Wisdom Tree...

Today is the day before COP 28 ends and the moderator Golo Pilz– Adviser Renewable Energy Brahma Kumaris started the sessions hoping that everyone involved shows flexibility, so some decisions are reached in this important global meeting.

The panel of experts for this episode were Prof. Dr. Mark Lawrence, Scientific Director Research Institute for Sustainability-Helmholtz Centre Potsdam; Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Chair Governance &  Ethics Committee in Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and child health and Sister Maureen Goodman, Programme Director for the Brahma Kumaris, UK.

Dr. Flavia shared that in many regions of the world, climate change is playing havoc with the human health. Women, children, and adolescents are the most vulnerable and pay the price with an increased exposure to diseases. Most of the negotiations in summits such as the COP are male driven and at times are not able to address the needs of the marginalized. She felt there is an urgent need to address this as the climate change and health are the two sides of the same coin.

Golo shared that Brahma Kumaris as an organization is administrated by women and this makes this organization unique and special.

Dr. Mark propounded the need for a transformative, transdisciplinary, and co-creative approach to the Climate change. All knowledge generation in the world is not being created by science alone. There are many other sources of knowledge creation including religion and spirituality. No solution of climate change should be created without drawing from the wisdom of multiple sources of knowledge. These should supplement scientific thinking. As a scientist and researcher, he also shared the concrete evidence that has been established about the impact of meditation on brain and the connection between inner transformation and transformation of a society.

Sister Maureen outlined the role that faith leaders are playing at this COP to help policy makers look at big picture beyond narrow agendas, short terms goals, greed, and arrogance so humanity flourishes and not just sustains. She reminded that we are currently living in a very violent time and peace and climate change have a very crucial connection. From spiritual perspective we know that our original state is that of peace and humanity, but we seem to have come far from it. With the external identity come greed, possessiveness, and arrogance. The first violence we do is the violence against ourselves by suppressing the real self. We must come back to our natural spiritual state of being. That’s why mediation and spiritual practices are very crucial. The long term sustainable solution is to begin from within.

Sister Maureen lead a short guided mediation at the end of the session.