The Future of Humanity and of the World

    With the rise of Europe a sixth stage in the evolution of human civilization began. In the course of its historical development through the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and the growth of democracy to the welfare society, Europe had already seen a number of violent conflicts between groups adhering to different ideologies, culminating in two world wars. After the Second World War Europe went into hibernation and its place was taken by the United States of America. American culture rose to prominence during the ideological confrontation of the Cold War and in the short space of sixty years swept the whole world before it as fallen leaves are driven by the autumn wind. As a result most countries throughout the world today accept the basic values of the United States. And yet those values, within the same brief sixty-year period, have seriously disrupted the ecological balance of the human spirit, of society, and of the entire natural world.

    The core values on which America's industrial power is based are democracy, social welfare and economic growth. Democracy demands social welfare, for which economic growth is necessary, so if social welfare is the ultimate goal, democracy provides the guidance and economic growth the means for its realization. But the economic sector can only increase the amount of social welfare available through a process of mass production and consumption, yet it is this very process that is causing the current waste and despoliation of the earth's resources. The depletion of global resources is also generating an enormous amount of garbage and contributing to the acceleration of global warming. If this vicious cycle is allowed to continue, it will soon bring our planet to the brink of collapse.

    Buddhism has had very little to say about this sudden emergence of a sixth civilization, and has played little part in the cultural and social developments that followed it. Now however the mainstream values of society have become seriously distorted. Not only have they done grave injury to mother Earth, they have also disrupted the harmony of society and damaged the human spirit. In these critical times it is therefore incumbent on all our educated young Buddhists to proclaim to the world: "We have now arrived and henceforth will continue to play a part in the social and cultural progress of humanity. It is our intention to help the human race re-establish the core values on which a healthier society can be based."
Any such values must satisfy three principal requirements:

    (1) They must shed those values that have led to the growth of unhealthy social structures within democratic societies.

    (2) They must provide a safety mechanism that will ensure social stability.

    (3) They must be capable of enriching people's minds, furthering the development of peace and harmony within society, and providing ongoing protection for the ecology of our natural environment.

    The unhealthy social structures that have grown up within our democracies have now become so entrenched that there is no longer any possibility of turning the clock back, and the process is proceeding with ever-increasing speed, to the great dismay of people of all schools of thought throughout the world. The destructive obsession with economic growth has now reached every part of the planet. The earth's store of natural resources is decreasing rapidly, while pollution of the environment gets steadily worse. At the same time our existing resources are being unfairly distributed, with the gap between rich and poor growing greater every day. This is now happening everywhere. Great nations are buying goods cheaply and exporting their pollution to poorer countries. Thus the smaller nations are receiving only increased pollution in return for their cheap labour.

These circumstances have given rise to correspondingly problematic changes in the social structures of most countries:

A. In smaller countries we can see how relentless economic growth has led to the collapse of the original social structures and the imposition of a new social system. As a result the social harmony that previously existed has been destroyed and these societies have been thrown into chaos. At the same time people's peace of mind has been shattered and a flood of imitative pop culture has drained their lives of genuine feeling and individuality. This is what comes of letting the demon of economic growth loose in such countries.

B. As for the more powerful nations, they may be enjoying the fruits of economic growth, but at the same time human nature is atrophying in their citizens, and suicide, depression and selfishness are all on the increase. The gap between rich and poor is also widening and energy supplies are dwindling, while snowballing economic growth is creating all kinds of fears and driving people into harmful activities like binge-drinking and drug-taking. If we were to take the cost of consuming natural resources, the sickness of society and the injury done to the human mind and spirit into account, statistics would show that the effect of economic growth on larger nations also is, on balance, overwhelmingly negative.

    But the developed nations are quite unwilling to take the disasters that economic growth brings in its train explicitly into account, or to devise some means of dealing with them. In fact it seems quite clear that governments have no idea how to deal with the situation at all. The reason is that our rational mind is simply incapable of recognizing the harm done by pursuing economic growth at all costs, so of course it can hardly be expected to provide an effective remedy for the disease.

