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| Spirituality Demystified: Understanding Spirituality in Rational Terms | Spirituality and Sustainable Development | |||||||
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Spirit literally means that which gives vitality to a system. If so, that which gives vitality to all biological systems – all living beings including ourselves, is spirit. It is our essence, what we really are. Spirituality is the state of being one with the spirit, or becoming who we really are. This is the purpose of our life as humans. This book, with the help of scientific evidence, shows our brain is hardwired to guide us to achieve this goal. However, the brain’s neuroplasticity allows the self-centeredness which dominates our society to be soft-wired in the brain. This makes our thoughts and actions selfish and prevents us from following the hardwired brain. Nevertheless, the good news is that the same neuroplasticity allows us to dissolve the soft-wired neural circuits and to liberate ourselves from self-centeredness if we want to do so. The founders of all great religions have shown various pathways to achieve this goal, and there are many science-based non-religious pathways too. Though there are many methods and pathways, following them are our choice. This book concludes with some policy measures that could help individuals to achieve the goal. |
In spite of heavy investments, development has failed to alleviate poverty and inequality, achieve environmental sustainability and deliver happiness to humanity. In his revolutionary book, Rohana Ulluwishewa shows that the root-cause of the failure lies within us. It is our self-centeredness and greed for material wealth. Conventional development ignores this truth, and attempts to change almost everything in the external world except ourselves. Of course, the changes it brings to the external world generate more material wealth, but as the selfishness within us remains unchanged, we fail to generate wealth in an environmentally sustainable manner, to distribute the wealth equally and to deliver happiness to all. While all great religions advocate the reduction of our selfishness, modern scientific evidence suggest that it is a temporary sign of our spiritual underdevelopment. As we develop spiritually, it is replaced by selfless love. Then spontaneously emerge a form of development driven by love which can eliminate poverty and inequality, achieve environmental sustainability and deliver happiness to all. This book concludes with policy measures required to promote the new form of development. |
