WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "PROGRESS"?
INTRODUCTION
The term Progress creates confusion today, because much of what we
believed to have been progress has resulted in the destruction and
breakdown of our world. Examining the idea of progress is necessary for
determining a sustainable future. Progress means growth towards a goal;
movement without growth towards a goal is simply change. Therefore, the
idea of progress also raises the question as to the goal of life.
Life is comprised of physical, mental/emotional and spiritual
attributes. Although there are improvements and advancements in the
physical and mental/emotional realms, any improvement or advancement in
these dimensions creates new sets of concerns and problems. The
"American Dream," of pursuing, consuming and accumulating as many
possessions and psychological pleasures as possible, has failed by
leaving escalating numbers of people around the world unable to meet
even basic necessities, while struggling with a deteriorating
environment. Activity begets activity, and the cycle of human behavior
has produced consequences forcing society to the most extreme levels of
conflict resolution and problem solving in history. It seems that for
every advance of our modern age, a negative force has grown in the
balance.
As a result of the United Nation's Earth Summit and the '92 Global
Forum, the consequences of industrialization and consumerism are out in
the open. The industrial definition of progress has come to mean
political and economic control with unlimited financial growth, speed
and convenience. Under the industrial definition of progress,
contradictions are continually being formed between those who are
benefiting from a so-called advance and those who are not. As long as
privilege extends only within a certain group, those outside the group
pay the consequences, and in so doing, create opposition to the
advancement. In the case of the world today, progress has been at the
expense of the livelihood of the majority of the world's people and,
through pollution and waste, at the expense of the planet.
Civilizations have come and gone as a result of only pursuing their own
limited self interests. What is unique about current times is that the
very fate of humanity and the Earth is at stake. For the first time we
literally, through war, nuclear power, toxification and current
business practices, have the ability to destroy ourselves.
If the very advancements that we have come to associate with progress
are the same advancements whose consequences produce conflict, pain and
suffering, then one might wonder, "What is progress?"
WHAT IS PROGRESS
Progress is that which leads to spiritual attainment. The realization
of spiritual unity (love) is the supreme goal of life, its ultimate
fulfillment. Growth towards this spiritual goal occurs as a
transformation of consciousness from ignorance to enlightenment. The
intentional participation in this process is known as the practice of
spirituality. The link between all religions, cultures and
civilizations is the unending search for fulfillment and unconditional
love.
Humanity's
underlying common goal, common desire is Spiritual Unity - Peace, Love
and Cooperation. Therefore, Progress can be recognized and
measured only by the increasing degree of Love, Devotion and
Cooperative Spirit that human beings realize in the care of each other
and all of life. No indicator of wealth or power is a true measure of
the health or well-being of an individual or a society, and therefore,
is not a true measure of progress. Those practices, products and
services that facilitate society moving toward Spiritual Unity, while
integrating economic, political and environmental requirements, are
Progressive.
Society is a single multi-dimensional entity, and this realization must
be fixed in the hearts of our educational, scientific, cultural,
political, economic and other institutions. Human beings are not
separate from, or above, the network of nature that includes all life
species and natural resources. A spiritual definition of Progress
allows us to create the optimum physical, mental/emotional and
spiritual conditions for individual and collective actualization. This
means the meeting of basic necessities, the overcoming of dogmatic
divisions and the sustainable care of the environment for all. The
result of true progress (spiritual attainment) is the all round
advancement of humanity thereby diminishing conflict and problems as a
whole.
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