S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 2 2 4 3 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos Religion… is not a separate category of activity or experience [note: but] is in complex interrelationships with all aspects of the peoples’ life-ways… Shared principles underlie sacred concepts that are specific to each of nature’s manifestations and also to what could be called sacred geography… In addition, a special understanding of language in which words constitute distinct units of sacred power… Sacred forms extend to diverse architectural styles, so that each dwelling… is an image of the cosmos. Mysticism, in its original and thus deepest sense, is an experiential reality within Native American spiritual traditions. Furthermore, Eliade states: “For religious man, nature is never only ‘natural’; it is always fraught with a religious value… for the cosmos is a divine creation” (1987, 116). For this reason, religion is essential for resolving the environmental crisis and the restoration of an integral cosmology that upholds the sacredness of creation. Any resolution to the plight of the natural world is going to require an adequate ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, anthropology, and psychology, which are all part and parcel of a valid spiritual tradition. The acute myopia of our present condition has led to the predicament that humanity faces today: “Whatever calamity may befall you will be an outcome of what your own hands have wrought” (Qurʼān 42:30). There are some who view religion to be the problem itself and hold it responsible for the planet’s ecological degradation [2]. Take, for example, the biblical verse: “Be fruitful and subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28), which is often misinterpreted and conveniently exploited to place the blame for the environmental crisis on religion. This citation needs to be reconciled with St. Paul’s advice to “use the world without abusing it” (1 Corinthians 7:31) and “[h]urt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees” (Revelation 7:3). Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (2012, 99) declared that the desecration of the environment is none other than a sinful betrayal of the Spirit: To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For human beings to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to injure other human beings with disease… [note: and] contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air…with poisonous substances – these are sins. The importance of striking a balance between all dimensions of a human being was known by the ancients, who saw us as a microcosm that reflects the macrocosm. “The perfect balance of the primordial soul depends on the harmonious union of the domains of inner and outer man” (Lings 1975, 54). According to Zhūangzi (Chuang Tzu, c. 369–286), “[i]f the equilibrium of the positive [note: yang] and negative [note: yin] is disturbed…man himself suffers physically [note: and psychologically] thereby” (1889, 120). By contrast, disequilibrium on an egregious scale has become the norm for contemporary humanity. What has elicited this situation? A very important detail lacking from the principles that drive the environmental movement is the role of the psyche in sustaining a healthy human ambiance. Our ecological predicament needs to be recognized as an external unfolding of the spiritual crisis that afflicts us. As Nasr writes: “For a humanity turned towards outwardness by the very processes of modernization, it is not so easy to see that the blight wrought upon the environment is in reality an externalization of the destitution of the inner state of the soul of that humanity whose actions are responsible for the ecological crisis” (1990, 3). Sherrard also underscores this predicament: “The ecological crisis… is primarily a crisis about man and not about his environment” (Sherrard 1991, 70). Due to our samsāric or fallen consciousness, we have lost sight of our essential nature and have neglected to recognize the sacredness of creation and our vital connection to it. The Buddha’s cautionary words declaring that all phenomena are “burning” also calls attention to this disequilibrium. The disarray of our inner life is due to the dominance of the “three poisons”– greed (Pāli raga; Sanskrit lobha), hatred (Pāli dvesa; Sanskrit dosa), and delusion (Pāli moha; Sanskrit moha) – which is precisely what we are seeing today. Within the Christian tradition, we see that “the whole creation has been groaning in travail… until now” (Romans 8:22) and observe “the mourning of the land” (Hosea 41:3). Our fallen condition is mirrored in our natural surroundings which has been profoundly debased in the wake of the Fall. Within the Islamic tradition, it is said: “Corruption has appeared on earth and at sea because of what the hands of men have wrought; thus does God make them taste some of the consequences of their actions, so that they might return” (Qurʼān 30:41). There is a message of hope here, in that a way through this predicament can be found by restoring our lost harmony with the Divine. In the 1990s, the Kogi Indians of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Colombia delivered a powerful warning to the world at large about the ensuing ecological crisis (further quoted in Ereira 1992, 10). It has become imperative, they said, to con-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=