Spirituality and Public Life

Lacking any spiritual premise, codes of ethics and moral value do not easily take root in society. They are essentially transient perceptions of good behavior imposed by fashion or power. Ironically, this postmodern culture seems itself to suffer from a bleak entanglement of senseless connections, without obvious means to liberate itself from the bonds of brute materiality. The appropriate response to this crisis is reunion not only between the self and the world, but also between the heart and the mind

The ambition of the Circle is to inject fresh ideas and modes of thinking drawn from time honored philosophical, cultural and religious traditions into the international public discourse to stimulate the intrinsic spirit of humanity to seek more satisfying ways to raise the levels of humanity in society and improve the quality of life on the planet.

The “spirit” in humankind has significance for society in many ways. It is in honest and humble recourse to some harmonious, transcendent consciousness or power that societies finds firm grounds for the elaboration of ethical and moral norms.The search for meaning and purpose is not about grand ideologies or social experiments in the name of God. It is “simply” a quest for sense and direction that can inspire human flourishing, social harmony, and life in equilibrium with nature. It is in its largest sense about “being.” The decisive obstacle to this effort is that the prevailing strain of Western culture and commercialism seems to have broken away from its human, spiritual, and moral moorings.

Universal Love as Political Philosophy and Practice

Points ot Wisdom: Subsidiarity and Generosity to the Other

By Edward Domen

Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God (of good) in everyone.

Walk – don’t drive or fly, to better be in contact with the people & conditions you meet
Cheerfully- encourages friendly dialogue, more conducive to a settlement which satisfies all parties.
World – your actions may affect people anywhere : viz. climate change
Answering – listen to what they have to say so that you can take their concerns & knowledge fully into account

Applying an Ethic of Love to Current Global Crises: …

By Dominique Michal

Not sure that history would give us sound examples

Has love has ever lead countries, counties, or villages?

Have the very first nations been structured around an ethic of love?

Or was it that looking after each other was just a survival answer to their environment? Is the idea of love in politics a resurgence of the “Summer in love” in the 1960’s?

And yes! an incredible number of philosophers, thinkers, spiritual leaders, politicians have talked about it over the years: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Pope Francis, Vaclav Havel …to what avail? …

Selfless Love and Interdependence: Humans and Nature

by Noriko Hashimoto

Human Interdependence with Nature Challenged by Machines …

Nature is, according to Professor Imamichi, the teacher of “waiting and enduring”; it is not enough to look at nature, objectively, by looking after nature because “human beings are in essence a part of nature”. So, by making our inner selves truly calm, the meaning of waiting can be understood. “Stressing temporality means emulating nature’s waiting stance. This fosters the patience to wait with the unfolding of time (zeitigen), as well as an awareness of waiting.”…

Now, we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. [Yes] Power at its best [applause], power at its best is love [Yes] implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on.
Martin Luther King

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable…. A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair, whereas true love is self-effacing and demands no consideration.… Wherever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. In a crude manner, I have worked it out in my life. That does not mean that all my difficulties are solved. I have found, however, that this Law of Love has answered as the Law of Destruction has never done.
Ghandi

I see science and mysticism as two complimentary manifestations of the human mind; of its rational and intuitive faculties. The modern physicist experiences the world through an extreme specialization of the rational mind; the mystic through an extreme specialization of the intuitive mind. The two approaches are entirely different and involve far more than a certain view of the physical world. However, they are complimentary, both of them are necessary, supplementing one another for a fuller understanding of the world. To paraphrase an old Chinese saying, mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. [Neither science nor mysticism need each other] but men and women need both. … What we need…is a dynamic interplay between mystical intuition and scientific analysis.
Fridjof Capra, from his book TheTao of Physics

Love, Physics and Noosphere

By Hideo Shingu
2022/11/26

Noosphere may be understood as the expression of states of mind which is the outgrowth of the living earth or biosphere according to Vladimir Vernadsky. Physics and mind are two different matters existing in rather opposite ways in nature. Two opposite things exist independently and cannot be treated as one, said Aristotle and Einstein. However, pre-Aristotle philosopher Heraclitus is known for his philosophy of “unity of opposite” Today this may be represented in physics by quantum entanglement.