    In this connection we would like to propose a set of core values intended to restore our societies to a state of health, and we offer the following twelve-point program for consideration.

    (1) A halt should be called to competitive economic growth.

    The nations of the world should stop measuring themselves by such standards as wealth, power, political status and economic growth. Instead of economic competitiveness, they should look for indicators of the degree of national happiness to such factors as social harmony, mutual understanding between different ethnic groups, the enrichment of human intelligence, the preservation of native forests and of the natural environment in general, healthy family relationships, and cultivation of the wisdom that is inherent in life itself.

    (2) Mass consumption should no longer be encouraged.

    Mass consumption generates a huge amount of waste, which in turn accelerates global warming. Mass consumption also requires mass production, and this leads to widespread plundering and destruction of the earth's resources. The only real solution is to get rid of the obsession with economic growth that lies at the root of the disasters now threatenting our planet.

    (3) Abolition of an economic system based on credit.

    In the case of both capital wealth and consumer goods, an economic system based on credit not only encourages the evil of mass consumption, it also harms family relationships and promotes the pursuit of fashion in a way that robs people of their independence and freedom of mind. It also exacerbates ideological conflicts between different groups in society, weakens interpersonal relationships, and impoverishes the intelligence of the individual.

    (4) An end to linguistic vioence within democracies.

    In democratic societies public opinion is easily manipulated by forces that blind the masses and lead them astray. In this way enormous damage is done to human nature itself. The parasitic structures that have arisen within the democratic system have now cast a veil of fear over our material prosperity, to the point where all the social progress that has been achieved so far is in danger of being swept away.

    (5) Education should not be regarded as a product, or religion as a mere profession.

    The purpose of education is to improve the quality of our lives. It is not something the worth of which can be defined in terms of the acquisition of knowledge or the gaining of academic degrees. If schools conceive of the process of education as being like the production of goods by a factory, the quality of society as a whole will steadily deteriorate and education will no longer be able to achieve its object, which is to help young people grow and develop their character.

    In a similar way, religion is also a kind of training through which we can learn to develop our innate wisdom. If religion is treated as just another profession, where is the spiritual character of the clergy, their holiness, going to come from?

    (6) We call on all primary producing countries to levy a tax on the use of natural resources.

    (7) We call on the people of developing nations to bear in mind the importance of planting forests and preserving the natural environment when planning their recreational activities, and to punish polluters.

    (8) We call on the nations of the world to include ethics and family relationships in their educational curricula, and not to focus exclusively on the acquisition of knowledge.

    (9) We call on the nations of the world to promote community life, social ethics and concern for public welfare.

    (10) We call on the nations of the world to encourage personal interaction and communication among their citizens.

    (11) We call on the nations of the world to consider ethnic and social differences from a humanistic point of view, and to respect the right of different groups to their own distinctive values and life-styles.

    (12) We urge the religions of the world to engage in regular dialogue and exchange of views with regard to their basic doctrinal differences.

    Religion seeks to promote harmonious relationships between people. We ourselves advocate the establishment of a core system of humanistic values as a step towards the creation of a more harmonious society, one which is genuinely suitable for human beings to live in. In the world today we can see that nature is out of balance and our planet is facing a catastrophe. Society is also disintegrating and there are constant outbreaks of violence. People are feeling frightened and uncertain about the future. Surely Europe did not rise to prominence so that we should find ourselves in this situation. And yet it has all been brought about by pathological structures that have developed within the Western democracies.

    In view of this succession of cultural, psychological and natural disasters, I would like to make a heartfelt appeal to all our educated young Buddhists at this gathering of the holy monastic Sangha today to commit themselves to the awakening of humanity and to do whatever they can to turn the tide before it is too late. If we fail to give serious thought to these matters now, we will have no way of dealing effectively with the crisis when it comes. May the buddhas of the ten directions bestow their protection on us and help the earth and the human race to avoid catastrophe!

Hai Yun, 16th October 2007
(Translated by Dr. Tony Prince)