The Holistic Worldview

Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone. - Margaret Wheatley

To me, the holistic worldview incorporates Ecological Literacy, Sustainability, and New Sciences, among other disciplines. The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. Whether ancient teachings or modern Systems Thinking approaches, Taoism or Quantum Physics, the new emerging paradigm is called by many a holistic worldview - seeing the world as an integrated, interconnected, and interdependent whole, rather that a dissociated collection of parts. Everything is related to everything else around us. Within us too.

In a related manner, Arne Naess defined deep ecology as a philosophical worldview whereby humans - or anything else - is not separated from the natural environment. In this ecology - again - the world is not a collection of isolated objects, but a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. As Fritjof Capra writes, such ecological awareness requires different levels of consciousness, of belonging, and of connectedness to the world at large. Such ecological awareness - or ecological literacy - is consistent with many ancient philosophies of spiritual traditions.

"A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations," wrote Lester Brown. The ancients have known and practiced it for eons. My explorations and ongoing learning, which currently include a Certificate in Sustainable Business program at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, are in understanding, integrating, and practicing this knowledge, through its ancient and modern teachings.