Story of Entanglement Now we will seek a curious and interesting relation between physics and the mind using the Nobel prize winning example of the physical phenomena called quantum entanglement. ,,,

Écologie politique : Je plaide pour une écologie de l’amour

By Phillip Roche

Tout engagement efficace pour l’écologie commence par un acte d’amour. J’ai été toute ma vie un militant, un activiste et je n’hésite pas à me qualifier de fondamentaliste si l’on entend par là la conviction profonde que la recherche d’harmonie entre l’humanité et la nature est une tâche essentielle,

Comparative Politics and Ethics of Power or Love

Observation by Jeremy Thompson [New Zealand]

Among the thoughts I have had about Politics and Love include the following contemporary examples at polar opposite ends of the political spectrum

Vladimir Putin
President of Russia exemplifies the worst of Politics of Power on both humanitarian and financial grounds

Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Ardern is an example of how a strong leader can exhibit ‘the Power of Politics’ motivated by Love for her People in a positive way with humanitarian goodness at the centre of policy formation

Universal Selfless Love [Agape] as a Political Philosophy and Practice
A Bahá’í perspective on Love

Arthur Lyon Dahl

The Bahá’í concept of universal selfless love is very broad. The following texts can help us to define such love and its applications, including in politics. The first comes from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Son of the founder of the Bahá’í Faith:

“Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God’s holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings

Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms.

The Unifying Power of Love in Politics: What Is or Should Be the Role of Love in Political Reconciliation, Relations and Communications?

By Konrad Raiser

Introducing the power of love into politics challenges the claims of “realism”of the classical understanding of the role of power in politics. It challenges the assumptions regarding struggle and the imposition of order….

The attempt to introduce the power of love into politics can easily be disqualified as “blue-eyed” and “unrealistic”. This has been a central concern in the ethical reflection of Reinhold Niebuhr. …

However, considering love not only as a moral demand but with Tillich as the “urge towards the reunion of the separated”, the power of love must find expression in an equally dynamic understanding and practice of justice in the sense not of retributive but rather transformative justice aiming at right relationships.

UNIVERSAL SELFLESS LOVE AS A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE
STATEMENTS AND COMMENTS AT 3^rd TRIGLAV ZOOM
Compiled by Jacques Baudot

This paper presents the interventions of participants, comments on the connexions these remarks have to previous discussions of the Circle, and on issues that ought to be further examined. These comments and suggestions are in italics and noted as JB …

Nitin Desai : Reasons for Introducing Love in Politics
In the past three decades the world has been dominated by neo-liberal economics based on individualism and efficiency narrowly conceived and measured. To introduce love in politics means fighting individualism and also a simplistic and “economistic” definition of efficiency.

Love’s incarnation in a famous Noh play by Daisetz Suzuki, Buddhist monk, essayist, and philosopher, as Yama-Uba meaning “old woman in the mountains.” She is the temporal incarnation of the Principle of Love that in reality moves secretly in every person.

Usually not conscious of this Principle people regularly ignore it. In the play assuming love to be

incarnated in a young and beautiful woman, people fail to recognize its embodiment in a white-

haired wizened woman, her appearance symbolizing the reality of her ceaseless struggle in the

world. She suffers pains gladly, knows no rest, and interruption in her work. She incarnates the

unknown and invisible agent in Nature and humanity, that humanity would gratefully recognize

in a happy way but with whom they have to come to grips with to grasp the actuality of Nature.

Noriko Hashimoto

Why a Discussion on a Politics of Love

By Barbara Baudot

The choice of this topic is consistent with the original intent of the Circle which is to contribute to the enrichment of the international and global discourse. The word ‘Love’is increasingly finding its place in the public discourse on the current state of the world, the state of nature, and civil society whether at national or international levels. Suffice at this point to refer to the reports of our last two meetings. In particular, the report on Common Good and Social Justice which includes a discussion on ethic of love versus ethic of fear.

Universal Love as a Political Philosophy and Practice in Furthering Human Rights
By Margo Picken

Could love as a political philosophy and practice serve to re-build trust and overcome the politics of hate and fear? Could it inject the fresh thinking and language that is needed, and galvanise people’s imagination, sympathy, and goodwill? Could it serve as a unifying force to overcome divisions, and bring together the thousands of determined but fragmented and uncoordinated protest and activist movements around shared values of love, kindness, compassion, equality, solidarity, fraternity, integrity?

