Reclaiming the Sacredness of the Earth: Towards a Spirituality of Stewardship

Philip Emmanuel C. Peaflor

Changing Mindsets and Outlooks According to some ancient legends, the European explorers who later on discovered lands in Africa, Latin America and Asia and later on made them into their colonies, were actually searching for the fountain of youth, apart from gold and spices. In those times there was an obsession for long life, even immortality. Today the secret to long life has been demythologized. For example, according to some health experts, one of the secrets of rejuvenation is proper breathing which could be done easily without any cost. Proper breathing brings more oxygen into the lungs, which is very important in cleansing the blood. This is usually taken for granted because we breathe unconsciously, but if we become aware of how to breathe properly so as to take in more oxygen, it would greatly contribute to maintaining a vibrant and sparkling health. What happens if the air has been so polluted? Would proper breathing apply to making ones health rejuvenated? The body can continue to function without food for a prolonged period of time, say one or two months, without water for one week, but without air even for only a few minutes it dies. So the air that we breathe is a single most important element for people to survive. But are people conscious about the air they breathe? Or of the quality of the air that they breathe? In the 80s when we first had bottled waters or purified waters because the quality of potable water began to degenerate due to pollution, some people started to create a future scenario when air or oxygen would also be bottled. At that time the idea was absurd, but now it has become a reality air is being bottled or canned especially for those who are having difficulties in breathing because of air quality! In the early 90s there was a certain Japanese film with a theme on the environment, and one of the striking thoughts of that film was a statement which says that in this world what we only need are clean air and clean water. The statement is very profound because it is value laden. What would happen for example if all our rivers and seas and springs have been contaminated with mercury, lead or acid, etc.? And the same thing with the air that we breathe? Or another way of looking at it is to ask how do we get fresh air to breathe? What would happen for example if the remaining forests of the Amazon in Brazil considered to be the lungs of the world be leveled down to give way to cattle for beef and hamburgers? And with the forests gone, where would we get our water too? The problem with the current economic development paradigm is not so much in the concept of profit. Profit in itself is not bad. It is a motivating principle for people to become creative and competitive. The problem however lies on the question of how much profit would people need and at what cost or to whose expense. The well

renowned author and scientist Barry Commoner (e.g. in Closing the Circle, Making Peace with the Planet, etc.), in analyzing how modern technologies actually cause environmental destruction, came to some conclusion on the role of profit as key to decision-making both in capitalist and socialist societies. More advanced but destructive technologies which replaced those which are less or not destructive ones, are cheaper and reduce cost and therefore maximize profit, needless to mention, at the expense of people and their environment. Social scientists, moral theologians and ethical philosophers would agree that ultimately greed is the main reason for multinational or transnational corporations to unabatedly exploit the earth and destroy the environment to earn more profit. But with this kind of argument some would just shrug-off their shoulders in hopelessness as they would resign the matter to human nature. True, we cannot change human nature. As human beings people are prone to weaknesses and negative tendencies. But people are capable of goodness and great things too. We may not change human nature itself, but we could change mindsets or outlooks in life. One outlook that we could change is how we look at our material reality, the earth or creation. How we see material reality determines how we relate with it. If we look at it for example as mere source of materials for our physical satisfaction then we may just exploit it the way we want to irregardless of whatever consequence our kind of action would bring. But if we look at it as sacred, a gift from a Divine Creator, to sustain our life, then we would treat it with great respect in reverence to its creator, with the awareness that its destruction would lead to our own ruin and which would be a violation of some divine scheme of things inherent in nature to sustain life. Materialistic Worldview vs. Spiritual Consciousness It could be argued that the cause of most of the worlds environmental woes is the materialistic worldview that emanated from the Cartesian-Newtonian philosophy of the 17th century that dichotomized reality into mind and matter with the contention that the mind could objectively know the material world. This worldview argued that the universe is composed of hard facts that could be discerned according to the laws established by scientists and mathematicians. In other words, reality is what the mind could perceive and explain, and the way to explain reality is through scientific and mathematical laws. It means that whatever cannot be explained scientifically and mathematically is not real. Therefore the idea of the spiritual, or God, for that matter, is not possible as the only reality is the mind and what the mind can measure. It appeared fantastic, an enlightenment from ignorance, and a liberation from fear born of ignorance for now it is possible to explain the nature of physical realities without having to resort to religious dogmas or to magic or superstitious beliefs. The mind is a powerful tool to explain and establish scientific laws. And the consequence too of this philosophy changed the course of human history. It has propelled the industrial revolution and gave way to more scientific and technological inventions, innovations and advancement which greatly improved peoples way of life in many ways, e.g. mode of

