virtuality, you know, how we think about our own selves developing, sort of storing the myth that we set our lives in, sort of context that we make for our lives. So just thinking of these as four areas, I think, in or typically, and this is a characterisation, typically in the industrial growth society, there's a sort of gulf between them, so this is a sort of empty space in that thinking about these within one person, quite often one's ideas about spirituality are quite separate from one's ideas about politics. People have the idea, for example, that their religion is a completely private matter, that it doesn't particularly impact on who they vote for or what they represent economically. You know, you can have people, you know, professing to be deeply religious and yet working for that, likewise knowledge or science or technology can be quite separate from that, art and music and culture, and again what happens is that we can sort of compartmentalise in our lives, in our thinking between different areas, these different areas of our lives, for some of them they may be more joined up than others, but potentially at least there's this great gulf because there's not a great language in our culture to join these up, there's not a great sort of precedent to join these up, or what happens in a way that these can become sort of self-referential systems of their own, with their own language, their own sort of objectives that are unrelated to the others. So spirituality can be about self-development, but seeing the self as sort of separate in a way, not seeing the self as a part of a bigger network, or spirituality can be about just sort of rehearsing inherited dogma that we've got from our parents and just sort of holding to that. The realm of arts and music and culture, again it can be self-referential, that realm of art that can only be appreciated by other people in the know, or it's just about self-expression for its own sake, not really referring to any sort of higher values, or you can't have the sort of academic role of knowledge for knowledge's sake, you know, that sort of academic idea of knowing everything about one time, specialism, just for its own sake, or political power for its own sake, you know, people just wanting to get power, because that's the thing to do. You know, these worlds become worlds from their own, or they become subsumed to money. So in the economic sphere, this is a classic thing where, you know, so much of our world today is all about, you know, the bottom line is profit. Profit for shareholders, you know, the world of the multinational corporations and so on. And this can also, this in a way, can become, can sort of infect these other realms where art becomes something that is done for money, or technology is just used in order to increase profit, or increase someone's power, or defend someone's power. You also, in the realm of the arts and music, quite often it just becomes about sort of entertainment, quite sort of bland, sort of anesthetic effect to keep this from the sort of alienation that results, because the effect of this sort of compartmentalization on the individual is just a sort of division, an alienation, and a depletion of our power in a way. We're missing out on something, if these things aren't sort of joined together in some way. So turning to how this might be is joining all of these in a mandala. So the implication of these being joined together is that they are all serving some sort of common uniting purpose. So we can start thinking of this just in terms of the individual. What it might feel like to be an individual where you've got all of these powers sort of pointing in the same direction as they were. For a community, let's say the Earth community, what may or may not come about as a result of this great turning. Well what would be at the centre, what would characterise this Earth community? How would an Earth community that we need to come about? How would it be different to the society that we have at the moment? I think the main thing is that there would be a clear goal, a clear purpose at the centre which perhaps you could define in different ways. Perhaps it would just be a culture that has human growth and human development at its centre. A vision of what it is to be human. A vision of the development of a human being through the different stages of their life. The need that we have for spiritual growth. The need that we have in order to be fully human. We need to have purpose. We need to serve. So this community needs to be somewhere where everyone can find that particular way of serving other people. It also needs to be a society that is in harmony with nature where sustainability is just sort of second nature. Respectful the Earth, reverence for life are at the centre. From a Buddhist point of view, what is at the centre is awakening. So it is awakening from our limited states of craving or of hatred or just sort of not seeing ignorance. Just a good way of translating ignorance in a way is just not looking the fact that in this world we spend a lot of our times looking the other way. So the new the Earth community needs to be a culture that values awareness, that values the courage to look at things as they really are, that values the ideal of liberation from whatever limits us as human beings. And I think each of these spheres will then look very different. So the political economic sphere, well certainly you know the average business instead of being focused on profit at the end of the day, would be focused on the development of its workers, the actual providing a context for those working there to grow and develop for right livelihood. It would also be naturally ethical in that it would look at the whole sort of supply chain and the effects of its actions. So it would be a very very different model from what we have narratives. Likewise the political sphere, well you know imagine a sort of political structure that was geared towards human development. I think intrinsically it would just look very different. It would be much less centralised. It would be more about valuing people's participation and community. It would be less about, this is using Chris Johnston's phrase, less about power over people and more power with people, power through people. A much more collective vision of what leadership in society means. The realm of knowledge and science and technology, well again at the moment they tend to be quite sort of run away, you know research is done at the behest of profit making institutions. And any sort of ethical implications of that tend to be a bit of an afterthought. And it's almost like you know technology happens and we don't have much sort of hold over it. So even if this just meant that the whole sort of systems of research in science and technology, we're actually subsumed to human need and not to profit, well that would be quite a vastly different world. Can I take questions at the end? Yeah, absolutely. That is part of the great turning, fantastic. I think what I'm giving here, as I said, is a bit of a characterisation of what we need to turn from towards what we need to go to, there's a vision that we need to move towards. It's not saying that we're not already going along that path. The realm of art and culture, well again that would be supportive of the sort of values that we need in Earth community. The values of human growth, of human development and beauty. And finally spirituality, again it would be spirituality not as some sort of private affair, not something that is sort of made