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WISDOM OF ANCIENT MAYA FOR MODERN CIVILISATION IN CRISIS

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 7 2008 (IPS) - Given the unmistakeable signs that the earth cannot survive the intensified exploitation of her resources, the assault on the dignity of her children, and the exclusion and condemnation to starvation of millions of humans, it is essential that we seek inspiration in other civilisations that offer ecological wisdom, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian writer, liberation theologist, and a comissioner and author of the Earth Charter. In this article for IPS, Boff writes that the Maya believe that the universe is built of and sustained by cosmic energies and that the basic duality between creation and disintegration (we would say between chaos and cosmos) confers dynamism on this universal process. Human well-being derives from our synchronisation with this process and our profound respect for all living beings. Thus human beings feel they are part of Mother Earth and enjoy her beauty and protection. Death is not the enemy but a more profound immersion in the universe. Whereas for us, work is essentially the production of goods and wealth, often disappointing and uncreative, for the Maya, work is helping Mother Earth, who gives us all we need to live, an activity that does not enslave people but allows them to express their abilities and shape their lives. This practical wisdom has great validity for this critical phase of our history. All that helps maintain the equilibrium of the Earth and its vitality should be valued and recognised as a form of regeneration and salvation.

As British historian Eric Hobsbawm observed in his celebrated book, The Age of Extremes: A History of the 20th Century, ”The future cannot be the continuation of the past; our world runs the risk of implosion and explosion. It must change, because the alternative is eclipse.”

How can we avoid this eclipse, which would mean the defeat of our form of civilisation and eventually the Armageddon of the human species? It is essential that we seek inspiration in other civilisations that offer ecological wisdom. There are many, but I cite the Maya because I recently spent 20 days visiting Central America where the descendants of that extraordinary civilisation live, speaking at length with its wise men, priests, and shamans.

Of this vast wealth of wisdom, I wish to cite only three central points that correspond to major gaps in our way of life: the harmonious cosmovision of all beings, the fascinating anthropology centred on the heart, and the meaning of human labour.

Living on the margins of modern culture, the Mayans keep up their ancient traditions and learning, which have been passed down from parent to child and in writings like the Popol-Vuh and the Chilam Balam books.

The basic intuition of their cosmovision is close in many ways to modern cosmology and quantum physics. The universe is built of and sustained by cosmic energies, by the Creator and Shaper of all. All that exists in nature was born of the love between the Heart of the Sky and Mother Earth. Mother Earth is a living being that pulses, feels, intuits, labours, gives birth to and feeds all her children. The basic duality between creation and disintegration (we would say between chaos and cosmos) confers dynamism on this universal process. Human well-being derives from our synchronisation with this process and our profound respect for all living beings. Thus human beings feel they are part of Mother Earth and enjoy her beauty and protection. Death is not the enemy but merely a more profound immersion in the universe.

Human beings are seen as ”the enlightened, the investigators, and the seekers of existence”. It is worth citing a text of Popol Vuh for its beauty and solemnity in describing the appearance of the human being: ”May it shine and dawn in the sky and the earth; there was no glory or greatness in our creation until the human came into being.”

To reach their full potential, humans must pass through three stages in a process of individuation similar to that written of by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. The “person shaped from mud” -in the first phase- is able to speak but has no consistency because the water makes him dissolve. If he develops and can become a “person of wood”, he has understanding but no soul because he is rigid and unfeeling. Finally he reaches the phase of the “person of corn”: “he knows what is near and what is far,” but his primary characteristic is that he has a heart. Because of this “he feels perfectly, perceives the universe, the source of life”, and shares the rhythm of the Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Earth.

The essence of the human lies in the heart. This is what many thinkers, like M. Maffesoli, D. Goleman, A. Cortina, and myself have argued for years. It lies in a gentle intelligence and sensitive reason. It is not a matter of abdicating analytical and mathematical reason but of completing and broadening it to bring about a capacity for full understanding. By giving centrality to these other forms of exercising reason, we create a space for the emergence of care, love, compassion, and respect, values without which we will never be able to save the endangered system of life.

A third aspect of Mayan wisdom, regarding work, is illuminating for our culture. For us, work is essentially the production of goods and wealth. The best hours of the day are dedicated to work, which is often disappointing and uncreative. For the Maya, work is helping Mother Earth, who gives us all we need to live. When we need something, we help her produce enough for all. When this has been accomplished, the Maya move on to other things, communal living, collective tasks, caring for their homes, roads, and temples, or artistic activities.

For the Maya, work is an activity that does not enslave people but allows them to express their abilities and shape their lives. This practical wisdom has great validity for this critical phase of our history. All that helps maintain the equilibrium of the Earth and its vitality should be valued and recognised as a form of regeneration and salvation. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

 
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