Letter of Planetary Citizenship – First World Spiritual Forum

[ First World Spiritual Forum ]

December 6th trough the 10th, 2006 – Brasilia, Brasil

Valuing diversity for the construction of planetary solidarity

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Letter of Planetary Citizenship

The words of Forums and Social Organization Networks that work in search of peace, justice and greater communication between nature and humankind spreads throughout the continents of our planet. Economic and World Social Forums are great advances of humanity and represent important, but merely partial visions, of how the world should really be. In communion with this international process, the participants of the 1st World Spiritual Forum in search of “a new world possible” united in Brasília, during the period of December 6th through 10th, 2006, in a quire of many voices, affirming that the economic and social proposals cannot solely solve humanity’s problems satisfactorily. A spiritual perspective based on universal care and love is needed. Spirituality constitutes the fertile birth land of wisdom and ethics, valuing the significance of human existence. It is the perception of unity and sacredness amongst all things that permeates the meaning to live.

We believe that life is governed by cosmic laws. The water wets, the fire burns, the rain falls, the seed germinates, the bud transforms into a flower, winter follows spring, summer follows autumn, love builds, brings happiness and joy. Cosmos, galaxies, suns, planets, minerals, sky, earth, springs, rivers, oceans, plants, animals and human beings are interdependent and complement themselves. From the macrocosm to the microcosm the web of life is unique. Life is smart and loving and everything should be part of a perfect and harmonious equilibrium.

Scientific, technological, political and economical evolutions are said to constitute a blessing to humanity. But certainly, they need an ingredient, a more significant complement, one which is more effective and profound, so that each human being and all of mankind can find a true state of wholeness and happiness. The lack of perception involving interdependence and complementarities of all of life generates an individualistic and materialistic vision, the illusion of separation. The perception of brotherhood is necessary amongst all living creatures, amongst all kingdoms, no matter the background, the beliefs, gender or social classes. We all belong to the same fountain of life and we are all made from the same earth. Our family is humanity, and every being that composes the web of life, the sons and daughters of this Earth.

Therefore, the fundamental basis for the construction of a dignified society lies in the perception of the unity of life, which should reveal itself through effective and real solidarity, with concrete acts of sensitivity, fraternity, ethics, sympathy, kindness and carefulness. These are attitudes that depend on the transformation of each and every one of us, of the expressions of our internal potentialities. No regime, system or form of government, political or economical institution can, by itself, guarantee a truly dignified society. Only by incorporating in our lives, solidarity, fraternity, affection, love and spirituality can we achieve a healthy humane and planetary relationship. There is no ideology superior to solidarity.

Inside this perspective, a new view is essential, a new philosophical vision which begins with the respect and value of diversity, increases in the perception of the unity of life and completes with a new attitude. This new look – with the eyes of the heart – should change our motivations and intentions to altruistic, promoting a revision of our present values.

The revision necessary should reach the economic dimension, putting it in service of sustainability and social justice. The revision will be necessary to political and educational institutions which need to rethink their roles in the formation of a solidary civilization that expresses their greatest inspirations: happiness, peace, respect, authenticity, harmony and cooperation. This revision should reach the religious institutions, in order to adapt to the necessities of our time, updating their teachings to generate wiser, responsible and more mature human beings, capable of loving and working shoulder to shoulder with each ones differences. Our future depends on achieving true spiritual wisdom, through the integration of different views, whether they are scientific, philosophic, religious or by the act of giving oneself to the profound encounter with the energy of the sacred, no matter its name, since this force is the source of profound wisdom and love without frontiers. There is only true ethics from this force.

Education should privilege ethical values. Health sciences should be turned towards an integral perception of the human being. Economy and technology should be directed primarily towards human and planetary necessities. Politics should have as the central base, ethics, public service and collective interest. Religions should be directed towards spirituality, tolerance and mutual respect essentially for a universal family. Society should format new paradigms based on solidarity and the protection of life and all of its creatures. Every sector of activity should be permeated in spirituality, in faith and in the sacredness of life and positive participation, for the goodness and plenitude of all.

