“The Planet and Consciousness” by Belkys del Socorro Urbina Parra, ecologist, industrial engineer, Masters in Tecnology Management and Risk Control, and Masters in Industrial Maintenance. Watch the video. Listen to the English audio file or audio file in Spanish. – Read the original Spanish presentation.
[Translation of her presentation at the First Global Prout Conference in Venezuela, “Building a Solidarity Economy based on Ethics and Ecology”, July 7-9, 2011, Caracas.]
I want to thank God for this wonderful opportunity to be here, and for you beautiful beings to be here, too.
In this moment it is our responsibility to accelerate the awakening of consciousness and communicate this message to as many beings as possible.
I am going to talk about our Planet Earth, its evolution, the human being, consciousness, industry, legislation, pollution, the holistic being, the mission of human beings which is service, and the legacy represented in what is transcendental.
Our planet is an incandescent mass that through a long process has experienced transformations for millions of years. In this process there are many components: organic, unicellular, multcellular and the wonderful beings that include us human beings and the life around us. The estimated age of Earth is 4.54 billion years. This is our home that we should take care of. It is the third planet of the solar system, and the place where there have been perfect conditions for the origin of life. We know that 71 percent of the planet is covered by water, and that there is also a majority of water in our bodies, and it relates to our emotions. This is why it is important to drink this vital liquid in sufficient amounts and quality, so that our mind functions well.
The Earth has a geostatic structure with a covering layer, just the skin of an orange, which is about 12 kilometers thick. Science has discovered new planets in our galaxy. It is interesting to note that as science advances, it gets closer to God.
There is also a geodynamic structure, integrated with the Earth’s crust or lithosphere, which is the cortex and the superior side of this covering. This is a structure which is permanently interacting, under the wise balance of the universe. Another of its elements is the hydrosphere, that corresponds to the bodies of water. This is the only planet in the solar system that has this amount of water, of which 97 percent is salt water and 3 percent is fresh water forming five oceans and seven continents. At the beginning it was Pangaea, a single continental mass, which over millions of years divided to form the moving continents we now have. In addition we have air, composed of an average 21 percent oxygen – the average is between 19.5 and 21.5 percent, together with other gases such as hydrogen and argon. One of the elements that connects us, the micro with the macro, is breathing, by means of subtle oxygen which we take from the air.
In synthesis, there are five fundamental elements in our wonderful, great planet: air, water, fire, earth and ether. However it was not until there were optimal conditions on the planet to bear human life that we appeared on the scene. If we look at the history of humanity, we can talk about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Neolithic Age, during which agriculture began and animals were domesticated. In our history we see there was a transcendental moment when writing appeared, about 4,000 BCE, although I estimate that the earliest writings were older than that. The petroglyphs (rock engravings) are a magnificent legacy of our wise ancestors. They depicted their transcendental history, conveying teachings to future generations.
The Industrial Revolution generated a large number of events. Today world industry has created four important events: 1) a technological revolution of production in scale at less cost, which created great environmental liabilities with unpredictable consequences; 2) information technology that is enormous and very dynamic; 3) an institutional framework that has changed with dynamic development and which generates competition, and sometimes dishonest competition; and 4) changes in the division of work. If we look at world industry, Venezuela is a part of this global industrial model, due to its petro-chemical industries and all the other wonderful resources that God graced our land with. However, as a consequence of this activity, we have environmental consequences.
Human being are searching for quality of life. The World Health Organization in 1994 defined quality of life as an “individuals’ perceptions of their position in life in the context of the culture and
value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns.
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In order to achieve this quality of life, we have broken universal laws and have endangered our Mother Earth and ourselves, by creating elements that do not respond to the essential needs of human beings: food (in the widest sense we can imagine for the body and soul), housing, health, safety, education, freedom to associate and self-realization.
I invite my companions on this panel and our distinguished audience to meet the ecologist Lidia Ernestina Mosquera who is here with us today. From her I learned that we can be proactive and generate microlife, by teamwork and a deep, heartfelt desire to return to Mother Earth in a wise manner what we have taken from her.
The Cristalina Ecological Community is located in the coal fields of the highlands of Lobatera in the state of Tachira. It is in a place where the water had dried up. However, through 16 years of continuous work in agriculture and meditation, water came back to the surface in the former springs. This can be seen as an example how to give back to nature what was taken from her, her microlife.
