becomes, over time, instinctual'.

We all need to change our mental and emotional state, so as to be supported by such a powerful and continuous experience of connectedness that we maintain our state and what we stand for, under all circumstances, and irrespective of what other people are doing [16]. Fortunately this necessity has also long been well understood in eastern philosophy, offering a path through life called Sadhana, a Sanskrit term literally meaning 'that which leads to completion or wholeness' [17]. Since this is a living tradition that can be traced back to the Upanishads between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE, it has withstood the test of time to a far greater extent than so-called New Age workshops and methods, which often promise 'instant enlightenment' or transformation over the matter of weeks. Sadhana is a dedicated practice that I cannot recommend too highly, not only in order to serve as an effective channel for transforming priorities with respect to climate change, but also for one's own growth and happiness.

Before one becomes too depressed by the necessity for inner change and anxious about the time left to limit climate change, remember that I wrote, in the latest Back Issue: 'The task I advocate is not so insuperable as it appears, for the values by which the national and global institutions presently operate are an aberration from those which apply within all other species including so-called Homo Sapiens. These are the values of reciprocity and co-operation. Beneath our aberrant and dysfunctional values and ideological systems lies a natural recognition of these same essential ones. They appear spontaneously at times of community crisis and among oppressed people.'

Besides, there are many people who are already engaged in parts of this process, although they may call it by many other names. It is a matter of practical enquiry, in order to find out which groups of people are thinking and working along similar lines, and then form coalitions or affiliations with them. So far we are exploring affiliation with two large initiatives originating in the United States, very much concerned with the new values, but not directly with Sadhana or specifically with climate change [18]; we have close connections with the Alternatives programme in London, as already mentioned; have associations with Be the Change and with Christian Ecology Link and are seeking them with other faith-based climate groups; and have a close affinity with the with work of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.

Particularly encouraging is a concern with the ethics, morals and values involved with attempting to control climate change, that has emerged quite suddenly in the UK over the past six months, in the form of workshops at conferences (and even at the Climate Camp last summer in Yorkshire), in which we seek to play an increasing part.

However, there is one aspect of individualism which appears to be hindering collaborative work in this area. This is the propensity to keep inventing new initiatives rather than collaborate with existing ones, thereby splintering energy instead of adding to it, competing over potential supporters, and, in another sense, competing with attachments to existing priorities which prevent people from revising them, in increasingly busy lives. We are satisfied that the New Movement itself makes a necessary and an original contribution to efforts to limit climate change, but we have to keep alert to opportunities to combine efforts wherever we can.

We need to be continually reminded of the big picture, which is beautifully encapsulated by Andrew Harvey, in his brilliant application of the teachings of the 13th century Persian mystic poet Rumi, to the present crisis:

"As well as catastrophe, there is also this extraordinary possibility now. If you even glimpse it, you have no other choice but to dedicate your whole life to making it happen. This is the possibility of the 'moment of union' that the whole of humanity has been so painfully spiralling toward." [19]

CONCLUSION

Presented here is a vision, but it will only come about if we want it passionately and do what is necessary to make it happen. And as to what is necessary, that will require a great deal of dedication, commitment and imagination on the part of very many people, and the directions it eventually takes may be very different from anything foreseeable now.
This is one approach among many possible ones, but they will all count for little unless and until the fundamental shift takes place, for each person, working back from action to habit, from habit to attitude, from attitude to priorities and from priorities to loving and valuing life itself above all else - or other words to the same effect.

Jim Scott (C) 1 January 2007

Footnotes

[1] Alexis de Tocqueville 'Democracy in America' translation by Henry Reeve, Wordsworth Classics, Ware, Hertfordshire UK 1998 p 230 return to text

[2] Bakan, Joel (2004) 'The Corporation' Constable & Robinson Ltd., London, p44. return to text

[3] Renfrew Brooks et al. eds,'Meditation Revolution, a History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage' , Agama Press, South Fallsburg, New York, 1997 pp. 212 - 214, where these concepts are explained much more fully than space allows here. return to text

[4] For example in v 126: "The wise say that the all-knowing state is that in which the embodied soul becomes one with everything", of the Sri Guru Gita text in the latter part of Sri Skanda Purana, 'The Nectar of Chanting' 1983, SYDA Foundation, New York. return to text

[5] Neale Donald Walsch at workshop entitled 'Tomorrow's God' on 2 October 2005, and Deepak Chopra at one entitled 'The Seven Spiritual Laws of Love' on 6 May 2006, both held at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London, and both organised by Alternatives (www.alternatives.org.uk) return to text

[6] Carl Johan Calleman 'Solving the Greatest Mystery of our Time', available through www.calleman.com and amazon.com. return to text

[7] Guardian 28 October 2004 'Kyoto sacrificed to competitiveness' return to text

[8]George Monbiot 'Heat' Allen Lane 2006, p 46 & footnote 9. return to text

[9] Guardian supplement 6 November 2006 'The Giving List', p 6. 'The rise and rise of the ethical consumer'. return to text

[10] Guardian 7 December 2006 'Back on track' (leader). return to text

[11] New Scientist 24 June 2006, p25 'The fall of reason'. return to text

[12] See Boiling Point for November 2001 on both Save our World web-sites. return to text

[13] Neale Donald Walsch (2004) 'Tomorrow's God' Hodder and Stroughton, London pp 48 & 50 interpolated together; and, later, pp 63, 69 & 72. return to text

[14] Vandana Shiva 'Earth Democracy - Justice, Sustainability and Peace' Zed Books Ltd., London 2006, pp 62 & 9 respectively return to text

[15] Living Lightly Issue 38, p4. Nick Hart-Williams 'Changing the Dream' return to text

[16] This necessity is also also stressed in 'Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster' by Rudolf Bahro, Gateway Books, Bath, 1994 p.viii and subsequently. return to text

[17] Op. Cit. [ref.3] p.235 return to text

[18] 'Humanity's Team' www.humanitysteam.org, initiated by Neale Donald Walsch, and 'Alliance for a New Humanity' at www.chopra.com, initiated by Deepak Chopra. return to text

[19] Andrew Harvey 'The Way of Passion' Frog Ltd., Berkeley, California, 1994. p.316. return to text

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