It has been my great good fortune to have been a student of Daoism for over forty years. At Cambridge, I studied under the famous Dr. Joseph Needham. In China I have had the great fortune to work with many great Daoist masters and teachers and to visit so many important sites from Tai Shan to Qing Cheng Shan and of course to discuss Daoism with old friends at the White Cloud Temple and Louguantai.
And Daoism has taught me one profoundly important truth. It is very simple and it is simply revolutionary. We do not exist apart from nature. We are not observers of nature, outsider viewing something outside ourselves. We are part of nature and nature is part of us. Our bodies are microcosms of the universe and if we disturb the qi, the balance of nature on the planet, then our qi is adversely affected as well.
Daoism has taught me that we must maintain balance – yin and yang. I remember very well when Olav Kjorven from the UN came to the Maoshan meeting in 2008 and discovered that Daoism understood centuries ago the causes of climate change. You showed him that oil and coal are yin forces, earthly and that by burning them indiscriminately we turn them into yang forces and so unbalance the planet.
This is why in 2009 at the invitation of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s organization ARC and at the invitation of the Secretary General of the UN, you presented your eight year plan to protect our beautiful planet and the riches of all life here. That eight years is now up and huge steps forward have been achieved by Daoism not just here in China. You have become recognized as one of the most important spiritual forces helping all humanity to rethink our relationship with nature. Not apart, but a part of. The wisdom of Daoism has begun a revolution in world thinking which we now ask you not just to continue but to expand.
Here in China, the success of the Daoist ecological Temple Network has meant that more and more of you major temples have become centres of excellence. Centres where the living witness of Daoism as a religion of nature can be seen and experienced by millions of pilgrims and visitors. Centres where a different vision from the greed and ignorance of consumerism can be found in the quiet places; in generosity; in feeling part of a spiritual universe and where prayers can be answered. This network has attracted interest from around the world. For example it was with centres such as Louguantai and Taibaishan that we first experimented with the idea of creating green pilgrimage programmes. These have now gone world wide and we are helping dozens of other faiths and scores of sacred cities around the world to develop green pilgrimage. This began here. It now needs to expand and become a feature of all major pilgrimage sites in China. You and you alone can do this and I hope many more temples will join the Daoist ecological temple Network and bring balance not just to China but world wide.
Alongside the DETN the most successful programme launched as part of your eight year plan has been the programme against the illegal wildlife trade. ARC has been working with CDA since 1999 on tackling this terrible abuse of the great Chinese tradition of Traditional Chinese Medicine. TCM has so much to offer the world of medicine but its reputation has been tarnished by the illegal wildlife trade. Just last month HRH The Duke of Edinburgh welcomed a Daoist delegation to Windsor Castle in England to thank them for the outstanding work Daoism has done to oppose this terrible and illegal trade in precious but increasingly rare animals such as the rhino, tiger and elephant. With the help of Daoism this is now changing and you should take great pride in the role Daoism has played.
So now what of the future? It is time to start planning the next eight year plan. The UN has already asked for the help of Daoism. In 2015 you attended the ARC/UN meeting about the Sustainable Development Goals – the fifteen year plans of the UN to protect life on earth in all its forms. Your Commitment there has helped create new plans for all major cities to involve the religions in designing resilient cities capable of helping us not just survive in cities but thrive and also help protect nature.
The UN has also requested that the Daoist community issue guidelines on how investments – by the temples but also by individual followers of Daoism – could be invested in projects which support the sustainable development and environmental goals by creating new projects designed to enhance life for humanity and for all life. We look forward to seeing these guidelines and to announcing them at the ARC/ UN event in Switzerland at the end of October.
I ask you now. What will be the next great ideas that Daoism will bring to the world? Will it be education; youth work; publications; teachings; practical projects; investment? Will it be that by 2020 there are a thousand members of the DETN? Will it be that Daoist designed cities will be being built? Will it be that through Daoism no illegal wildlife is found in TCM; Will it be that Daoist wisdom will at long last have taken its rightful place as one of the greatest gifts that humanity has as it seeks to understand its place on this beautiful, fragile planet? I hope it will be all of these and more. And we at ARC stand ready to help you as we have done for over twenty years.
Thank you
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