production of goods, mode of transport, medical procedures, etc. However it has its own downsides or negative implications too, which would put quality of life on account of such a scientific advancement highly debatable, e.g. changes in patterns of relationships people becoming individualistic, the breaking down of communities and families; or the degradation of the environment as a result of the unabated exploitation of the earths resources with the aid of new technologies. With the triumph of the materialistic worldview, the world had lost its sense of the divine in nature or creation. And with God or the sense of the divine nowhere in the picture, the cultural value system (at least in the West) shifted from faith values, e.g. concern and compassion, sharing, simplicity, etc., to material values, i.e. material goods over relationships, profit and accumulation of wealth and consumerism. This value system tended to be imposed in a form of a cultural domination or hegemony by the more advanced countries in the West as they mold the patterns of economic and political relationships around the world from the period of colonization (or imperialism) to the neo-colonialism of the present economic world order of globalization and the free market. Proponents of this philosophy, which has now taken its form in neo-liberalism, argue that production and generation of more material goods and wealth, with the aid of science and technology, would eventually lead to progress and the alleviation of poverty and suffering. This is very noble indeed. But why is this not happening? On the contrary more and more people are subjected to poverty and more suffering as their resources are exploited and only a few tend to benefit from this process. There is a sociological and psychological explanation for the development of various philosophical, social, economic and political models. This is what Max Weber called as the problem of meaning. People everywhere have been preoccupied with explaining life and existence, of misery and suffering, of the quest for happiness, etc. How did the materialistic worldview develop? It came out from peoples general experience of pain and suffering and the desire to be happy, and that pain and suffering is the result of the non-fulfillment of human desires. Long time ago, Buddha already saw that the cause of misery and suffering in the world is attachment to such desires, that, therefore, for Buddha, one should cultivate detachment in order to eliminate pain. But for the modern world, in order to attain happiness it is essential that human desires be satisfied, which it has thought it has found in materialism, hence the accumulation of more goods, or the value for wealth and consumerism. So its all a problem of meaning. If we want to change the way we make our current history, then we would need a new kind of worldview and meaning system. Actually there is no need to make a new worldview because it was already there long before Descartes and Newton were born. We only have to recover it, believe in it, live it and preach it by our way of life. The spiritual worldview or the spiritual aspect of the human consciousness need not be a separate but rather part of our whole understanding of life and of our physical world. There are limitations to scientific or mathematical laws such as, for example, appreciation for beauty which cannot be measured, or vicarious suffering which is a universal experience, or love or the desire to belong, or the pursuit for happiness which is the

underlying motivation for the accumulation of material goods and wealth, etc., and thus, certainly, there are operations of the mind beyond the realm of the physical. Eric Fromm in his work entitled To Have or To Be has argued that true happiness cannot be equated with the attainment of physical pleasure because it is essentially contingent upon limited and temporary material resource, which explains the psychology behind consumerism. In order to sustain the pleasure there is a need to continue to consume whatever product is deemed to provide pleasure. And in order to maximize pleasure consumption should also be maximized, thus, conspicuous consumption. Eric Fromm has proposed to rethink the having mode of existence in which value is given to the accumulation of goods, into the being mode which is a more positive attitude of relatedness with the world in which the human person is valued not for what he has or has accumulated but for what he is as a human person in his relationship with the world and fellow human beings. The being mode is a more spiritual mode which gives recognition to the higher qualities of the human person other than the physical, who has the capacity to transcend his basic human desires from the physiological to the rational. With this new mode of existence Eric Fromm contends that it is possible to alter the present disastrous course of development humankind is leading itself into. The Sanctity of Creation Without a spiritual consciousness, people would treat the physical world only as mere material object at their disposal for their own satisfaction. There is nothing extraordinary in everything. Every material thing is just like everything else, a mere object to satisfy ones desires. Today, as a consequence of such an outlook, people are destroying the global environment at a horrifying pace even after the 1992 Earth Summit which had already defined a more sustainable development paradigm in order to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from the earth. Even now our own government, while professing adherence to sustainable development is actually doing the contrary, for example by revitalizing the mining industry for the sake of big business interest in the guise of poverty alleviation and national development. So where is the problem? The problem is the very lack of the spiritual consciousness that would enable people to have a sense of sacredness in nature and to thereby treat it with reverence not as a mere object to be exploited. In the Philippines people could be very religious but not necessarily spiritual. Filipino religiosity is oftentimes associated with external rituals which may not necessarily mean that one understands at all the meaning behind those rituals. So a President may regularly attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist but whose decisions are actually contrary to the principles of his faith. Or a businessman may be a regular churchgoer and benefactor but derives his income from illegal logging,