In this community there are 300 hectares of land, 24 families and six houses, with permanent activities of planting trees at the springs, greenhouses, nurseries, teaching meditation. However we feel we still have a long way to go to learn and to give.
This tree you see here is one of the ones planted at one of the springs by Lily, as we kindly call her, and it is wonderful seeing the trees we plant grow. As an analogy, we watch human beings grow from a “seed” and blossom. You only have to see the fruit to know what kind of tree it is.
The question we ask ourselves is, how many trees have I planted throughout my life? If the answer is none, from this moment on, take the conscious initiative to do it. Not every tree is fit for every soil. God placed in each place of the earth the trees needed by the beings there. Each tree is a living laboratory that uses a perfect balance of light, water, soil, and air that combine so that the spark of life within the seed hatches, grows and produces its flower and fruit.
What is this house? It is the headquarters of Cristalina, a wonderful place in an environment which I love and where there is peace. There I learned the meaning of the awakening of consciousness and to change the paradigm that I learned in the university. I was never taught that water can come up again from dried up springs, and at Cristalina I learned this. There is also a negative side. For example, the American Airlines flight which tragically crashed in the Andina Mountains in the state of Merida on February 25, 2008. So we have two poles, the positive represented by the human being that builds, and the negative of the human being that destroys with accidents, diseases, and undesired events. Another example is the fire in a shoe factory in the state of Tachira.
The Earth is sending us signals. It is having a heart attack that collapses from day to day. We have polluted the planet, the population is increasing exponentially, industry has expanded, contamination has been generated, we have polluted the rivers, we have produced great quantities of waste, and therefore diseases and their severity have increased. This is happening in spite of the fact that science has progressed to counteract them. When human beings started on the planet, their impact was small and there were small transformations. With the Industrial Revolution and modern transportation, a great impact took place that broke the balance. Every day it is harder to stop, and even harder to reverse.
What are the main environmental problems? Soil degradation, deforestation, pollution, loss of biological diversity and lack of water. What we see on this map shows how deserts grow on our planet, darker colors show the most affected areas. Let’s praise God for being an “underdeveloped” country and keep part of this vegetation. The Ministry of People’s Power for the Environment, which is the regulating agency for environmental preservation, has not done its job – it must begin to do this.
What does sustainable development mean? It means economic growth with social development that is fair and just, in harmony with nature, with the lowest possible impact. Thank God there still are indigenous people on our land who have managed to live for centuries in harmony with nature. It’s an example to follow. They will teach us through their shamans, culture, wisdom and example of subtle co-existence with nature. As Chief Seattle of North America in the past century said in his message on Mother Earth and the plot of life.
What do we want? A system that encourages three main objectives: economic growth; social, economic and environmental equity; and sustainability of this model. What do we also want that is within the sustainability vision? An economy where the key element should be the sustainable management of the environment for the utilization all resources. Which are the key directions in this context? The consensus of all participants where the most important one is “I”, the individual. In this country there is a wonderful legal framework for the community which we need to take the maximum advantage of. We should do this with a holistic perception in an environmental dimension with a socio-economic structure.
What is the ozone layer? Well, friends, it was formed 2 billion years ago and we have destroyed it in a very short time. You see here how the ozone hole has gradually increased as years go by. On one side we have global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps, which are breaking this fragile balance.
What is the holistic being? A complete individual, with harmony in body, mind, soul and spirit, co-existing in harmony with all the elements that are part of its environment. What is consciousness? It is knowledge with love. What is happening now? An important event. We also have with us Father Ramón Elvidio Rosales, founder of Fundación Taller del Desarrollo Humano (“Human Development Workshop Foundation”), who has come to this event and who teaches us through the foundation that “we have been created to be effective and to be happy,” and that “human power resides in its coherence.”
What are the conclusions? It is urgent to have an education for all. We believe in a school of leadership with a holistic approach. Let’s make ecological teams, where we create windows with tangible and comprehensive projects. Venezuelan legislation is avant guard key tool. We have to take responsibility to be the promoters with a territorial approach of sustainable community development. Let’s get to work! Let’s act to achieve quality of life! Let’s plan, and know what is our space and our time.
This image you see is Cristalina Ecological Community. There you can see how God’s energy shows through its light and the colors of the rainbow. From the Bible, Proverbs 8: “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me… For whoever finds me finds life… rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” Today is July 8, the symbol of infinite, the beginning and the end.
I love you. God bless you. Amen.
[Translated by Eugenio Mendoza and Dada Maheshvarananda]
Panel 2 questions and answers.