Keynote by Prof. Dr. Michael von Brück

▎Keynote  

Prof. Dr. Michael von Brück  

In his recent appeal to the world „Laudate deum“ Pope Francis repeats what he declares in „Laudato Si“ in 2015: The logic of maximum profit at lowest cost needs to be overcome by a new consciousness which lets humans experience themselves as part of nature, not exploiters of nature.  However, already on Oct 27, 1971 the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany acknowledged in their famous Freiburg theses that damaging environment is a crime and environmental protection would have priority over against profit for personal benefit. The result: Not much happened. Urgency to act, however, became more evident ever since. Therefore, 52 years later in mid Sept 2023 members of the group „Last  Generation “, who engage in provocative action as climate activists, damaged the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin by spraying color onto the columns. The Brandenburg Gate is not only an important piece of art, it is a symbol of national unity. They also attacked the German constitution and repeatedly block the traffic in German cities. Legal authorities react with caution, because after all, don`t they do it for an important cause: to draw attention to the climate change? However, more and more people react with rage and counter-aggression, the atmosphere gets heated up, and verbal as well as physical violence is the result. It has disastrous consequences, because people draw away from a serious concern for ecology and react with enervated resistance against the needed ecological changes and transformation. It may not be as extreme in other countries. But we have to notice, that frustration concerning the ecological turn is increasing on a worldwide scale. The 17 point program of the UN was under evaluation recently, and the result is: Something has been achieved, but it is by far not enough, as Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker titles one of his recent books. In other countries such as Scandinavia, especially Danmark, there seems to be a more constructive mood for transformation, but frustration that things don’t go the way we want them to move, at least not as fast and efficient enough, can be seen all over the place. We need the transformation, and we know it. But we do not act accordingly. The term „we“ is justified, I suppose, and it points to the majority of human beings on earth. So what is wrong? 

I think this can be analysed without great difficulty: By instigating fear or using violent coercion you cannot get people motivated to become creative and turn around their habitual life-style. It is by providing opportunities to creative invention and innovation that you get people motivated. And without motivating at least wide parts of the society the change cannot take place. History proves, that mere coercion to implement utopian ideals have failed time and again. So what? 

We do not have a problem in inventing new technologies which are more sustainable. For what energy production, storage and consuption are concerned, there emerge technological inventions and new scientific horizons nearly every day. And also a new economy based on recyling seems to be possible, it requires more cooperation and networking of research agencies, industries and governance, but many outstanding examples show that a sustainable economy is neither a technological nor a fundamental economic problem. To be sure, it requires new thinking and new organizational tools. These resources are available. However, things become more difficult when we look at the third great challenge, the care for biodiversity. This may require even more fundamental changes in our life style than the energy problem. 

This Winter School starts with a fundamental question and premise, that can be abbreviated the following way: We know what we need to do, but we do not do it. Why? In order to answer this question we need to engage in the study of neurocognitive dynamics („how do we come to motivation and decision“),  and also of social mechanisms („how does the style of leadership influence our life-experience and actions“). As you can notice, the premise is : It is a matter of motivation and leadership. As I try to suggest here : instigating fear or using coercion will not work. We need a change of mind, a change of heart, and change of social relations. In other words: the ecological transformation depends very much also on the so called „soft factors“ (over against the hard factors of technology etc.), on the intellectual-emotional-social relations. The recent UN assessment oft he 17-goal program convincingly argues that ecological transformation cannot be achieved on the back of the poor and the downtrodden. Poor countries or sectors within societies need to get support and supply from the richer ones, otherwise we will go on talking without achieving.  

The intellectual-emotional turn touches our innermost ways of perception, cognition and evaluation. Often, we take them for granted: greed, egotism, concern mainly for myself are taken as basics of the human nature. But this is not so. They are factors in our psyche, for sure. But they can be balanced out by other and more constructive traits. Historical anthropology as well as neurobiology demonstrate, that human beings can develop quite differently under different circumstances. Even more: Hundreds of papers published every year now on meditation and the result of meditation (and the performance of arts etc.) show, that we can change to an attitude being formed by the insight into interdependency and the joy of sympathy which can result from such an insight. Thus, it is the awakening of creativity in forming new ways for an ecological life-style, which is possible and needed. Deep insight, deep feeling of connectedness and the spontaneous action flowing out of it. 