etc. In this case there is a dichotomy between the religious ritual and the essence of what the ritual represents. The spiritual consciousness need not necessarily involve a religious undertone. In the same vein of argument that one could be very religious but not necessarily spiritual, one could be very spiritual without being religious. A person, for example, who may not know how to pray the rosary or read the novenas, but treats his fellow person with respect with the feeling that to treat him or her otherwise is a violation of the others dignity as well as ones own, is very spiritual. People may not even know the teachings of the Church or may not even be Christians as in the case of the early Mangyans1 who somehow understood the interconnectedness of things that when they cultivated a portion of land they allow it to rest after a certain period of usage, or in the case of the Dumagats2 or some other indigenous peoples who would not pick all the ripe guavas in the forest because other people may also happen to pass by or in order to leave some too for the birds. When Chief Seattle told the President of the United States that the earth does not belong to man but that man rather belongs to the earth, and which had been echoed by Makliing Dulag3 in our own time, that is a very profound spirituality. So spirituality is actually a quality of ones consciousness of (ones) being in relation to other beings as related beings, particularly in terms of mutual dependence or interdependence, and not apart from as if one can exist independently by himself. Here lies the sense of the sacred when people recognize the importance of other people or of the other elements of nature as crucial for maintaining the life process and the harmony of the environment such that an outlook of reverence for life and creation is fostered, hence the native American Indian would call the buffalo as his brother, or St. Francis of Assisi would call the air as his sister, or the Shinto would say, All you under the heaven! Regard heaven as your father, earth as your mother, and all things as your brothers and sisters (from the Oracle of Atsuta). That the earth is sacred cannot be disputed by those who believe that all of creation comes from God who created everything. Literature from various religious traditions abounds pointing to the sanctity of nature which reflects the image of its creator. The Psalmist of the Judeo-Christian tradition, for example, would say, The earth is the Lords and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it (Psalm 24.1). There is a similar echo in Sikhism which says, The earth is a garden, the Lord its gardener, cherishing all, none neglected (from Adi Granth, Majh Ashtpadi 1, M.3, p.118). The Shinto tradition, because of its pantheistic outlook, has a very clear sense of the sacredness of creation when it teaches that Even in a single leaf of a tree, or a tender blade of grass, the awe inspiring Deity manifests itself (from Urabe-no-Kanekune).

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A grouping of indigenous people in the Philippines. Another grouping of indigenous people in the Philippines 3 A leader of a northern tribe in the Philippines who was assassinated in the 70s because he opposed the building of a big dam that would inundate a big portion of the ancestral domain of his tribe.

The following several other verses namely, from the African traditional religions and from Islam, share and affirm the same belief of Gods manifestation in creation:
The stream crosses the path, the path crosses the stream: Which of them is the elder? Did we not cut the path to go and meet this stream? The stream had its origin long, log ago. It had its origin in the Creator. He created things pure, pure tano. (Ashanti Verse, Ghana and Ivory Coast) Have you considered the soil you till? Do you yourselves sow it, or are We the Sowers? Did We will, We would make it broken orts, and you will remain bitterly jesting We are debt-loaded; Nay, we have been robbed. Have you considered the water you drink? Have you sent it down from the clouds, or did We send it? Did We will, We would make it bitter; so why are you not thankful? Have you considered the fire you kindle? Did you make its timber to grow? Or did We make it? We ourselves made it for a reminder, And a boon to the desert-dwellers. (from the Quran 56.63-73)

Ancient wisdom spoken through various religious traditions of the world, even the indigenous religious traditions, has recognized the sacredness of the earth and attributed it to having been created by God. God as a sacred being manifests himself in everything that he created, thus making everything sacred. And because of this recognition, ancient wisdom taught that all things be treated with respect and reverence for in so doing homage is given to its creator. This kind of reverence helps to foster respect for the environment such that it could be said then that even before, there was already an awareness of the importance of the environment in the whole scheme of things. But why is there a continuous gross disregard for the environment as indicated by the unabated destruction of the forests and rivers and seas or the atmosphere, etc.? The reason by now has become very obvious. It

is because of peoples disregard of their own religious beliefs which have been replaced by the more secular worldviews. Todays Bantay-Dagat4 volunteers, for example, who guard the municipal waters against illegal fishing activities, or those civil society activists decrying illegal logging activities might be surprised that thousands of years ago, Confucianism already had the following teaching:
If you do not allow nets with too fine a mesh to be used in large ponds, then there will be more fish and turtles than they can eat; if hatches and axes are permitted in the forests on the hills only in the proper seasons, then there will be more timber than they can useThis is the first step along the kingly way. (from Mencius I.A.3)

Or it has been found out that one of the causes of environmental destruction is war. It is interesting how Judaism and Christianity have a relevant reference to preserving the trees in times of war, namely:
When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field men that they should be besieged by you? (from Deuteronomy 20.19)

