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As an opening case, this chapter begins with the author’s personal exploration of spirituality and sustainability. It stems from a nature experience she had in the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal, which altered her worldview and her sense of self, sparking an existential inquiry and shaping her quest for learning. Ultimately, this experience led her to investigate the main worldviews as present in the contemporary West, as well as their distinct relations with our environmental challenges. Building forth on her body of work in this field, this chapter discusses the dynamic evolution of the traditional, modern, and postmodern worldviews, thereby offering a larger, cultural-historical context to the newly emerging integrative worldview. Some authors have argued that this latter worldview may have particular potential for addressing global challenges such as climate change. By discussing its context of emergence, this chapter highlights the potential role of this worldview in addressing our sustainability issues. More fundamentally, the chapter aims to inspire curiosity to learn more about one's own as well as others' worldviews, as reflexivity, compassionate understanding, skillful communication, and creative collaboration are essential skills for addressing our complex, global challenges.
Human activity has been fundamentally disturbing planetary systems of our Earth. To solve the problems that we have created so far needs a different level of consciousness. The potential range of human development includes higher states of consciousness in which human awareness is profoundly connected to the holistic functioning of nature. By functioning in higher states of consciousness, it is possible to not just overcome the challenges of sustainability, but to advance toward flourishing—an optimal quality of life individually and collectively. Ancient Vedic seers were awake to the dynamic laws of nature’s intelligence in their own Transcendental Consciousness. From their cognitions, they brought out practical knowledge concerning life in accord with natural law. Two of the technologies from this Vedic system of knowledge are the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique and Maharishi VedicSM Architecture. Extensive research has examined effects of the TM technique on the mind and body, including development to advanced levels of psychological development. Vedic Architecture aims to promote mental clarity, health, and good fortune for inhabitants. The case of 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard, the largest commercial office building combining Vedic Architecture and green building, illustrates the application of Vedic technologies to harmonize human life with the ordering intelligence of nature.
Spirit literally means that which gives life to a system, and spirituality is the state of being one with spirit. In terms of quantum physics, spirit is prime energy, which is conscious, aware and intelligent. It fills the universe. In spite of its vastness, it is one—a single indivisible field of energy. The one manifests itself as many in material forms, creating the material world. If many forms were to sustain themselves, each of them must behave not as a self-centred individual, but as an integral part of the one. They can behave so, if they are in the state of one with spirit or are spiritual. Recent discoveries in neuroscience reveal human beings are endowed with the capacity to be one with spirit and to become who we really are. Once we become one with spirit, its oneness expresses itself through us as an inner urge to serve others. This is love. This study, with the help of scientific evidence, demonstrates how spirituality could bring not only sustainability, but also happiness, to the world.