Marie Curie: Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.Is this Triglav’s role: to contribute to “understanding more” so that we may fear less, and in the context of the upcoming 2025 World Social Summit by distilling and handing on its accumulated knowledge and experience?

Report of the 23/1/21 zoom meeting of the Triglav Circle has just been published on the web site together with the two videos of the zoom sessions AM for participants in Europe and Asia and PM for participants in Europe and North America.

COMMON GOOD AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
TRIGLAV CIRCLE MEETING 23/1/21
REPORT

The “cry of the earth” and the “cry of the poor” have to be heard, said Pope Francis in his encyclical letter Laudato S’I.[1] The disharmonies between humankind and nature is linked to other crises, including the Covid pandemic, increasing inequalities and deprivation. Widespread violence, insecurity, and contempt of many governments for human rights further put into question the foundations of modern civilization. Could the notion of common good, with its material, moral and spiritual exigencies, provide the intellectual and political framework to guide corrective public and private policies and actions at all levels?

[1] Pope Francis, Laudato S’i On Care for Our Common Home, Encyclical Letter, 2015, The World Among Us Press, Frederick, Maryland, USA

Clic here to read the report

Zoom AM – Zoom PM

Meaning of Life and Purpose of Society: Essential Dimensions of Morality
Meeting of Circle, Cambridge 2004

Report
The Triglav Circle held its meeting at the Harvard-Yenching Institute on the 12th and 13th of March. The theme for discussion was: the meaning of life and purpose of society.

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Agenda
The prevailing strain of Western culture and commercialism seems to have broken away from its human, spiritual, and moral moorings. Ironically, this postmodern culture seems itself to suffer from a bleak entanglement of senseless connections, without obvious means to liberate itself from the bonds of brute materiality. The appropriate response to this crisis is reunion not only between the self and the world, but also between the heart and the mind.

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Reconsidering the Universalist Message of the Enlightenment
Report of Meeting 1998

While there are great variances in the writings of Enlightenment thinkers concerning the moral quality of human nature, the existence of a super human power or deity, the relevance of history and views on political theory, there are certain ideas shared by virtually all the Enlightenment fathers that formed the foundation of what is commonly called “the legacy of the European Enlightenment.”These ideas are [see listed]… Although the Enlightenment is commonly understood to be a uniquely western phenomenon, it has not been the privilege of one culture. Even before the Western European Enlightenment, a comparable intellectual awakening or revival had occurred in the Middle East and in China. In Japan, Enlightenment occurred independently but simultaneously with western Europe. In a global society it is important to recognize the different revelations of reason.

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Spirituality, Society, and Politics:
Meeting Cambridge MA, 22 February 1997

Twenty persons reflecting diverse political orientations, cultures, walks of life, and disciplines discussed how secular societies can respond more effectively to the material and spiritual needs of individuals and communities. Convinced that any vision of human progress that does not take into account the aesthetic, moral, and spiritual needs of humanity is defective, the Circle regularly gave particular attention to what ethics and the spiritual quest mean in the context of current political trends and debates on the organization and progress of societies.

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This new critical biography provides a complete picture of German novelist, playwright and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The book offers fresh, thought-provoking interpretations of all the major works, including novels such as The Sorrows of Young Werther and The Elective Affinities, plays such as Egmont and Iphigenia in Tauris, and Goethe’s greatest work, Faust. Alongside these works the incidents of his life are analysed, including his love affairs and his meetings with the great people of the age, such as Napoleon Bonaparte.

Moral Dimensions of the Public Discourse: the Legacy of the Social Summit Revisited
Meeting Cambridge MA, 25-26 Feb 2005

The moral behavior of public authorities has more chance to be enhanced through institutionalized accountability, requiring in particular free and pluralistic media, than through statements and debates on values. And the same caution, discretion and constant efforts at transparency and accountability should be expected from international organizations, as well as from corporations.