Janism teaches benevolence toward all living beings (from Tattvarthasutra 7.11). And then in Acarangasutra it says: One should not injure, subjugate, enslave, torture, or kill any animal, living being, organism, or sentient being. This doctrine of non-violence is immaculate, immutable, and eternal. Just as suffering is painful to you, in the same way it is painful, disquieting, and terrifying to all animals, living beings, organisms and sentient beings (from Acarangasutra 4.25-26). This has found similar vibrations in Hinduism, for example in Mahabharata where it says, The mode of living which is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all creatures or [in case of actual necessity] upon a minimum of such harm, is the highest morality (from the Mahabharata, Shanti Parva 262.5-6), or in Taoism which teaches thus: Buy captive animals and give them freedom. How commendable is abstinence that dispenses with the butcher! While walking be mindful of worms and ants. Be cautious with fire and do not set mountain woods or forests ablaze. Do not go into the mountain to catch birds in nests, nor to the water to poison fishes and minnows. Do not butcher the ox that flows the field (from theTract of the Quiet Way). Similar sentiments could be found even among the African traditional religious, such as the following Yoruba Proverb in Nigeria, which says, One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.
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Bantay-dagat is an activity of community volunteers in the fishing villages in the Philippines to guard the municipal waters against illegal fishing activities.

The following passages from Buddhism portray how a complete reverence for life, even for insignificant creatures such as ants, could be practiced further:
At the opening of ant hills, Please have trustworthy men Always put food and water, Sugar and piles of grain. Before and after taking food Offer appropriate fare To hungry ghosts, dogs, Ants, birds, and so forth. (from Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 249-50)

Even Islam, which had become unjustly misconstrued today by some, that is politically, teaches compassion the same way as other faiths do, as shown in the following anecdote:
According to Abu Hurairah, the Messenger of God said, A man traveling along a road felt extremely thirsty and went down a well and drank. When he came up he saw a dog panting with thirst and licking the moist earth. This animal, the man said, is suffering from thirst just as much as I was. So he went down the well again, filled his shoe with water, and taking it in his teeth climbed out of the well and gave the water to the dog. God was pleased with his act and granted him pardon for his sins. (from the Hadith of Bukhari)

Reverence for life and creation requires certain actions that would maintain balance and harmony in nature, which have been guaranteed, for example, in the JudaeoChristian tradition. Exodus (23.10-11) for example says: For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Along this line Islam has a parallel exhortation or reflection, which says thus: Never does a Muslim plant trees or cultivate land, and birds or men or beasts eat out of them, but that is charity on his behalf (from the Hadith of Muslim). It is the sense of the sacred in creation that motivates people of various cultural traditions to treat the earth and all that is in it with respect and care, a matter which will continue to find relevance today and in the future in the light of the global environmental predicament. The verses below, from the Native American Religions, tenderly portray this relationship of reverence with the earth represented by the buffalo which is the American Indians (i.e. the Sioux Indians) source of food, clothing and all other necessities:

Behold this buffalo, o Grandfather, which you have given us. He is the chief of all four-leggeds upon our Sacred Mother. From him the people live and with him they walk the sacred path. (The Sioux Prayer)

As the world supposedly progressed however, in the so-called more enlightened era of the modern and post-modern world, the ancient wisdom of the worlds religious traditions which for centuries promoted and fostered harmony and balance of nature, had been gradually replaced by the materialistic perspective of scientific and technological advancement. Ironically it has brought more evil than good, particularly in the way the environment is exploited which oftentimes is driven by profit that is motivated by greed, and socially has changed the modes of relationship among nations of the world and even among individuals, families and communities. Today we talk about global warming, climate change, the peak oil theory, large-scale disasters on account of environmental degradation, and conflicts over shrinking resources. And very distressingly the more vulnerable communities or nations suffer most the consequent repercussions of drought, famine, disease, hunger and poverty and violence. This is the world of the new millennium. This is our present world. The Unity of Creation The first law of nature is the interconnectedness of everything. Everything is connected to everything else in a relationship of interdependence. Nothing survives by itself. The plant, for example, grows because of its dependence on the soil and on water and sunlight. Then as it grows and becomes a tree its roots in turn hold the soil and water which is important for various other practical purposes. Its fruits and leaves have different other uses. As a forest, the trees give off oxygen which is condensed into clouds that make the rain which then waters all other plants and vegetation, etc. Another example is the food chain where everything in it is dependent on each other one way or another for survival. In agricultural crop production there are both harmful and harmless insects. The harmful pests exist for various reasons, while the harmless ones feed on the pests thereby letting the crops grow in the process. For the practical purpose of human survival, there is a need to recognize the interconnectedness of all things. For example, in order to breathe we need air or oxygen, and in order to have clean air to breathe we need the trees or the forests to give off the oxygen that we need. Then we also need water. Again the trees and the forests are important sources of water. When we level down our forests we lose our water. Then also, we need food to eat, and we get them through agricultural production which is dependent on the quality of the nutrients in the soil and the availability of water for irrigation. When we cut down our trees our streams and rivers dry up and the land becomes a desert. Or comes the rain and we get flood or landslides instead. With the

