Book Description

The people of the world are becoming increasingly conscious of their growing interdependence. They share an emerging dream of a world community founded on cooperation and justice. This dream, like all dreams, is imperfect and subject to contextual, cultural, and historical biases, yet it opens the road for a future that yields a process in which the peoples of the world can move away from chaos; take steps towards the alleviation of famine, disease, and misery; reduce the burden of the world arms race; and decrease the burden of repression on millions. We are discovering that our fates and futures increasingly depend on one another, making mutual understanding, respect, and cooperation essential. It is up to us, at this crucial time in our shared history, to ask three vital questions. How will we know and relate with each other? How will we define and benefit from our relationship? How will we cope together with the teeming diversity of our global community? Modernization, when understood holistically, is directed by the goal of spiritual realization. This goal anticipates that a nation will attain community and prosperity as byproducts, but such things are viewed as incidental to the larger issue of spiritual identity. More or less consciously, all real social development is driven by this same goal. A nation in the process of development is like a person on a spiritual path. As such, spirituality has a vital role to play in efforts to fashion a new compass capable of guiding humanity toward a culture of peace. The visions offered by reductionist science to explain humanity's place in the universe have failed because they could not bridge the tremendous material and cultural divides that define the world today, nor could they provide impetus for an ecologically sustainable future. Therefore, we must look to the world's great contemplative traditions for the untapped spiritual resources and enduring wisdom necessary to construct new visions. The reorientation of international relations to a moral framework derived from a spiritual perspective is the world's best (and perhaps only) hope for transcending separateness and encouraging universal solidarity. Leadership that does not inspire such noble responses and trust of others ultimately will not last. This active concept of peace is not an abstract, static goal that lies ahead at some indeterminate point, but consists instead of a dynamic process of doing and being that can be started immediately. This generation marks a turning point in the affairs of humanity. America and other nations need to take every action necessary to ensure that the world's lasting legacy will be founded upon human solidarity and the holistic nature of life. —Abdul Aziz Said, from Bridges Not Barriers: The American Dream and the Global Community The Fetzer Institute's project on Deepening the American Dream began in 1999 to explore the relationship between the inner life of spirit and the outer life of service. Through commissioned essays and in dialogue with such writers as Huston Smith, Jacob Needleman, Gerald May, Charles Gibbs, Robert Inchausti, Carolyn Brown, Elaine Pagels, and others, the project is beginning to sow the seeds of a national conversation. With the publication of these essays, the thinking and writing coming from these gatherings is being offered in a series of publications sponsored by The Fetzer Institute in partnership with Jossey-Bass. In an effort to surface the psychological and spiritual roots at the heart of the critical issues that face the world today, we are extending this inquiry by creating a parallel series focused on Exploring a Global Dream. The essays and individual volumes and anthologies published in both series will explore and describe the many ways, as individuals and communities and nations, that we can illuminate and inhabit the essential qualities of the global citizen who seeks to live with the authenticity and grace demanded by our times.