The wisdom of the ages, “to treat others the way we want to be treated ourselves”, must be re-ingrained at once in our psyche and in our social and cultural life. Without the ethical guidance of the Golden Rule humanity will never evolve to the new level of consciousness needed to:

Love one another without expectations Work together as brothers and sisters Think of the world as one Treat nature as our mother

1. Love

“Love your neighbor as thyself.” — Jesus

Starting with ourselves and our personal relationships, we must try to love and share one another without expectations of advantage or ulterior motives. True friendship and true love are a gift from the heart and not a business contract!

LifeMaker is the home of one big family, and every member should feel welcome. We shall apply the golden rule to our everyday life, and remember that “your neighbor” is anyone in need. By helping the people in need around us, by offering them our unconditional love and support, we are going to feel happier, more empowered and surrounded by a karma of gratitude.

2. Freedom

“I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.” — Mikhail Bakunin

Our current socio-economic system is based on the exploitation of our natural environment as well as of humanity itself, both seen as mere means of production. Internally, the stress is all on competition and everyone’s goal is to outperform the others.

At LifeMaker we have a radically alternative vision and approach:

We believe that if done with the right intention , our individual efforts to realize ourselves can and should be a stimulus for everyone else to grow and learn along with us.

, our individual efforts to realize ourselves can and should be a stimulus for everyone else to grow and learn along with us. We believe in the universal value of cooperation while recognizing to each individual the autonomous freedom to cultivate and express his/her personal talents.

Consumer society brainwashed us into thinking that freedom means doing whatever you want, whenever you feel like.

But that is just silly advertisment.

Real freedom, as the old sages from India to Greece knew all too well, comes with self-discipline.

The most important thing in order to achieve fruitful collaboration is to start working on our egos. This time the Jain concepts of Aparigraha (non-possessiveness, non-greediness) and Anekantavada (open-mindness, plurality, non-absolutism) come to our rescue. This principles advocate on one side the detachment from material, emotional and ideological possessions, and on the other for the mindful consideration of all perspectives along with a humble respect for every difference in belief. Without such humility no cooperation is possible.

3. Truth

“The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.” — Democritus

The world is one. Everything is connected. Any artificial border that keeps segregating humans in different classes or nations is now obsolete and stands in the way of developing a global consciousness.

Any approach that puts national interests before the interest of the world is doomed to failure, since the problems we face today are too big for any single nation to solve by itself alone.

“Pollution is not a technical problem. The fault lies not in science and technology as such but in the sense of values of the contemporary world which ignores the rights of others and is oblivious of the longer perspective.

The only real alternative is a cooperative effort on the global scale to deal with to the entire spectrum of our problems, because Life is one and the World is one, and all the questions are inter-linked.

The population explosion; poverty; ignorance and disease, the pollution of our surroundings, the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and biological and chemical agents of destruction are all parts of a vicious circle.

Each is important and urgent but dealing with them one by one would be wasted effort.” — Indira Gandhi, Stockholm Conference, 1972

To comprehend the complexity of the current world-system we must learn to think integrally. As Sri Aurobindo writes in the Synthesis of Yoga:

“The Universe is in its essence infinite and its manifestations are also infinite. It cannot be grasped by identifying it with one of its parts unless that part is seen as a reflection of the whole. Our goal is to harmonise the many aspects of the Infinite: an integral consciousness, along with a multiform and dynamic experience, is therefore essential for the complete transformation of our nature.”

The Truth is We Are One — we are all part of an interconnected, evolving web of Life, woven together by the same universal thread.

The separation of Me Vs Rest is only a perceptual and intellectual illusion. When one discards the filter of separation, it begins to see the Self in every living being. As Krishna puts it:

“He who experiences the unity of Life sees his own self in every living being, and every living being in his own self.”

Only when the mind is liberated from the illusion of separateness, may it “expand its circle of awareness and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” — as Einstein had once wished.

This state of enlightenment, also called moksha in the Hindu tradition, is the culmination of the intellectual potential of our mind, and is attainable by everyone at the condition of practicing a conscious effort throughout one’s life, adiuvated by powerful techniques such as yoga and meditation.

4. Peace

“Kindness is our religion” —14th Dalai Lama

In Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas were those enlightened beings who vowed to help everyone else become liberated too. Once reached the peak of human consciousness, they would voluntarily come back to work in the world, putting their “great compassion and transcendent wisdom” in the service of humanity.

Let’s think of ourselves as the Bodhisattvas of the 21st Century: our goal is none less than to facilitate the evolution of human consciousness!

The natural balance has been destoyed by human civilization and needs to be restored at all costs because our future depends on it: we must re-establish an unbroken link with nature and with life.

Our problems began back when our hunter-gatherer ancestors settled down and gradually forgot all about the natural order, as they started to indulge in increasingly civilized lifestyles that forced them to disconnect from their own biological needs and from their natural environment.

The cancerous seed of self-alienation was thus planted in our psyche, and it led to a culture based on repressive taboos, violence and fear. Instead of solving our problems, this culture only increased our aggressiveness, our anti-social behaviours and our mental disorders with the consequent need for even more violent repression.

If, as we said in the Manifesto, violence has become ethically unacceptable, it’s precisely because we are collectively realizing what a waste of energy it is, and how it’s only making our problems worst.

But violence, as the Jain tradition reminds us, is not only violence against other humans: The Tattvārthasūtra defines hiṃsā (or violence) generally as the “removal of life by careless activity of mind, body and speech.” Thus an action in Jainism is regarded as violent every time it is accompanied by carelessness towards Life, in all its forms.

In today’s overpopulated, over-consuming world every action/inaction counts. What and where we buy, how we dispose of our waste, how much water we consume and the means of transport we choose have an impact that resonates through the whole planet. Carelessness is one of the plagues of mass-consumption societies, and can be overcome only by the conscious effort of everyone able to step out of the herd and set a different example.

A new, life-sustaining culture is needed. In the words of its co-founder Bill Mollison, Permaculture is about “working with, rather than against nature”.

Its three core tenets are:

Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply.

This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.