land becoming a desert and thus losing its nutrients we begin to apply chemicals to make the crops grow. But with the constant application of fertilizers the soil becomes acidic and furthers its desertification process. And when we poison our soil (i.e. with chemical fertilizers), we poison too our ground water and the streams and rivers, and we poison all the other living things in them, e.g. fish and other aquatic animals, etc. Nature is interconnected. Whatever happens to the mountains affects the rivers and seas. If the mountain is denuded, soil erodes and the rivers are silted down to the seas, then the corals die for lack of oxygen in the water or the seaweeds die because the process of photosynthesis is obstructed. Then the fishes are gone because there are no more nutrients in the waters. And to talk about mining, everything is destroyed in mining for example the forests because of open pit extraction; or the ground waters, the streams and rivers and seas, because of chemical use (e.g. mercury and acids) and mine tailings. And with everything destroyed, so is biodiversity. But the miners would ask: What do we need biodiversity for? Biodiversity is life itself, the very interconnectedness of life. We destroy biodiversity and we destroy our life support systems. Can we eat gold or copper or the other minerals? The great American Indian Chief Seattle beautifully explained this interconnectedness in a speech in 1854 addressed to the president of the United States who wanted to buy the remaining Indian territory in what is now the Washington State. Chief Seattle thus said:
You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground they spit upon themselves. This we know, the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know, all things are connected, like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it

The failure to grasp the interconnectedness of all things is the highest level of ignorance, for then one is leading ones own life to destruction. In its folly, humanity through science and technology, which it has thought is greater knowledge or wisdom, is fast destroying the world, so alarming that now not only the more advanced countries but also the poor countries talked about how to now reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to mitigate global warming. Not that science and technology have no positive impact on life, but that science and technology propelled by the materialistic worldview for the sake of profit and consumerism such that they have disregarded the sense of the sacred and in so doing desecrate nature and life itself.

There has been a controversy regarding the authenticity of Chief Seattles speech in 1854 on the occasion of the visit of the new territorial governor of the Washington territory, Isaac Stevens on behalf of US President Franklin Pierce who wanted to buy the remaining Indian territory in the area. There was no verbatim recording of said speech but it appeared in a column written by Dr. Henry A. Smith in the Seattle Sunday Star on October 29, 1887. The above version was written by a Texas Professor Ted Perry in 1971/72 for a film on ecology entitled Home. Controversy notwithstanding, there is more than enough evidence today of the negative consequences of human activity against the environment.

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This ignorance stems from the failure to grasp the sense of the Divine, or may be self-imposed from the disbelief in a Creator who is the source of all life and itself is the principle of existence immanent in all things. Again ancient wisdom expressed by the various religious traditions share a common understanding of the one principle of life in every creature which explains the unity of creation and the interconnectedness of all things. For the Shinto tradition, divinity is the principle of existence which has caused heaven and earth and is governed by it. It is the spiritual nature of all things where it dwells:
Divinity is that which was there before the appearance of heaven and earth, and which gives form to them; that which surpasses the yin and the yang, yet has the quality of them. This divinity is thus the absolute existence, governing the entire universe of heaven and earth, yet at the same time dwells within all things, where it is called spirit; omnipresent within human beings it is called the mind. In other words, human mind communes with the Divinity which is ruler of heaven and earth; mind and Divinity are one and the same. Divinity is the root origin of heaven and earth, the spiritual nature of all things, and the source of human destiny. Itself without form, it is Divinity which nurtures things with form. (from Kanetomo Yoshida, An Outline of Shinto)

Buddhism teaches a similar thought when it teaches the omnipresence of the Buddha, or the pure thought or consciousness, in all beings and in all things, unchanging and ever present, thus the principle of existence:
Buddha abides in the infinite, the unobstructed ultimate realm of reality, in the realm of space, in the essence of true Thusness, without birth or death, and in ultimate truth, appearing to sentient beings according to time, sustained by past vows, without ever ceasing, not abandoning all beings, all lands, all phenomenaHow should enlightening beings see the body of Buddha? (Dharmakaya) They should see the body of Buddha in infinite places. Why? They should not see Buddha in just one thing, one phenomenon, one body, one land, one being they should see Buddha everywhere. Just as space is omnipresent, in all places, material or immaterial, yet without either arriving or not arriving there, because space is incorporeal, in the same way Buddha is omnipresent, in all places, in all beings, in all things, in all lands, yet neither arriving nor not arriving there, because Buddhas body is incorporeal, manifesting a body for the sake of sentient beings. (from the Garland Sutra 37)

Hinduism calls this pure thought or consciousness as the Self without which life would not be possible:
The Self is one. Ever still, the Self is Swifter than thought, swifter than the senses. Though motionless, he outruns all pursuit. Without the Self, never could life exist. The self seems to move, but is ever still. He seems far away, but is ever near.

