Today, people and their money are not bound by national boundaries or cultural traditions. They go wherever they please, binding the Earth into an ever-tightening knot of a global village. Our quandary lies in that the more plentiful and advanced our material civilization becomes, the more empty and anxious our hearts feel. Many of us have lost our way. wandering in a spiritual wasteland, filled with meaningless routines that are inherently unsatisfying and draining. We are lost and without a compass to provide consistent direction, without a system of life values for humanity to share collectively.
Our general confusion is evident in the breakdown of traditional social order in family, nation, and religion. Divorce rates approach fifty percent in most industrialized countries, rapidly making the traditional family model obsolete. Feeling restricted by national borders, arguments for a multinational citizenship are gaining merit and support. Churches and temples no longer fill the deep spiritual hunger of youth, and congregations slowly but surely diminish to gatherings of the old faithful. Our traditional values and morals are slowly losing their once absolute authority, necessitating creation of a larger and wider system of values that can guide us in this rapidly changing and expanding age.
At this point, when our old system of values seems devoid of content and power, will we break apart into disparate components? Will we seek only to fulfill our individual needs through competition and domination, without regard to the whole? Are we no longer able to share collective values, or a collective dream? Will we stay chained to protecting and satisfying our ‘selves’ in isolation? Or will we once again feel the joy of a shared dream and shared achievement? Is this the best that we can do?
Ilchi Lee articles on earth.
