Praxis and Awareness

Ecological crisis is a fruit of awareness and values crisis!

Awareness! What is lacking in our world today is awareness—the knowledge of the present reality and of the universe story. At present, many of us are not aware that our present era, i.e. the Cenozoic Era, is on its terminal phase. Many of us were already blinded by greed that we only tend to look for avenues that will somehow uplift the human well-being. We are only concerned with the viability of the human person, not of the earth as a whole. We failed to realize that all things are connected—that there is only one story.

During the past few weeks, some parts of the Philippines were devastated by the super typhoon ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Pepeng.’ Many lives were lost, infrastructures were destroyed, and many are still suffering. Today, though many are still haunted by this specter, new super typhoons are threatening to enter the country. Because of this, Filipinos and the Philippine Government are already preoccupied with matters concerning ‘preparation.’

The above situation just show how human-centered is the mindset of most human person. Most of us are only thinking for our own safety—of ‘preparations’ that we forgot to talk about the idea of ‘prevention.’ Yes, human safety is important but what happened is that we forgot to look at the real cause of the problem—i.e. the abuse of the natural world. We failed to see that the excessive cutting of trees, the pollution, improper waste disposal, and the likes contributed and aggravated the matter. So, what is really lacking is awareness. Thus, those who are aware must start the change from themselves and to start influencing others. Little by little, we can minimize such disastrous calamities if we will just be aware that we can make a change.

But change will not take effect if we will be stocked on just being aware. We must also change our value system. Proper action must be done. All of our preoccupations must be done not only for the upliftment of the human well-being but for the upliftment of the well being of the earth community in general. It is only through this way—by acting and living as part of the natural world, that we may continue the story of life…for viability is really a matter of awareness and praxis.