Sustainability is about sovereignty, service in cooperation with each other and the natural world, and a spirituality that understands connectedness. For humanity, it is also about being kind. Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Being kind is doing intentional acts that help, it involves voluntary acts of kindness, not only when it’s easy but when it’s hard to be kind.
We do not respect ourselves and so we do not respect each other! Nor do we respect the natural world! As a species we just do not seem to be kind. Yet, that is just part of the illusion of the conditioning under which we operate. The natural world lives in co-existent harmony – it is balanced with nutrient and energy flows – life, death, and restoration. Nature thrives when not challenged by humanity’s greed and destruction. Even when monocultures exist in nature (e.g., eutrophication) they become self-limiting and the base for new growth.
Current ‘civilized’ humanity lives in disharmony with no real plan except to generate profit, just destroying everything in their wake, and eventually themselves because they live in hatred, fear, violence and greed. Indigenous peoples understood balance, and any sustainable society we can create will know balance if it is to thrive. We can thrive not just survive! Our time as a species will be measured not by our technological achievements, but whether we can master the traits of Love, forgiveness, compassion, and kindness. We are literally on the cusp of choosing the proverbial ‘Red pill’ of awakening to our better angels or the ‘Blue Pill’ of decline and eventual extinction. The planet doesn’t need us but we need the planet.
We are controlled by those so blinded by their consumerist conditioning they cannot accept the scale of the global problems, not only that exist but in how they contribute to them. How long will we suffer the disillusionment and disappointment of everyday living, and suffer the mean-spirited and selfish people around us? Most of us dream of a better life in a less stressful society where kindness is the rule and not rudeness, arrogance, critically abusive attitudes, indifference, and insensitivity to what is happening. Kindness doesn’t cost us anything yet has the capacity to elevate our spirits and create a sense of well-being that transcends the seemingly uncaring attitudes we see every day. And this kindness is really at the core of who we are, but our conditioning makes us feel powerless and much to ready to hand control over to people whom we believe are the only ones with the capacity to create change.
People want a simple narrative that they can identify with and that justifies their beliefs! So many people are stuck in old modes of belief. We live in mistrust, fear, and violence. The future is still a blank slate and ready to be written and we are the ones who can and will write it. Our beliefs are the problem. Confirmation bias (see prior post The Psychology of Sustainability – Part 4: Healing Ourselves to Heal the Planet {July 2020}) has now caused the deep polarization we see where we are more and more coming to see those we disagree with as ‘the others.’ Sadly, the result of this is an increase in what I see as seeds of unnecessary violence awaiting some trigger to spark their growth.
If instead of a bonfire of violence, why can’t we could start a bonfire of kindness – imagine hundreds of millions of people starting to practice random acts of kindness every day. These acts don’t have to be complex or even cost anything. Merely exhibiting politeness, smiling, generating a friendly attitude, a simple truthful compliment, or a simple act of assistance are all that is needed to begin this growth. If we all just did a few minor acts every day, we would start to see a huge transformation of human behavior that makes sustainability a reality.
As spiritual guru Brian Weiss says: “Our days would seem sweeter, less discouraging, and we would harbor more hope for the future. The model of kind and compassionate behavior toward our fellow human beings should be America’s export and legacy, not greed-based business practices with money as the bottom line and ruthless, uncaring competition as the means to an end. In addition, we would be role models for our children. They would learn the power and importance of being kind. They would learn that the actual number of people reached by their simple acts of kindness does not matter. The importance is in the doing.”
When we think about changes needed even a few wise and enlightened leaders will not be enough. It has to come from us all at the grassroots level acting as if people and the natural world matter. It has to start somewhere and at some time – why not now? Instead of following the deep-rooted conditioning that permits violence and separation we can choose to do random acts of kindness. Start small and notice how you feel and then look at the people you are kind to. You will notice that most react positively. A few will treat it as weakness but they have been so hardened by their conditioning. That is no reason to stop. Just let them alone and move on. Just be conscious of what is happening. Do not focus on differences, for this merely amplifies the ‘us versus them’ that ultimately leads to indifference and violence.
If we are to live sustainably, we have to learn to live together and that doesn’t mean all becoming saints – wouldn’t that be a boring world even if we could find that within us? As I have said many times, it’s about being uniquely us as our authentic selves but finding that sense of acceptance of differences as a blessing and not a reason to blame others for what we have been conditioned to perceive as our shortcomings. We blame them and then attempt to fix them, which usually results in sense of separation, which is a kind of violence that is not only physical but mental and emotional. I would argue that our conditioning especially creates non-physical abuse of both ourselves, which we then project onto others.
Kindness – a tool to solve our problems and a way to create a path towards a sustainable world. This not some flowery crap to be told around some fire singing Kumbaya, but a way to actually save ourselves and hence the world. Violence and war have never, and will never be a solution for anything. Imagine the money spent on militarization being spent on building our society instead of destroying it. Once we stop trying to resolve our differences with might we can start to use our hearts, our minds, and our spirits to address whatever problems we think we have. Just try practicing random acts of kindness and see what happens. After all, practicing acts of separation hasn’t worked, so maybe, just maybe, a different and peaceful approach with acts of kindness could.
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