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An Ethically and Spiritually Enriched Socio-Political Philosophy
Triglav Circle Panel Discussion

On a collection of essays offering ideas for an ethically and spiritually enriched socio-political philosophy, United Nations General Assembly Special Session – Essays that esteem the human spirit and dignity to be central values in policy making; seeks link between self interest and the common good; and introduce in practical ways philosophical, spiritual, and cultural perspectives in approaches to global political and socio-economic problems. Contributors represent a wide spectrum of scholarship, practical experience, and cultural histories. The contributors, professors in various disciplines as well as practitioners in business, diplomacy, and public policy share a sense of the importance of introducing ethical and spiritual concepts into the public discourse on development and global issues.

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Development Cooperation Seen Through a Moral Lens.

Address by Barbara Baudot to Symposium on Social Development, UN 2002
The Triglav Circle offers a view of development cooperation through a multi-faceted moral lens offering a three dimensional perspective: on the plane of action; on inner motivations that drive donors and recipients; and on the philosophical and theoretical plane i.e. to what end this development cooperation.

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Candles in the Dark, book ed. By Barbara Baudot

The central theme of this book is the need to rediscover and articulate ethical and spiritual values in the ethos of modernity and in the emerging global economy and society. This book assumes that prevalent political discourse on the most egregious problems in international relations, political economy, and social well-being ignores a host of unexplored, often forgotten but vitally important interests, beliefs, and values, and ignores the critical questions of meaning and purpose in human life.

See publications page

Tribe or Human: Must We Choose? By Charles Courtney

My topic is of great contemporary interest, but I want to launch our discussion with reference to two giants of modern philosophy. In Book III of his masterwork, The Ethics, Baruch Spinoza says that “Everything, as far as it can by its own power, strives [conatus] to persevere in its being.”^[1] Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, shows one possible outcome. He says, “Out of civil states, there is war of every one against every one. . . . and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”^[2] His solution for this state of universal war is to give absolute power to a single ruler, the sovereign. Individuals can no longer wage war. But in another work, The Citizen, he employs an image that undercuts his claim about the war of all against all. He writes, “Let us return again to the state of nature, and consider men as if sprung out of the earth, and suddenly, like mushrooms, come to full maturity, without all kind of engagement to each other.”^[3] A vivid image, but not accurate about mushrooms. Because, even though mushrooms appear to stand alone, in fact they are connected in a vast underground network. And, although individualism has a large place in the ethos of our country, human beings are connected in many ways. Here are some of them. Read more…

What lessons will we learn from the pandemic by Arthur Dahl

It may seem weird to be thankful for a catastrophe, but the Covid-19 pandemic now sweeping the world, its ultimate outcome still uncertain, may be a blessing in disguise or a cloud with a silver lining.

Let me explain.

I’m not minimizing the suffering so many people have endured, or the grief that coronavirus deaths have engendered. Instead, I’m wondering whether this deadly virus has a larger lesson to teach us, if we’re willing to learn it.

Guiding Purpose and Meaning of Life, by Barbara Baudot

There are no simple answers. The present state of transition, mediocrity, uncertainty and confused anxiety can be interpreted as substantiating the notion that the role of the public intellectual is to be aware of this current state of contemporary existence and to address its root causes. To bring about a more harmonious and sustainable society, the public critic should explore how best to attain a conjoining of private and public virtue so as to enrich private lives in society and render public policies more effective and equitable.

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Horizons of a Grand Theory of Peace, by Richard Falk

My approach to such a daunting challenge seeks to be attentive to the urgings of Professor Shin Chiba that “..our quest for a grand theory of peace should be made in response to the crisis of the present age as it is beset by [a] series of wars, the absence of peace and safety, environmental destruction, the structural cleavage between the haves and the have nots..” It is his claim that “a grand theory can only be justified by the strong demand for a new normative theory.

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Progress in Development of the Concept of a Spiritual and Ethical Dimension in Social Progress, paper summarizing discussions of the Triglav Circle from 1996 to 2000, by Barbara Baudot

Obsession with materialism and scientism has largely obscured an essential link between human life and the ethereal essence of the universe. But, it is this link that many thinkers believe gives meaning to human life, and the loss of this same link constitutes a major obstacle to sustainability. Even Marx observed that obsessive materialism would eventually strip meaning from existence. He wrote “All our invention and progress are seen to result in endowing material forces with intellectual life, and in stultifying human life into a material force.” When people esteem themselves capable of satisfying all their aspirations through money and consumption, it is problematic to find a credible future for humanity.