exclusive by dogma. It's something that needs to be accessible to all. And that seems itself as part of a much bigger, this world sees itself as part of a much bigger world, as part of the whole world. So well according to the principle of emergence or the image of the mandala, is that what happens when these different systems, as they were joined up and become part of one system, is that energy is released, or to put it in terms of emergence, actually if we just join up these areas, then we don't know exactly what's going to happen. It can only be a good thing. But we never know what sort of Earth community is going to arise out of this. We can have ideas about it, but the exciting thing is that we'll at least join together and release power, release energy and creativity. So this is something of a magical process. It's a bit like a sort of process of nuclear fusion, if you don't mind using that analogy. It's that the different corners of the mandala come together. So in the Buddhist mandala of the five Buddhas, these are represented by five different Buddhas, with five different kinds of wisdom, which in a way equates to what I've put here. The Earth touching Buddha, the Buddha of wisdom, I'll show you. The jewel, the jewel born Buddha, who is a sort of protector of art and culture, the Buddha of meditation and compassion, Amitabha. And Amurgha City, the deep green Buddha of unlimited success. So in this five Buddha mandala, these five sort of fuse together and become a sort of white hot, pure white light of the central Buddha of Viarocha. That in a way is a symbol to me of what happens when these powers of ours can sort of come together in this creative emergence way. I also just want to refer to this vision of human growth and development being at the center of the mandala, being at the center of the great earth community and what that might mean. And I think one thing is that it would very naturally respect the needs that we have at different stages of our lives in a much more wholesome way than we do at the moment. So again, to characterise how things can be and it is a characterisation. The children, for example, very young children, can be just sort of shunted to one side while their parents do other things, go off to work. And actually, you know, the developmental needs of babies and young children are absolutely vital. David Corton, in his book called The Great Turning, talks about this that anyway, if we just got one generation right, then it would actually solve a lot of the sort of social tensions and problems that we have. So there are actually a lot of what we need as young children, just from a sort of physiological point of view in terms of how the brain is developing from the sort of limbic brain actually near cortex and so on, the limits of biological knowledge. What we need at that stage is the assurance that we are living in a safe world. So we need a lot of stimulus, we need a lot of love, basically, a lot of attention. And basically, if we don't get that when we're young, then anyway, we're always going to have some sort, we're always going to be faced with some difficulties, some lack. It's really, it's essential that, you know, children are respected in terms of their developmental need at that time. And as we grow up, as we become adults, well, we need a sense of power, we need a sense of purpose, you know, we need to learn, we need to find our skills, our strengths, we need to find our place, our niche in which we can serve. And then moving on through the rest of life, we also need, when we become older, again, there's a tendency in our society that the old people sort of get shunted into a sighting of someone, that they're somehow inconvenient or they're no longer useful, or at best, they just sort of go off and play golf for a few decades. Whereas I think an Earth community, a community with human growth at the centre of the mandala, it will respect what our elders have to teach us, it will respect the wisdom of elders. You know, it may even have a particular sort of rite of passage for elders and instead of being at the sidelines of the community, they'll be within the community. And it may be that in order for all of those things to happen, for those different sort of needs at different times of our lives to be respected and honoured, well, the whole structure of society does need to be different, it needs to be smaller scale, maybe that will, maybe that will evolve as well. So tomorrow and, you know, today this evening, and tomorrow, I'm going to be leading a couple of rituals down in the ritual space on the field, which, in a way, they are the rituals of the Earth community or of the great tournament, they're the rituals that go with the talk. I haven't done a t-shirt, but there's a talk and a ritual that sort of go together. So in this evening's ritual, we'll be looking at these different powers within ourselves, these different worlds that we have. I guess, you know, for some of us, some of us have particular strengths, don't we, in different quarters of the mandala, but I guess all of us have something in all of these. But, but, but, richly, we'll be reminding ourselves of those inside of ourselves, reminding ourselves of where they've come from, so reminding ourselves of, well, you know, perhaps the great, the great political or social or economic thinking, so the great scientists, so the great artists or musicians or the great spiritual teachers from the past, will be reminding ourselves of what of the greatest of strength that we've gained from, from those. And also from the, from what we've gained from people who've taught us in all of these areas in our own lifetime, you know, our own primary school teachers or, or lecturers or spiritual teachers. And we'll be dedicating them to the centre of the mandala, and in a way purifying them and dedicating them. And then we'll be sort of invoking the great turning. So via rotation of it, the pure white central Buddha, his symbol appropriately is a wheel, so it's very appropriate that, that, that, you know, when we invoke him, in which it's the, the power behind the great turning. And then tomorrow night's ritual we'll be doing something where we honour all the difference of stages of our lives, and again, dedicate those to the great turn. So I hope you'll, you'll join them for those rituals. It'll also link, I think, to some of the workshops that we'll be having in this space in the mornings as well. So it's a whole ensemble of package to get a posh to. I just mentioned, at three o'clock this afternoon, if anyone would like to be involved with chanting music for the workshop, this great ritual evening, you will be waiting to do go through a couple of chants. I know there's musicians around. So if you go along the track and pass the showers, as far as you can go, there's white belts at the end. So at three o'clock, very well. So just to, just to sum up in a way, I think what, what we need to do in our own lives is, it's kind of integrate these different powers that we have, these different spheres of our talents, our skills, dedicated to this higher vision. And then kind of connect those things so that we're actually doing that in the context of the health community as well. But I think if, you know, if everyone did those three things, and that's perhaps a lifetime's work, that that in a way that powers this great turning, this in a way quite mysterious turn around, that we need to effect in the world. So I'll leave it there. Thank you so much. (Applause) (Applause) (applause) (applause)
