Venezuela: Forum at the CAF extols values of peace

Forum on spirituality recovers values of peace and environment

The subject of peace as a fundamental path for coexistence between human beings was the consensus among the speakers at the forum on Spirituality, Ecology and Economy for Sustainable Development, held today in the headquarters of the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) in Caracas, in the framework of the exhibition of the Sacred Relics of Buddha.

The panel members were the spiritual leader of the Lama Gangchen Foundation for World Peace, Lama Gangchen Tulku Rinpoche; CAF Executive President Enrique Garcia; senior adviser to the World Bank Directors Office, Alfredo Sfeir-Younis; Jesuit priest Mikel de Viana, and the indigenous leader from the Colombian Sierra Nevada Ramón Gil. The meeting was moderated by CAF Development and Environment Vice President Claudia Martínez.

In his words of welcome to the panelists, the CAF chief García praised the presence of Lama Gangchen as a promoter of world peace. His visit to the Corporation has been an important lesson on the importance of including spirituality in the context of seeking balanced societies, respecting individual principles but always focusing on a common objective, coexistence among human beings, and with their environment.

García said the CAF was promoting a Renewed Development Agenda that seeks precisely a balance between the economic, social, environmental, and cultural aspects. He stressed the importance of initiating a projection toward the spiritual aspect of sustainable development, not only from the environmental point of view but also with an integrated approach that moves forward in the quest for equity among the many factors that integrate societies.

The teachings of Buddha

Lama Rinpoche offered his view of the teachings of Buddha. "Buddha questioned reality and found no answers, but he did find them after a long meditation." The distinguished visitor said that to find the truth, one does not have to be a Buddhist. "Wisdom has to be strengthened because illumination is possible for all of us. We have to decrease ignorance and increase wisdom," he said.

According to Lama Gangchen, it is possible to increase wisdom using intellectual, education and scientific capacity but adding the spiritual truths. "It is not necessary to be Buddhist to do this, spirituality means doing less onerous things, using our energies to make things less difficult."

In his opinion, material power is produced when minds have not been awakened to the spiritual; to have spiritual power one must have continuing spiritual education that creates a rich mine, which accompanies us at all times. "Material power runs out, spiritual wisdom does not."

The Lama spoke of the secondary and collateral effects such as environmental pollution and other effects produced by human irrationality. "But - he added - there are other secondary effects that we produce with our actions such as looking which can generate good or bad things, which is what Buddha called ignorance. The beautiful eyes of human beings should be used appropriately, one has to learn to look with tenderness."

"Speaking, the way we touch. Learning to speak generously costs nothing. We have to produce positive secondary effects. We should be mindful of what we say and how we look at things. This is the philosophy of life that Buddha taught," the spiritual leader concluded.

Indigenous leader Ramón Gil from the Colombian Sierra Nevada strongly defended the ecological issue, emphasizing the need to care for our natural resources and our forest reserves, "otherwise nature will have her way."

Gil said that humankind is in debt with nature. Every time something is done that affects nature, a price has to be paid. "The heart of the world is in the Sierra Nevada and today it is sick from the felling of trees and the proliferation of livestock. If good care is not taken of nature, there will be violence expressed in deaths, earthquakes and natural disasters."

Alfredo Sfeir-Younis warned that today the important decisions were made on exclusive values. The great dilemma is the reconciliation between the natural and spiritual being, between economics and spirituality.

He added that the basis of sustainable development is human capital, because there is always a group of people behind successful development. It is not just money that produces welfare, it is people who move development, who are behind the technology using it.

In this context, Sfeir-Younis spoke of the importance of proclaiming spiritual values to produce a change in sustainable development. "There is no human attitude without spirit. It is important to begin to conceptualize spiritual capital."

The fourth panelist, Father Mikel de Viana, said that globalization had changed the rules that govern values, where consumerism seems to be imposing itself over spirituality. The myth of the unstoppable danger has changed the ethical situation of human beings. The future fight will be man against his own ego.

In his opinion, science and technology end by weakening the priority of the ethical over the technical, so it is essential to offer people the possibility of reconciliation.

The forum ends the visit of Lama Gangchen Tulku Rinpoche to the CAF and the exhibition of the Sacred Relics of Buddha which will move to the Botanical Gardens of the Central University of Venezuela from this Friday, and later to Puerto Ordaz.