Prof. Yoshinori Yasuda

Professor of International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan

The environmental crisis on the earth has already become so acute that the survival of humankind is now in danger, and we have reached the turning point where we must inquire seriously into how well we may survive on this earth.

Countless living species besides humanity are teetering on the brink, and the great biodiversity is about to be rapidly extinguished.

Although hopeful measures have been taken to solve environmental issues, such as technological innovations for recycling resources, lifestyle changes and technology to regenerate nature, the underlying question lies in the mind of the human being.

For humankind to precipitate real action toward tackling earth’s environmental issues, nothing remains but to restore that certain something in which religions can find solution, which will enable us to control the reckless desires that endanger our relationship with nature.

It will be impossible to solve environmental problems unless humankind can recapture that mind by which it may intuit, in tranquility, the presence of “something great” (Murakami, 1999), a latent element within Great Nature through which it becomes capable of being inspired by the brightness of life, and no longer by material or money. For this reason, the contribution of religions to the future will be extremely important.

What Japanese, who have enjoyed living a life blessed with material wealth as the second-largest economic power, could appeal to the world concerning, is the mind that in quietude senses the presence of divine being in nature, such as mountains, rivers and the entire earth.

But in order to preserve the environment now and build the new sustainable society with nature, if every religion does not co-operate with every other by overcoming doctrinal conflict and sectionalism, we shall not be able to avoid taking the road to ruin.

Needless to say, Christian ethical norms have contributed significantly to building capitalist society. As we now find ourselves confronted with the resulting environmental and human crises, we need to build society with a new kind of economy in which nature and human being can co-exist. This building must necessarily be grounded in a new religious perspective that will incorporate other religious viewpoints than just Christianity’s.

What will be the new culture of business based on this new religious view? It will be situated within the system of ideas that maintains harmony between Human and Nature, which Japanese have inherited as a tradition, whereby we can believe firmly in the possibility of a new economic philosophy that replaces the market principle, mass-production and mass-consumption, and brings relief to our future. With this conviction, we now debate the issues at the G8 Religious Leaders Summit 2008 in Japan.

However, even if religious people do sense the sacred “something great” or the idea of the ineffable and are able to obtain a means to control the restless desires of the human mind, environmental issues cannot be resolved unless the entirety mind of humankind changes.

Therefore we will have a session “Living with Nature” in this G8 Religious Leaders Summit 2008 meeting with world religious leaders and citizens of Osaka and Kyoto, to deepen dialogue. We hope that the world will understand the role of such religious traditions as harmonization with nature, which should contribute significantly to the future of humankind. Thus, we determine to strive toward illuminating this tradition and solving environmental problems hand in hand with those living within the world.

Reference
Murakami, K. Something Great. San-Mark Publishing, 1999.