In our ephemeral and transforming lives, we are the citizens of this Planet. The divisions we create are artificial and equivocal for the Planet is a whole. We are the crew of the spaceship Earth, we are the Earth, and it is the fundamental loving union of all, for a happy journey, for the preservation of humanity and of planetary life, in this saga of our wonderful mother Earth evolving towards infinity.

The world is us, cosmic beings. We therefore have the power to transform it into a better world. Life is ruled by trustworthy cosmic laws, which allows us to act with security for the change in planetary life. There is a perfect and dynamical correlation between cause and effect. Whether we like it or not, we are inevitably responsible for the world at present, for our actions and omissions. As peace activists, we should create a mass critiques allowing the establishment of new and true paradigms. Every single one of us is a link in the chain that embraces all creatures. It is necessary to create a collective consciousness of individual responsibility acting to substitute selfishness with altruism, individualism with solidarity, consumerism with simplicity, the have with Being, materialism with spirituality.

Each one of us can assume with oneself and their interior, a consciousness with humanity and the planet in a commitment that praises the following:

“Conscious that the edification of a fair society depends on the individual transformation of every human being, I commit to act – with love, intelligence and solidarity – towards the best of my capacities and abilities towards the construction of a free, equal and fraternal society, in search of protecting planetary life and constructing a fair and dignified social organization, recognizing that my family is humanity and that I am linked with all living creatures.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

a) promote fraternity amongst all beings – independent of race, ethics, gender, creed or social class – as a fundamental base for social organization and political action.

b) support the work of the United Nations and other national and international organizations in the construction of world peace and support for human rights.

c) promote harmonious and consensual action for political and economical integration of all peoples, respecting cultures, religions, traditions and local languages.

d) promote education and the comparative study of cultures, religious, philosophical, scientific and artistic traditions, guaranteeing greater approximation and integration between human beings;

e) conscious the society towards the protection of life and the conservation of the natural environment, in defense of maintaining biodiversity, flora, fauna, rivers, lakes and springs; acting so that those who caused and come to cause damages to nature, mainly the water sources, recompose these ecosystems.

f) act towards world disarmament and the elimination of terrestrial mines.

g) propose to the armed forces the effects of their work in directing and executing tasks turned to the establishment of social justice and towards the defense of an ecological planetary equilibrium

h) institute a document of personal identification recognized all over the planet.

i) hold plebiscites as a form of valuing citizenship and amplifying direct and participative democracy.

j) acts towards the democratization of the media and communication means, as an objective of guaranteeing to all the information divulged of new ideas and thoughts; working so that the media assumes an ethical commitment of being at service with the values that edify and fortify a culture of peace amongst all beings.

l) propose the creation of a monetary unity, on a planetary scale, based on respect and the value of an economic solidarity and of the life of the more unprivileged communities.

m) defend a legislation which is fair towards the valuing of the State of Right.

n) create mechanisms and systems that enable effective participation of all in political, economical, cultural and social life on a planetary scale.

o) develop respect towards individual and collective rights, towards plurality and towards the diversity of ideas and thoughts.

p) guarantee equal opportunities for all, without discriminations, eradicating misery.

q) promote the access of all to education, especially the education of values.

r) promote the access to health, adopting a healthy life with natural foods.

s) institute actions that promote changes in consumerism habits, substituting excessive consumerism by conscious consumerism, with the equilibrated use of natural resources.

t) incentivate, on a world scale, the adoption of a neutral language – like Esperanto - as the language of communication and cultural and commercial exchange, conserving local dialects and languages, guaranteeing linguistically, democracy and the maintenance of cultural values of all peoples.

u) recommend the creation of establishments, whose participants are, in a cooperative and fair system, their proprietors.

v) support and develop agricultural activities that, through the perception of the unity of life, protect nature, objectifying an agricultural production that is in harmony with nature, guaranteeing organic nourishment and the correct and ecological use of the environment.

x) congregate social organizations to potentially increase their forces and spread their works.

y) support and promote cultural and spiritual events or campaigns that can elevate societies paradigms.