Light dispels Darkness: Facing Global Problems

The light of core spirituality shows us the way of facing problems of global proportions which humanity is facing today. Modern advances in science and technology have quickly shrunk the world into a global village with all its potential and all its challenges, but our minds are still fixed in the eras when we lived separately and disconnectedly in our own geographical pockets. Our recent global living environment requires a matching global mindset and our core spirituality offers such a mindset.

The final word of core spirituality is the indivisibility of the universe. The universe is not a mere collection of separate individual beings. On the contrary, it is an intimately and indivisibly connected system of beings, animate and inanimate, thoroughly pervaded by the ground of being. The ultimate goal of spiritual education is to clearly reveal this secret. We must then learn it and take it deep into our consciousness if humanity is to successfully address the problems of global proportions it faces today.

Jeffrey D. Sachs (Sachs, Jeffrey D., Common Wealth, Time, Vol. 171, No. 12, March 24, 2008) argues that our survival requires global solutions to the global problems which we are currently facing. We have no choice but to end ‘our misguided view of the world as an enduring struggle of “us” vs. “them”’. According to Sachs, “What we call violent fundamentalism should be seen for what it really is: poverty, hunger, water scarcity, and despair.”

To address these crises, Sachs notes that we have made global commitments and treaties which remain unfulfilled and real solutions have failed to emerge because of a long list of barriers such as cynicism, defeatism, outdated institutions, competing nationalism and unchecked greed.

Sachs suggests clear objectivity, new sustainable technologies, clear implementation strategy and sources of financing. He concludes with the crucial need of transcending the list of barriers which is related with our human condition. “We will need science, technology and professionalism, but most of all we will need to subdue our fears and cynicism,” says Sachs. He emphasizes his conclusion by quoting John F. Kennedy in exhorting us to end our differences and to make the world safe for diversity.

Without saying it explicitly for reasons best known only to Sachs, he is in fact advising spiritual development on a global scale to transcend our human condition without which he sees no hope for global survival. Education in the core spirituality of humanity has the potential of the kind of transcendence required to address the grave global crises we face today.