There is increasing recognition that to conceive as essential the moral and ethical dimensions of life is to be realistic, not just romantic. To many public intellectuals, this represents a significant advancement in thinking about human needs and development.

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Nature’s Universe, Morality, and the Global Political Culture, by Barbara Baudot
Paper presented to EcoEthica Kyoto, Japan 2004.

The apparent failure of efforts by states and other institutions to put in place programs to significantly arrest the degradation of the world’s social and natural environments cannot be ignored. It is an urgent call to stir the world’s market place of ideas with reconsiderations about the meaning of existence and the importance of virtue-based happiness. This implies appreciation of moral values and serious thinking about how these can come to play in policy making. It is the contention of this paper that an intellectual and moral renaissance is necessary for humankind to discover its common good.

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The Genealogy of ‘Human Dignity” : A New Perspctive
By Jeremy Adler

This article considers the history of the concept of human dignity from its origins in the Bible and in Stoic philosophy down to the twentieth century. The major thinkers who contributed to the development of the idea are examined, including Pico della Mirandola, Pufendorf, Kant, and Broch. Similarly, the views of contemporary philosophers such as Jürgen Habermas and Martha Nussbaum are considered. The central thesis in this argument, which diverges from the standard view, is that Goethe occupies a pivotal role in this tradition. Goethe’s creation of an organic, holistic and self-reflective view of human dignity established a new paradigm. This innovative concept of dignity as an expression of human growth and self-realization found its way into the UDHR and German Basic Law. It is a position adopted by the German Constitutional Court in several important rulings; and it continues to find an echo in the writings of contemporary philosophers.

Highlights

Transcendence and Nature

Scientism and spirituality

Grand theory of peace

Individuality and community

Morality, society and politics

Spirituality versus religion in governance

Spirituality and Public Life

Universal Love as Political Philosophy and Practice

Meaning of Life and Purpose of Society: Essential Dimensions of Morality Meeting of Circle, Cambridge 2004

Report The Triglav Circle held its meeting at the Harvard-Yenching Institute on the 12th and 13th of March. The theme for discussion was: the meaning of life and purpose of society.

Reconsidering the Universalist Message of the Enlightenment Report of Meeting 1998

Spirituality, Society, and Politics: Meeting Cambridge MA, 22 February 1997

Moral Dimensions of the Public Discourse: the Legacy of the Social Summit Revisited Meeting Cambridge MA, 25-26 Feb 2005

An Ethically and Spiritually Enriched Socio-Political Philosophy Triglav Circle Panel Discussion

Development Cooperation Seen Through a Moral Lens.

Candles in the Dark, book ed. By Barbara Baudot

Tribe or Human: Must We Choose? By Charles Courtney

What lessons will we learn from the pandemic by Arthur Dahl

Guiding Purpose and Meaning of Life, by Barbara Baudot

Horizons of a Grand Theory of Peace, by Richard Falk

Progress in Development of the Concept of a Spiritual and Ethical Dimension in Social Progress, paper summarizing discussions of the Triglav Circle from 1996 to 2000, by Barbara Baudot

Nature’s Universe, Morality, and the Global Political Culture, by Barbara Baudot Paper presented to EcoEthica Kyoto, Japan 2004.

The Genealogy of ‘Human Dignity” : A New Perspctive By Jeremy Adler

Meaning of Life and Purpose of Society: Essential Dimensions of Morality
Meeting of Circle, Cambridge 2004

Report
The Triglav Circle held its meeting at the Harvard-Yenching Institute on the 12th and 13th of March. The theme for discussion was: the meaning of life and purpose of society.

Reconsidering the Universalist Message of the Enlightenment
Report of Meeting 1998

Spirituality, Society, and Politics:
Meeting Cambridge MA, 22 February 1997

Moral Dimensions of the Public Discourse: the Legacy of the Social Summit Revisited
Meeting Cambridge MA, 25-26 Feb 2005

An Ethically and Spiritually Enriched Socio-Political Philosophy
Triglav Circle Panel Discussion

Nature’s Universe, Morality, and the Global Political Culture, by Barbara Baudot
Paper presented to EcoEthica Kyoto, Japan 2004.

The Genealogy of ‘Human Dignity” : A New Perspctive
By Jeremy Adler