Round 7

Is there a role for spirituality in a time of crisis? Can it be of help in facing and eventually overcoming the crisis?

The answer, given in the four stupendous contributions to this Round of the Forum on Science & Spirituality, is a resounding YES. Crisis is both danger and opportunity. The danger is that the systems that drive our world take us to a point of no return where the world collapses around us; and the opportunity is to change the dynamic of the systems so they would take us toward a world that is more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful. To achieve this “worldshift” we need both dependable information and deep insight: the former from science, and the latter from spirituality. We can’t make it without either of them. But with both, we have a chance.

Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton diagnose the nature of the crisis in which we find ourselves and highlight the nature of the insights we need to cope with it. Joanna Macy and Duane Elgin offer specific advice regarding the insights and the practices we need to face the crisis. Together they paint a concise yet clear and trenchant image of what is wrong with the world, and how we could change our thinking and actions to right it.

When writing is as clear and pertinent as this, there is no need to comment. We cannot point to one or another of the elements of information and advice it conveys, we would need to point to all of it. But there is no need to cite the whole of these worldshifting blogs, for they can be read here in their entirety. And read and read. And taken to heart and to mind, so they could inspire our heart and inform our mind. With inspiration coming from the great spiritual traditions, and information from the leading edge of the sciences, we can empower ourselves to change, both profoundly and urgently. Then we have a chance to change the world.

The world needs to change, profoundly and urgently. And nothing and nobody could change it but us.