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Sukyo Mahikari Statement on the Environment
Sacred Practices for the 21st Century
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| Sukyo Mahikari Centers for Spiritual Development is a nonprofit spiritual and community service organization with world headquarters in Takayama, Japan, and regional headquarters in Australia-Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North America. |
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| Since its inception in 1959, the Mahikari organization has emphasized the importance of taking major action to restore and revive the earth's environment. Early on, we alerted people to the work of Rachel Carson showing the importance of protecting the environment from pesticides. Presently, Sukyo Mahikari promotes the 4Rs developed by Dr. Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize—to reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle our material resources—and the development of green technologies and other innovative directions for a positive, sustainable way of life that harmonizes with nature. |
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| Sukyo Mahikari fosters people's innate ability to create and participate in a world of true peace by understanding and harmonizing with the spiritual dimension in all aspects of life — the environment, the economy, health matters, the family and education, and every other aspect of life. |
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| In order to evolve in a forward direction, an aspect of critical importance is for people to change their way of thinking about the earth we live on and the earth's resources we live by. Geophysical markers already exist indicating that the earth has moved into a new geological era due to humankind's impact on the environment. Yet it is still not too late for positive change. People's thoughts and attitudes directly affect their actions; science and spirituality are in complete accord on this point. To prevent new directions and technologies from becoming mired in ways of the past that focus on individual comfort alone, spiritual values must be revived that foster the good of all. |
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| People of all religions, races, and nationalities come from the same source and the same origin. We are all brothers and sisters, living on our one and only planet earth. It is the wish and belief of Sukyo Mahikari Centers for Spiritual Development that people from all walks of life, all religions and all viewpoints, will put their faith in what unites us, join hands over spiritual values common to all traditions, and actively work toward a society that will be able to generate and sustain a more humane and harmonious society for future generations. |
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| Sukyo Mahikari includes close to 1 million practitioners, representing diverse professional fields, including the sciences, medicine, education, and the arts and humanities. For two decades, Sukyo Mahikari has given regular talks at the United Nations Headquarters. In 2000, Sukyo Mahikari was a co-sponsor of the United Nations Millennium Summit for Religious and Spiritual Leaders, and in 2009 joined the international interfaith effort to reduce the world's carbon output to 350 parts per million, the level scientists indicate will slow the climate crisis.
Sukyo Mahikari practitioners are active in greening their communities all over the globe. The organization also teaches organic gardening as a spiritual practice that revives the living nature of the soil and the food we grow, and at the same time revives our own inner spiritual power and connection with the rest of the environment. Sukyo Mahikari provides seeds, instructions, and biodegradable pots to hundreds of interested people at Earth Day festivals and other venues.
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