“Whatever we do either creates the framework for continuing the supreme adventure of life and consciousness on this planet or sets the stage for its termination. The choice before us is urgent and important: it can neither be postponed nor ignored.”
Ervin Laszlo
“We are beginning to see the entire universe as a holographically interlinked network of energy and information, organically whole and self referential at all scales of its existence. We, and all things in the universe, are non-locally connected with each other and with all other things in ways that are unfettered by the hitherto known limitations of space and time.”
Ervin Laszlo
Short video (4 minutes) in which philosopher Ervin László lays out his inspiring vision for humanity's mission on this planet.
Dear readers and followers of A Biosphere Project,
We cannot ignore it: the results of the US elections do not bode well for the coming years. The beginning of a transition to a different world seems further away than ever. But I would like to refer to the previous musing, in which Nate Hagens gave his fine list of recommendations, also for after the election:
"Set yourself an unconditional goal
Avoid doomscrolling
Take the other side's perspective
Talk and listen to the other side
Create communities that cross party lines
Improve ecological resilience in your local environment
Be kind to yourself.”
And like Nate, I want to continue working unabated in the coming months and years for a different world, for a transition to a society in harmony with our biosphere.
And so, what is ours to do?
In regards to this I would like to give the floor to the great Ervin László in this musing.
Ervin László is a monument, a true “uomo universale,” a polymath, a genius in more fields than I can begin to outline here.
Ervin László was born in 1932 in Budapest, Hungary, and spent his childhood there. He was a celebrated child prodigy on the piano, with public performances from the age of nine. He received a grand prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva and was then allowed to leave Hungary to begin an international concert career, first in Europe and then in America. During the long train rides across Europe from one concert to the next, he spent time with his hobby: philosophy of science. He devoured books on every possible field of science, and began to organize his insights into a field he actually invented: systems thinking. He may just about be called the father of systems philosophy. Soon he was invited for chairs at the most prestigious universities in Europe and the United States, including Yale, Princeton, and the Sorbonne.
His work on the future evolution of world order led to his being asked to contribute to the report of the Club of Rome, of which he also became a member. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ervin László worked for the United Nations in various positions, at the Center for Training and Research.
He has authored or co-authored 106 books published in 25 languages, in addition to literally hundreds of scientific articles for scientific journals.
He is a member of numerous scientific bodies, including the International Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Philosophy of Science and the International Academy of Medicine. In 2010, he was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Laszlo has received several honors and awards, including honorary doctorates from the United States, Canada, Finland and Hungary. Laszlo received the Goi Award, the Japan Peace Prize in 2001 and the Assisi Mandir of Peace Prize in 2006, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and 2005.
He is also the founder of the László Institute for New Paradigm Research, a research institution where scientists from various fields work together to create a new paradigm, or overarching worldview, based on the latest insights from such fields of science as quantum physics, evolutionary biology, astrophysics, the study of consciousness, and so on. A record of the progress of their synthesis can be found in László's books 'Science and The Akashic Field' and 'The Intelligence of the Cosmos', among others.
Both books are warmly recommended for anyone who wants to get an idea of the startling new perspectives emerging from the latest science.
The outline of that new paradigm, which is being worked on at the László Institute for New Paradigm Research (LINPR in short), is startling to say the least, and the new worldview that is emerging there from the synthesis of so many developments in science has very little to do with the worldview in which you and I grew up. But more on that another time.
And what is the message that this great Ervin László has for us in this short clip of a few minutes?
That we have a “sacred mission” on this planet.
And that is something completely different from merely trying to survive on this world and in the process destroying our biosphere in a dystopian battle of all against all for the scarce remaining resources, food and water.
A sacred mission presupposes a higher purpose, or at least a higher context in which our lives unfold. A higher potential in our relationship with our biosphere, our planet. A purpose or teleology in the fact that we exist, an existence that is not accidental and has a place in the larger picture of our planet's existence.
All of these are things we are not accustomed to hearing, and which easily elicit a scornful laugh from our cynical zeitgeist . A “sacred mission,” doesn't that sound like a suspicious and veiled religious aberration that can only lead to a fanatical crusade?
No, because we need to learn to think and feel differently about the sacred, and about what sacredness actually means. We need to detach that word from its dogmatic connotations, and see it again as the fundamental energy that flows through everything that exists and provides it with meaning and value.
For Ervin László, our “sacred mission” consists of learning to “dance with the planet” again. And that is something completely different from trying to dominate it. To dance with someone, you have to be in connection with them: otherwise you will step on each other's toes. You have to sense where the other person is going and what movement might be next. It's a “flow” that requires each partner to join in the movement of beauty and synergy.
So I would like to invite you to take a moment to listen to the great Ervin László, in a short but moving appeal: let's dance again with our planet. Filmed on a balcony overlooking a garden (I suspect his own), with birds singing in the background, and a beautiful light through the green leaves all around.
And that dancing with Mother Earth is for Ervin László above all a matter of love. Love for all that lives, and love for existence itself. Love can be seen as the universal force that connects everything in the universe, directing movement toward greater synergy and complex harmony. As Buckminster Fuller put it, “Love is metaphysical gravity.”
The 92-year-old László looks frail, but brings an extremely powerful message for all of humanity, one that cannot be misunderstood. “Whatever we do, it either creates the framework for continuing the supreme adventure of life and consciousness on this planet, or it paves the way for its termination. The choice before us is urgent and important: it cannot be postponed or ignored."
In the second video at the bottom of this post, you can listen to a TEDx talk by Ervin László about the meta-crisis and the only possible answer to it: unconditional love.
In this 20-minute talk, recorded in 2013, László lists the challenges we face at the planetary level, of which the climate crisis is just one aspect. Again, he reiterates: the world as we know it is coming to an irrevocable end. But what world will take its place? That depends on us. If we don't change, these generations will be the last. If we do change, these generations will be the first of a new era.
This lecture dates back 11 years, but is no less urgent because we have made no progress since 2013, quite the contrary. But as Ervin László emphasizes in the first video the movement toward more love through “dancing with the planet,” he also states here that the only force which can enable us to go through this “chaotic phase transition” will indeed be love, and he lists in sixteen points how this love can be concretely translated into action. And as I pointed out in my recent blog post 'What To Do? (Reprise)' that the challenge before us has only very partially to do with driving less or taking shorter showers, Ervin László tells us that the transformation we are invited to is much more far-reaching. We must reconnect with the wonder in ourselves, the mystery of consciousness, with our innate agency, intuitive wisdom, boldness, imagination, and the connection to the greater whole of which each of us is an inseparable part.
It is up to us, who else?
And even though a dark era seems to be upon us right now, we must remember that no one knows what's ahead, and that there may very well be profound changes on the horizon very soon, changes that may as well move us further in a different, more beautiful and hopeful direction. And we must remember that there may also be very different forces at work than simple cause-and-effect sequences according to Newtonian physics. As Werner Heisenberg, one of the fathers of quantum physics, put it, “The Universe is not only stranger than we think, it is stranger than we cán think.”
Let's start dancing no matter what is coming our way.
Thanks for reading, and until the next episode,
All the best to you
Filip
Twenty-minute talk for TEDx in which Ervin László highlights the need for a far-reaching revolution in our world if we want to leave a livable planet to our children and their children.
