Environmental Integrity - where does sustainability begin?

There are two principles by which consciousness researcher and teacher David R. Hawkins MD recommends we seek to live:

• Universal forgiveness and gentleness without exception
• Reverence for life in all its forms whether or not one understands them

Either of these principles will lead to a more careful and considerate approach to one’s self, to others and to the planet.  If we can begin with ourselves and learn how to nuture the environment that is the body we have a sound platform from which to expand our conscious connection with the world around us.

While we understand the implicit relationship between microcosm and macrocosm we also know that science struggles to integrate the two.  The rules and conditions applicable to very big things are apparently incongruent and irreconcilable with the very small.  String theory and others such as the ‘Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything’ make valiant and, except to the gifted few, almost unintelligible attempts at an explanation.  Simple causation is, we know, much discredited as an explanation of evolution, the weather and almost anything of importance.  Chaos theory and non-linear models are better predictors of and explanations for change, though again are unfathomable to most.

We are nonetheless left, once we have asked and explored the question, with a sense that there is a fundamental integrating principle or power, a meta-paradigm, that is the ultimare substrata of all existence - for many the answer is God;  for some it is consciousness; for yet others it is Life; and perhaps it is all of these and more.  We intuit a fundamental lawfulness in the Universe and however we may seek to explain the sense of connection if it is there for us, if we open our hearts and minds to the idea, then we can reconcile what often seems unreconcilable, embracing apparent paradoxes, and find a peaceful belonging.

The challenge of sustainability has become of paramount importance in so many aspects of our going on in the world, so much so that messages such as ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ strike fear into the hearts of children and adults alike that our planet may not sustain us.  The human race, or rather a small part of it, has been racing to exploit natural and human resources while seeking to prolong human life and enhance human ‘lifestyle’ through the application of new technologies.  The truth as to what is in fact happening in our planetary environment is indeed inconvenient and yet seems so great and complex as to be beyond our wit to resolve or even influence.

I believe we can usefully begin with the integration of our individual environment of the body.  I find it useful to consider my physical/mental self as an integrated something; and because I am human I also elevate my self to a ‘someone’.  The human body is an extremely complex form of life, one that includes a brain capable of mentation including imagination and intellection.  The brain does not function in isolation as it is integrated with the rest of the body in a highly complex biological, chemical, mineral and electromagnetic whole.  Mind includes the whole body-brain complex and some scientists have even suggested that mind may be better understood as a field that permeates and surrounds the body.

What is clear is that our individual senses, and our sense of ‘self’, arise in and from the body-brain complex.  I know that my thinking, emotions, beliefs and behaviours are influenced by my whole body although I do not always know it is happening.  Physiological responses to stimulus through the senses influence cognitive abilities – the most obvious impact is seen in the ‘fight or flight’ response when the pre-frontal cortex (which houses our higher level cognitive abilities) is temporarily disengaged.  If I am ill, have a headache or am overtired, or I am taking some medication that makes me feel drowsy, then my mental capacity is weakened and my judgment affected.  There are so many conditions that can have a subtle or gross impact on my functioning as a person, my health and therefore my individual sustainability.

My body is the environment in which the ‘I’ seemingly exists and experiences; it is so much more than a means of transportation [check out this short 4 minute film by Peter Russell].  The quality of my experience is influenced by the conditions in my body as much as outside it.  In fact, my experiential awareness is internal to me and the body responds to what is imagined as if it were being experienced and effectively does not know the difference.  This does not mean that the body is stupid but rather that it is innocent, knowing only truth and nothing of intrigue.  We on the other hand are so smart that we can deliberately create stimuli that excite us in one way or another, such as through the medium of television.

It seems that what we put in to the body, whether through ingestion, sensory or mental/emotional stimulation contributes to and influences our immediate personal environment.  We now have available so much information as to what is good and not good for the body.  Equally, we well know what is and is not condusive to our equanimity and sense of well-being.  We know that potato chips excite the palate and yet once in and past the mouth they contain ingredients that are harmful and calories empty of any nutritional benefit.  We do the same with our minds when we invite in images and ideas that have no intrinsic value simply because they provide excitement.  Our mentations, the thoughts that form in mental activity, influence our environment and well being and discipline is needed to ensure that space, time and energy are not given to those that are harmful.

My experience is that if we can begin caring for our personal environment, that of our body, we naturally begin to have care for the wider environmental spheres in which we subsist; namely our social and community environments.  How we interact with those environments and what we put in to them has an effect similar to what we put into to our bodies – the impact of our actions (and inactions), including what we communicate, may not be noticeable and yet we can be sure that every one has some effect however imperceptible.

Once we are better connected to our individual, social and community environments we are better able to integrate with the planetary environment and act with care and consideration as we move through such parts of it as we occupy or travel in.  We can begin with and always return to our own body-brain complex, learning how to nurture and develop a way of being in the body that sustains life.

Take a look at the programme for our conference - Body, Brain and Business

© Peter Rouse 2008