This is what Dharma Master Hsin Tao calls Spiritual Ecology. And this what the intended University for Life and Peace is all about. 

We will discuss details and examples, options and possibilities. This is important, for we need to ask what we as individuals and perhaps small academic groups can do to change the tide. Though they are real, we need to see not only the negative tendencies in our present day world, but have to focus on the engaged activities all over, which try to implement the ecological transformation perhaps in models, projects or even on larger scale movements. We need to be encouraged by activities of those who have achieved already. History of civilizations and especially also the history of science demonstrate that much more is possible than we usually think. Fantasy or vision in this respect is important, it crosses boundaries or limits which seem to be objective, but are proven to be just present self-imposed limitations. To think and feel beyond present day horizons is both a creative resource and a resource for creativity. 

Motivation and leadership : Motivation arises from the joy one experiences when something is accomplished, when a creative impulse finds a realization. This is enhanced by the experience of living together and cooperating in a life that includes, fosters and nourishes in a systemic way all different species which the evolution has brought about. Leadership is rewarding, when it enables and enhances those processes or activities so that humans discover and enact their potential. A leadership that is enabling and allowing, not only restricting and forbidding. A leadership that is trusting and experiencing, not only controlling and inhibiting. Sure, it requires both sides, but the emphasis should be on the creative and positive. We need much more competition in creativity and interconnected living, not only in theoretical calculation and technological invention. Here, a whole process of education is needed, education in arts and training of the mind (spiritual formation). The skills to be developed here are as important as technological capability. 

Motivation is an individual decision, based on intellectual information, emotional involvement, courage and a sense of curiosity. It is stimulated by communication and social networking. It has to do with entrepreneurship and engaged action, including the risk to fail. There is no transformation without risk, and taking risks in a rationally designed framework is an important aspect of transformational processes. This requires a systemic view of life. And this again means cooperation. One means to carry out efficient cooperation is competition. Therefore, competition is not the opposite of cooperation, rather it is a means to try different ways in order to achieve a better solution for a specific goal. To organize competion in such a way that it fosters cooperation and not destruction is a matter of wise leadership. Leadership requires competence and openness for the unasked questions and unprecedented answers. 

All these dimensions need to be seen in interconnectivity. They form the dynamics of individual life cycles as well as collective movements. In our upcoming Winter School we will ask these questions and reflect on the dynamics mentioned, so that we bring different perspectives together, perspectives of different cultural expériences and different academic disciplines.  

The first day we start with an explanation of Western and Eastern perspectives, focussed in natural sciences and philosophy, especially the quest for values and ecological ethics. The Western view of the world is not the only option and not the standard once and for all times. We have the great civilizations based on Confucianism and Buddhism, for instance, but also the Muslim experience of the Umma, or the life patterns of indigenous societies, which are not only intellectual models differing from the Western dualism (of mind and matter, of the individual and the collective interest, of the human in a continuous battle against nature etc.), but they are forces that have shaped and shape whole civilizations. We are to learn from them, and this learning is possible.  

The second and the following days we want to go into concrete experiences in projects, so that our general thoughts do not get too abstract, we ask for actual applications.  

At the end we will move again to the general level and ask what the concepts of an integral ecology, global citizenship and personal as well as cultural identity mean in the context of cross-cultural processes. Thus, the dynamics of the Winter School should develop on the design of theoretical assumptions being questioned and evaluated by fields of praxis so that new and more suggestive theoretical models might emerge. 

First of all, it requires a deeper understanding and experience of how our mind works. It does not work only in the mode of rationality but also on emotional patterns and, in the deepest dimension, on spiritual awareness. What is this? An awareness of the oneness of reality, of the oneness of life in all its diversity. Spirituality is enacted interdependence. It motivates and engages human beings on the deepest level of existence, when it is not just a passing thought but a deep existential experience. To reach out to such an experience and transformation of the mind requires careful observation of our bodily functions, such as breathing, our social interconnectedness, our ecological realization of interdependence and mutuality. This is the fundamental task of an education in ecological transformation. May our activities during the upcoming Winter School contribute to such an endeavour.