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He is within all, and he transcends all. The Self is everywhere. Bright is the Self, Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise, Immanent and transcendent. He it is Who holds the cosmos together. (from the Isha Upanishad 4-8)

Taoism calls this principle as the Tao, the unnamed great energy or force which has existed by itself before the creation of heaven and earth and is the mother of the universe. The Tao is constant, unchanging, everywhere, pervades all things and thus unites all things:
There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, Which existed before heaven and earth. Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change. It operates everywhere and is free from danger. It may be considered the mother of the universe. I do not know its name; I call it Tao. If forced to give a name, I shall call it Great. Now being great means functioning everywhere. Functioning everywhere means far-reaching. Being far-reaching means returning to the original point. (from Tao Te Ching 25)

For the Muslims God who is everlasting is always present everywhere, as to him belongs heaven and earth and all creation:
God! There is no God but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; To him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there who shall intercede with Him Save by His leave? He knows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His throne comprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-high, the All-glorious. (from the Quran 2.255: The Throne Verse)

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Another beautiful example of the recognition of the transcendent attribute of God is expressed in the Tenrikyo tradition, which says: Any and everything of this universe is all the body of God (from Ofudesaki 3.40). This tenet is affirmed in the following verses from Hinduism:
Thou art the fire Thou art the sun Thou art the air Thou art the moon Thou art the starry firmament Thou art Brahman Supreme; Thou art the waters Thou, the Creator of all! Thou art woman, thou art man, Thou art the youth, thou art the maiden, Thou art the old man tottering with his staff; Thou faces everywhere. Thou art the dark butterfly, Thou art the green parrot with red eyes, Thou art the thunder cloud, the seasons, the seas. Without beginning art Thou, beyond time and space. Thou art He from whom sprang The three worlds. (from the Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.2-4)

Creation is one because God the ultimate reality, who is one, pervades all creation. He is present in everything and thereby manifests himself in everything. Thus every part of creation is a mirror of the whole of creation, which has the same essence as the rest of the whole. Whatever the form, therefore, everything shares the same principle of existence which emanates from the Divine and ultimate reality. Stewardship of Creation: The Human Vocation What is stewardship? Simply speaking, stewardship is being a caretaker or taking care of something on behalf of somebody else who has the prior right (or ownership) to that something. A steward does not own, but he is in-charge. Being a steward is therefore a great honor because the rightful owner has put him (the steward) in-charge, meaning that the owner has so trusted the steward that even in his absence he is confident that everything would be alright because he knows that his steward will manage everything in such a manner as he himself would. But being a steward too is a great task and responsibility precisely for the very reason that the rightful owner expects the steward to manage the affairs of his (the owners) estate or business in such a manner as he himself would.

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To look at stewardship of the earth as a human task and responsibility from a utilitarian perspective is a very practical philosophy. For in the end, if we do not take care of the earth well and on the contrary destroy it, we ourselves would suffer the consequences as what is now happening. This is the very reason why nations of the world gathered together at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1992 for an Earth summit and decided for a more sustainable development model realizing how destructive were the technologies employed by the nations of the world as they continue to pursue industrialization and development. The issue at Rio of course was not simply the destructive technologies, but more of the underlying value systems behind the existing socio-economic and political paradigms. The Earth Summit talked about a paradigm shift from the unsustainable development model to sustainable development which is actually a changing of mindsets or outlooks but for a very practical reason, that is, human survival, not only of the present but also of the future generations. The paradigm shift is good enough, and if implemented according to the agreements laid out in the document called the Agenda 21, would greatly improve the human conditions all over the world. However the sustainable development model could be enriched further when taken from the perspective of stewardship that the human person is called to reflect on the deeper meaning of his earthly existence beyond the material satisfaction of his physical desires, e.g. food, health, sexual gratification, material wealth, power, etc., to the more spiritual notion of a human vocation to commune with the divine principle of existence, with his Creator, or God, in all things, in all creation. It is this sense of communion or communing with the divine principle in all things that makes the human person more compassionate and reverent to life and creation, that is, to his fellow men and women and to all living and non-living things realizing that everything is interconnected and aware that in being one with creation the human person is in deep communion with its Creator. And to commune with the Creator of the universe through creation is to feel and experience the sacred or divine and become divine oneself. Ultimately the human vocation is to become the image of his Creator as one comes into communion with the ultimate reality and principle of existence where he discovers God Himself. For God created man according to his own image and likeness, thus the Old Testament says, In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis1.27). To recognize and to accept this vocation is to accept the true nature of the human person, which is image of God, and divine, for God Himself willed it thus, as discovered by Hinduism even before the advent of Christianity. In Srimad Bhagavatan (11.2) God spoke thus: Truly do I exist in all beings, but I am most manifest in man. The human heart is my most favorite dwelling place. To accept the true nature of the human person as Gods image is to think like God and become a co-creator with Him, thus the concept of stewardship which becomes inherent in the nature of the human person. In fact stewardship as a task and responsibility has been ordained by God Himself when He created man as described in Genesis (1.28): And God blessed them, and God said to them Be fruitful and multiply,

