"I Dream a World" and "Four Faces of the Future"

Envisioning a compassionate, sustainable society

In this challenging moment, please find below two excerpts offering energy and joy from my book A Compassionate Civilization.

I Dream a World

Imagination is very powerful. Architects imagine their creations before putting pen to paper. Drafters of constitutions imagine how their nations will function effectively. Athletes imagine achieving perfect form before competing. Visualizing, dreaming, and envisioning are practical tools for inventing the new. Each one of us imagines what we hope the future will bring. How might we imagine a new world of sustainable human development?

I dream a world of

• an abundance of safe water, food, and other life sustenance and a sharing of that abundance with all people and all life-forms

• societies devoted to creating conditions that foster the discovery and realization of each person’s full creativity, potential, and spiritual awakening

• women in leadership roles at every level of society in equal partnership and mutual respect with men

• ubiquitous music, art, poetry, dance, and theater performed and enjoyed by everyone who wishes

• a universal love for learning about, reading about, and exploring mental landscapes

• peace, harmony, and tranquility balanced with passion, challenge, and a zest for living fully

• natural beauty of land, water, air, plants, and animals

• architectural elegance of dwellings and the commons for all

• 100 percent renewable energy from the sun, wind, water, and geothermal sources

• sustainable local communities of significant, trusting, and happy relationships

• planetary virtual conversations involving nine billion human minds and voices

• meaningful celebrations of every individual birth, life milestone, and death and every societal, cultural, religious, and planetary milestone

• physical, emotional, and mental health enjoyed by all

• participatory decision-making in governance at local, national, regional, and planetary levels

• lifelong education for all children and adults in the physical and social sciences and the arts and humanities

• fiscal, monetary, and economic systems that promote the well-being of all people and all of nature

• a rich diversity of lifestyles with mutual respect, understanding, and sharing of insights about being human

• families devoted to the development of children and the care and happiness of each member

• continuous innovation of safe technologies that will enhance the experience of being alive; and

• a vast number of optional and changing roles for living, working, serving, creating, and learning.

May we each awaken and live our dream. May our dreams indeed come true. May our dreams lead us, pull us, and push us ever onward with hope and passion. May the words I have a dream always resound in our hearts. May “dream time” be our time. May you have a good dream this day and this night, so that many others may wake up one fine day in a new reality.

Four Faces of the Future

Using the framework (image above) of Ken Wilber’s four integral systems quadrants (interior/exterior and individual/collective), what will be the new individual mind-sets and behaviors, and collective cultures and systems of the emerging civilization of compassion?

To get us started, I will share a few vision elements, and then it is your turn.

Individual Mindsets

Most individuals will exhibit a common sense of mutuality and interdependence. An awareness of our planet’s fragile ecosystem will be widespread. People will understand whole systems and think in integral patterns and processes. Intuition will be as important as rationality. Individuals will value integrity and kindness above all else. Education will have expanded people’s understanding to include vast stretches of time and space. Individuals will grasp that they are each unique and unrepeatable and have special capacities to be developed and shared with others. People will think of themselves as citizens of the universe, the Milky Way galaxy, our solar system and planet Earth.

Individual Behaviors

People will tend to act responsibly toward each other and the natural world. Leadership will have become servant leadership - facilitative, interactive, dialogical, participatory, profound, inspirational and authentic. Teamwork and collaboration will be common practice. Individuals will be genuinely interested in other people of different mindsets, lifestyles, cultures and religions and desire to learn from them. People will gather in beautiful, green public spaces for social and political discourse and to share their insights, creativity, knowledge and questions. Almost everyone will be engaged in spiritual practices such as meditation, contemplation, yoga, visualization, journal writing or community celebrations.

Collective Cultures

Cultures will have evolved to assume sexual and gender equality and human rights as the natural order of things. Equality and justice will be held as universal values. Care for natural systems of water, air, soil, plants and animals will be deeply ingrained in the collective psyche. New stories and myths will have been fashioned from empirical observation and analysis of the evolution of the universe and life on Earth. There will be many powerful symbols of unity, compassion and understanding. The historical religions will have evolved to honor each other’s profound insights of reality, human nature, love and truth. Many heroines and heroes who helped humanity realize a civilization of compassion will be celebrated widely. Happiness and well-being will be understood as the birthright of every living creature. Great celebrations of life on Earth will take place frequently.

Collective Systems

Renewable energy will be the law of the land and climate change will have been mitigated. Governance institutions, policies and systems will be highly responsive, accountable and transparent to citizen participation and opinion by virtue of respectful face to face dialogue and consensus building and through the Internet and social media. Education, health care, water and food will be universal rights, as will other basic necessities of life. Economies will be designed to provide needed goods and services for the wellbeing of all people and nature. Money will have been reinvented as an instrument for universal wellbeing rather than for individual power and control. The family will have evolved to embrace different possibilities for localized commitment, care and nurture. The justice system would have shifted its orientation from judgment and punishment to accountability, reconciliation and rehabilitation.

Yes, may it be so!

What stands out for you in the above? How does it make you feel? Based on these elements, what story would you tell about a compassionate civilization? When you consider what you have read, what are any implications for your life and work?

What are some of your own vision elements of a civilization of compassion? Please write them down and share with your friends, colleagues, or family members.

One of my questions is, how can I embody a future vision in my present life and work?