Are we headed for destruction?
Or are we on the verge of transcendence?

• DJ King

When talking about the future of humanity and planet Earth, one thing is for sure: things are changing— rapidly. In a world of duality, creation and destruction go hand in hand. As we look around us, we see the development of amazing technologies for extending and improving life. At the same time we are seeing dramatic increases in the loss of vital resources, such as water, rain forests and farmland, as well as the unprecedented extinction of species at a pace faster than ever witnessed on the planet.

So, which is it? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t an easy one. According to global activist and bestselling author, Lynn Twist: It depends. It depends on us, each one of us. What are we going to do in this time of change and transformation? Are we going to sit back and expect someone else to make the necessary changes? Or, are we going to take action ourselves, to do whatever we can to turn the tide?

In a conversation called, The Other Side of the Precipice – Together We Can Make It, Twist, cofounder of the Pachamama Alliance, spoke with Wendy Craig-Purcell, Founding Minister and Spiritual Leader of The Unity Center, an inclusive spiritual community in San Diego, California. The two discussed the initiative to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet.

As one of the early executives at The Hunger Project, Twist spent 20 years working to end world hunger. In a twist of fate, in 1995, she was called to meet with an indigenous people in the Amazon called the Achuar who had had no previous interaction with anyone from the outside world. Twist was told that she had been called to them because they wanted a partnership. They wanted help preserving their land and territory, but they also said very clearly that the most important work Twist and her team could do in order to preserve the Amazon and the fragile ecosystems of this planet, was to go back and change the dream of the modern world – a dream that’s currently rooted in accumulation, acquisition, commercialism, and consumption – a dream in which we’ve lost our way and are disconnected from our soul.

Twist realized that the current crisis on the planet took the form of three branches: environmental degradation, spiritual malaise and social injustice. Addressing these three issues became the mission of what was to become the Pachamama Alliance and the foundation for the creation of the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium.

“Pachamama” means Mother Earth. The alliance is between the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and conscious, committed people in the modern world to work together for the sustainability of Mother Earth and all forms of life. The Pachamama Alliance has supported major changes both in the Amazon rainforest and in the western world. To see some of the amazing accomplishments the Pachamama Alliance has accomplished in just the past year, visit www.pachamama.org/content/view/490/151/.

The first Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium was offered in San Francisco, to help individuals learn how they could begin to make changes in their own lives with their families and their communities. It has since been delivered in seven languages to over 50,000 people on six continents in over 40 countries.

Speaking with Craig-Purcell in September, Twist explained how we can all work together and individually to bring about an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet. You can listen to the complete text of this conversation at www.theunitycenter.net.

The holistic approach of the symposium — looking across the full spectrum of where there is breakdown and woundedness on the planet, from the environment to the economy to spirituality, is what drew Craig-Purcell to request that Twist present the symposium at The Unity Center, whose mission is to inspire personal greatness transforming our world with love. The symposium was scheduled at The Unity Center for October 30.

Turning knowledge to wisdom—and then to action. That’s the desired outcome of the Symposium. As a result of becoming informed through the Symposium, participants “become unyieldingly committed to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet.” Explained Twist, “They really want to get their arms around the whole situation, really understand it and know what can I do, what role can I play because I want to turn the tide. That’s what the symposium does. It’s very, very inspiring—you can be one of the tide-turners.”

To learn more, please contact Barbara Ben-David, Director of Outreach at The Unity Center, who also contributed to this article.
858-689-6500, www.theunitycenter.net.