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and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. The same narrative is found in the Quran (31.20) which says: Do you not see that God subjected to your use all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, both seen and unseen? The Psalmist has beautifully expounded further this divine ordination of mans stewardship of creation when he said, thus:
When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet. (from Psalm 8.3-6)

This does not mean however that though God ordained man to be in-charge of his creation and had given him (man) dominion over everything, man already has the license to do what he wants with everything for his own benefit, that is, that he could dispose of at will whatever resource is around him without due consideration for the consequences of his actions. Having been created in the image of God and therefore sharing Gods nature as Creator, and thus, becoming a co-creator with God, the human persons task is to think like God the way He created the world to give and sustain life. In the context of stewardship, mans task and responsibility therefore is to take care of the earth not to destroy it, so that the earth will continue to sustain life. Being Gods steward of the earth the task and responsibility of the human person is to maintain and enhance creations harmony in such a manner as God himself would. Buddhism has a particular keenness on the task and responsibility of maintaining creations harmony, even among the smallest of creatures, as it says for example: May no living creatures, not even insects, Be bound to samsaric life; nay not one of them; But I may be empowered to save them all (in Miralepa). Taoism is even direct in its teaching against destroying nature, for example in Chuang Tzus exhortation (from Chuang Tzu 17): A horse or a cow has four feet. That is Nature. Put a halter around the horses head and put a string through a cows nose, that is man. Therefore it is said, Do not let man destroy Nature. Do not let cleverness destroy destiny [the natural order]. Confucianism has beautifully expounded on the vocation of the human person, which is to develop his true nature and in doing so to influence others to develop themselves, too, then to develop and improve nature or the nature of things and consequently to transform the world and become one with God in complete harmony. It says thus: Only those that are absolutely sincere can fully develop their nature. If they 15

can fully develop their nature, they can fully develop the nature of others. If they can fully develop the nature of others, they can then fully develop the nature of things. If they can fully develop the nature of things, they can then assist in the transforming and the nourishing process of Heaven and Earth. If they can assist in the transforming and nourishing process of Heaven and Earth, they can thus form with Heaven and Earth a trinity (from the Doctrine of the Mean 22). Stewardship is a shift from the material to the spiritual perspective, but again the spiritual perspective is not new. It has already been preached and practiced in the four corners of the world long before the dawn of industrial civilization. Now the challenge is how to rediscover or to reclaim the spiritual worldview which means more than just merely adopting the sustainable development paradigm, but also discovering deeper systems of meaning to reflect on the basic goodness of the human nature as image of God, and on the human vocation of promoting creations harmony, in order to transform the global village into a more humane world where people, living in simplicity, live in solidarity with one another regardless of race, creed or culture, in the spirit of compassion and reverence for life. Then the world becomes a more beautiful place to live, free from violence and war, free from hunger and disease, free from the calamities wrought by environmental degradation, for thus said Confucius: It is Goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty (from Analects 4.1). Ultimately the essence of the spirituality of stewardship is goodness, in fact goodness is the essence of all spirituality, and by its nature goodness, according to the Latin maxim Bonus est diffusivum sui, inevitably spreads itself. And as God, the Highest Good put himself into the human heart, the human person then becomes capable of doing good and spreading goodness of nurturance, compassion, respect and reverence for life. The test therefore for one who had set out to embark on a paradigm shift from the material to the spiritual is how goodness has spread out from his person, and the measure would be how much he has promoted harmony, compassion, reverence for life, etc., indicated by his own lifestyle, the way he relates with or treats people, his environment, even animals, etc. The earth is as much dependent on man as man is on earth. But as man had in reality dominated the earth, everything on earth then is dependent on mans action. The earth becomes what man makes of it. If man destroys the earth, then it becomes ruined. If he takes care of it, then it radiates life. The true steward is one who takes care of the earth to further its life. In Confucianism, again, man is exhorted to be good, for the good person, or the superior man, reflects in him the beauty of the world, thus: The earths condition is receptive devotion. Thus the superior man who has breadth of character carries the outer world (from I Ching 2: The Receptive). Breadth of character cannot be found in accumulation, or greed or profit or consumerism. Breadth of character lies in ones recognition of his relatedness with others and with the world such that he realizes that whatever happens to the others and to the world happens too to himself. It is the kind of character that moved Issa to declare:

according to some stories, Issa was Jesus name when he went to India to study the Vedas.

