Mrs Saionji’s insights on climate change, and the role humanity must play in securing a sustainable future.
The UN conference on climate change, COP 21, will take place at the end of the year in Paris. In preparation for the conference, a Summit of Conscience was held in Paris earlier this summer. Personalities representing various faiths and spiritual traditions from around the world participated in the summit. They came to share their concerns, their projects and their visions around the issues of climate change and the future of our planet.
Mrs Saionji was one of the personalities invited. Her speech, drawing attention to the deep root cause of our planet’ ills, was selected as one of the 70 featured personalities highlighted in the Why Do I Care? campaign, launched at the start of the Summit of Conscience.
Why do I care about climate? by Masami Saionji
I care because I have always heard the voice inside me saying, I want to contribute to the world! I want to be of service to others! I want to live with gratitude! I want to feel at one with the land, the trees, the mountains, and the oceans! In fact, whether you have taken notice or not, this inner voice is speaking to each of us. It is the divine spark that resides in our heart – the source of our life power and the guide to our happiness.
We need to start seeing ourselves as citizens of Earth and the universe. We need to return to a deeper awareness that each individual is a sublime, noble spirit – a divine spark of the universe. I can clearly state from my own experience that this is absolutely true. It is just that we have forgotten it. We fell into a path of ignorance when we deserted our spiritual nature and began devoting ourselves to materialism.
The fundamental cause of climate change and environmental destruction is human greed for material abundance and our fear of scarcity. I believe that most of the world’s problems could be solved, if instead of focusing on the outer world, each of us chose to live a truly flourishing life by accessing the infinite resources within us – our innate love, compassion, joy, wisdom and vitality.
Governments and experts alone cannot save the Earth. The task is up to the individual global citizens who have awakened to their divine spark and the oneness of all life. We human beings seldom transform ourselves overnight. But if every one person takes a step forward it will surely influence others. Starting with just one step, let us make up our minds to inspire ourselves to care, and inspire the world to take action.
May Peace Prevail on Earth
For update and all information on the Fuji Declaration and its development, please check the following: http://fujideclaration.org/blog/
You may like to check the Why Do I Care forum on the following web site
https://www.whydoicare.org/en/home?set_language=en