Spirituality and Sustainability
(Section Summary)

How best can we go about influencing present mindsets away from greed and domination through the maximization of short-term, unsustainable benefits, toward actions that assure the long-term viability of the human habitat, which includes all Earth’s ecosystems? In order to encourage the public at large to begin holistically embracing the advancement of sustainability thinking and action, it is vital to emphasize the things that are important to humans in their everyday lives. People usually show a great deal of concern for the ethical, fair, and sincere ways they conduct their lives, achieving their desires and intentions. This moral spirit can be tapped into in order to draw attention to and enhance advocacy for sustainability by encouraging people to think with their hearts as well as their minds (Orr, 2002). The sustainability movement can gain strength from a core belief in the human capacity for goodness by drawing connections between for example, our current consumer behaviors and our religious and/or spiritual beliefs.

Decisions and actions guided by a mindset of excessive consumption, wealth accumulation, and extreme concentration of power will only exacerbate unsustainable trends globally. In contrast, decisions and actions guided by a shared morality within society that includes limited consumption, nonviolence, and ego-less collaboration, can ultimately have the effect of reversing unsustainable trends (Gutierrez, 2005). There can be no sustainability without a social order guided by shared aims. And this shared aim or solidarity comes from the human moral philosophy promoted by one’s own spirituality or relationship to one of many different religions and their basic beliefs.

The combined forces of sustainable development advocates and people embracing spiritual beliefs can help shift unsustainable patterns. Cultures are increasingly good at creating consumers but fall short in efforts at creating citizens. On the other hand, religious groups as an example have a powerful opportunity to empower their large followings with religious teachings that warn of excessive materialism. Spiritual and moral attitudes can promote sustainable actions by the way people buy-in to changing their own destinies – where mercy and social justice opportunities meet in an effort to create a more sustainable world for the disadvantaged. Sustainability informs spirituality by the way a merciful act of providing a drink of water or a meal of rice, is turned into a long-lasting impact by integrating that morally-driven first step with the effort to scientifically and technically address equality in providing the means for the poor to be able to supply their own clean water and food without assistance from elsewhere eventually. .......... read more!

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