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How could I seek for pleasure for myself while others are in want? How can you think that while the children cry for bread, while those in the haunts of sin call out for sympathy and love that I can still fill myself to full with the good things of life? I tell you, nay: we are all kin, each one a part of the great human heart. I cannot see myself apart from that poor man that you so scorned, and crowded to the wall; Nor from the one in female garb who came up from the haunts of vice to ask you for sympathy and love, who was by you ruthlessly pushed back into her den of sin; Nor from that little child that you drove from your midst to suffer in the cold bleak winds of night. I tell you, men, what have you done to these, my kindred, you have done unto me. You have insulted me in your own home; I cannot stay. I will go forth and find that child, that woman and that man, and give them help until my lifes blood all has ebbed away.

Finally, the goal of the stewardship of the earth is to be able to give life to humanity especially the more vulnerable communities and nations of the world unjustly marginalized by the exploitative nature of industrialization and the free market, symbolized by that poor man that you so scorned and crowded to the wall or the one in female garbwho was by you ruthlessly pushed back into her den of sin or that little child that you drove from your midst to suffer in the cold bleak winds of night Therefore the spirituality of stewardship is a spirituality of life of hope and joy and beauty!

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Prayer for Universal Renewal Oh Lord God, we call you by many names but you are one God, Father and Mother of us all. You are Allah, Yahweh, Jehovah, Ahura Mazda, the Great One, the Divine Source of Energy, the God of Abraham, the One preached by the Prophets and wise men of old. You are Shiva, or Krishna and Rada, or the Brahman. You are the Creator Nzame, Muumba, Chineke, Ngai or Imana. You are Oludumare, Mawu or Unkulu-Nkulu the Supreme Being. You are our Great Ancestor Nana or Ataa Naa Nyonmo. You are the Great Mother Opu Tamuno. You are Orise the Source of All Being. You are Yataa, or Nyinyi, present everywhere. You are the Great Providence, Chukwu, who determines our destinies. You are Onyame, the One Who Gives Fullness, or Molimo the great Spirit of the Universe. You are Nhialic, Kwoth, Soko, Olorun. You are Ama-ama-amasi-amasi, or one Who is Never Fully Known. You are our Grandfather Sky and Grandmother Earth. You are Kche Manitou or the Wakan Tanka or the Kami, honored by our forefathers of all races from every corner of the world. In the bigotry of our dogmas we have made war against each other invoking your name. Enlighten us O God to make us see the narrowness of our minds and self-righteousness. Remind us that as we are all your children, everyone is a brother and a sister who has as much right to live as anyone else. Teach us that it is not our religion that matters or that will save us, but how we have treated each other as brothers and sisters of one human family. We have suffered so much because of our fanaticism and the parochialism of our doctrines, that we have excluded in our hearts those who do not adhere to our beliefs and treated them differently. Remind us Lord that the essence of all religion is to make us understand how to become more human and to make our world a more humane world, not to make rigid rules on how we could please you or how not to offend you so we could earn some heavenly reward. Therefore we ask you Lord to make us understand more, and to bring us back to, the teachings of our Prophets about justice, compassion, solidarity, love, forgiveness, peace and the stewardship of creation. This then will save us, not only in the afterlife but also in the here-and-now, if we look at each other without hatred in our hearts and if we do no wrong to each other and treat each other with kindness. Renew our hearts O God so we could renew the face of the earth. Give us a new faith one that will open our eyes to the things that really matter: not our triumphalistic beliefs and rigid moralities, neither our elaborate rituals nor our lavish celebrations; but the joy of living together as one family, as fellow human beings, caring for one another and caring for the earth where we live! Amen.

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----------------------About the Author: Philip Emmanuel C Peaflor is a member of the Lingkod Tao-Kalikasan, a national NGO in the Philippines involved in consciousness-raising on relevant environmental issues in the Philippines. He obtained his PhD in Applied Cosmic Anthropology from the Asian Social Institute (ASI) where he also finished his masters degree in General Sociology. He also holds a masters course in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines and is a commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the Philippine Army Reserve Command (ARESCOM). A former National Coordinator and Executive Director of the Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), a national NGO network involved in sustainable rural development, he is currently an independent international consultant on monitoring and evaluation. (contact philip.penaflor@gmail.com)

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