The Ecological Wisdom System (II)

II. The Macro Stages of Human Existence and Development – Primitive Coexistence, Savage Competitive Survival, Civilized Competitive Survival, and Harmonious Coexistence

Let’s take a look at the horizontal development line of the developments of energy, matter and human history. After living beings emerged on our planet, and after human beings came into existence, we went through a couple of very distinct stages. The first was the Primitive Coexistence stage. During this period, human beings had no need to exploit the Earth’s resources. The resources on the Earth were sufficient for all. At the same time, human beings were living in a way that was in accordance with the Earth, with nature, and with the entire chain of the states of life. That was the reasonable existence of human beings on Earth at that time, and there was harmony between man and nature.

With the growth of desires, human beings wanted to access more and more resources, and have more rights. At this time, we entered the second stage, the Savage Competitive Survival stage. At this stage, the weak were at the mercy of the strong, who invaded and looted whatever they wanted–mainly the resources of the weak. Under this pretext, human beings went through a disastrous stage of development, with on-going wars, killing and looting, and all sorts of hatred as a result.

After the two World Wars, most human beings had come to a realization that, if this trend were to be continued, human beings would vanish, long before the Earth’s natural use-by date. Nuclear war alone threatens ultimate mass distinction. With this in mind, some people started to put their focus on mitigating the excesses of predatory economic activities. The development of concern for a more balanced world economy was a shift from the looting of resources of the past to a more civilized distribution. This indicated the coming of the third stage–Civilized Competitive Survival stage. With the development of commercial and financial activities, human beings achieved a significant redistribution of resources and wealth. However, one of the most important elements has been neglected–the over-exploitation of the Earth’s resources. We have come to realize that we have created a huge conflict between ourselves and the Earth. A lot of places on the Earth are no longer suitable for use; water and ground sources have become contaminated, as has the very air we breathe. It increasingly seems that, even before the sun dies out, we will have nowhere to reside.

During the stage of development for economic prosperity, we had used all possible talent to drive the progress, and took this as a sign of advancement in human civilization. This was actually a big mistake. From the perspective of universal energy harmony, the only natural energy relationship is one that is healthy and sustainable. As we’ve come to see, the Dao follows nature. And the opposite of nature is “man-made”. What conclusion should we draw from this? We should understand that no matter how well and how complex we make the images of this three-dimensional world, there is not much significance to it. The most significant thing to do is to make the connection with the higher dimensions by breaking through the obstacles between us and the higher-dimensional energies. All developments in science and technology may be a good thing in what they had set out to do, but they will also bring unknown catastrophe to human beings. The ancient Chinese who were full of wisdom had reminded us that advancement in technology is not the best thing, and they understood, from a high-dimensional perspective, that human beings could be the victims of the extreme pursuit of technology.

Without this understanding, we might not be able to realize the true situation of our competitive survival–we’d be drinking poison to quench our thirst. The over-exploitation of the Earth has seen many overdrafts on the future resources which belong to our children and their children. We see that, in order to stimulate the economy, many different tricks have been applied. For example, the “Double 11” (November 11th) Online Shopping Gala has been promoted to stimulate sales, which, as a result, leads to a lot of impulsive buying and spending. While the increased sales boost helps the manufacturers to stay in business, it also creates a lot of waste, using up limited and precious resources. People who spend their money impulsively seldom have a proper use for the products they buy. The resultant waste is yet another overdraft of the Earth’s resources. Such overdrafts are the inevitable result of an economy-oriented development that considers consequences only as an afterthought.

This situation is like the relationship between the front wheels and the rear wheels of a car. The rear wheels will never catch up with the front wheels. The front wheels are the development, and the rear wheels are the environment and responsibilities. What’s worse, the rear wheels will never be able to make up for the damage created by the front wheels. The reason that we see more and more efforts put into environmental protection these days is our recognition of the devastation caused by our front wheel drive. At this present moment, we must change our mentality entirely by changing the nature of the wheels. The front wheels need to be named responsibility, and become the leading force for sustainable development. You may notice that we hear less often the phrase “sustainable development,” as we are now facing a bigger problem–survival crisis.

It is my hope that human beings will be able to enter the fourth stage of development–Harmonious Coexistence among all people, ethnic groups and countries. There should be great harmony among us all. Such harmony would be complete, holographic, and totally natural. It would be the existence of harmony between consciousness energy and material energy. This is the future which we should all aspire to.