"A New Outlook on Spirituality"

from the Nelson Mail (New Zealand), March 17, 2000, by Geoff Collett

Henryk Skolimowski is a gentle, quietly spoken man whose outward demeanor gives no immediate hint of the life- and world-changing mission he has embarked on.

His message is delivered carefully but patiently in the thick accent of his native Poland, having been formulated over the past 25 years.

Professor Skolimowski is a philosopher, writer, teacher, activist and, in the role which brought him to New Zealand and Nelson this week, the visit-ing Geering lecturer for 2000.

But more than any of that, he is the founder and leading proponent of "eco-philosophy", an outlook on life and spiritual-ity which seeks to reinvent the basis of modem humanity and its relationship with creation.

It is a name which could be easily misunderstood, in an age when "eco" is assumed to mean "green", and probably ac-companying some kind of polit-ical or commercial agenda.

Eco-philosophy predates this - Professor Skolimowski suggests that the concept of "ecology" has been hijacked for bandwagons - and transcends the popular notion of environ-mentalism, although it is rooted in the principle of reverence for nature.

It starts from a single prem-ise - that the world is a sanctu-ary, and that the necessary val-ues for living in that sanctuary are reverence, responsibility, frugality and justice for all. "Healing ourselves is part of the healing of the planet," the literature reads.
Professor Skolimowski's approach encompasses the most fundamental questions of existence, including new concepts of divinity, responsibility, eth-ics, and the very concept of God.

Aspects of it are theological-ly controversial. It holds that spirituality, and God as an inherent part of spirituality, is in-evitably evolutionary, as it is an inextricable part of the human condition.
He subscribes to the argu-ment that the Bible sets out a blueprint for destruction, for humanity to claim dominion and power over all, including the power of destruction.

He readily acknowledges the challenge his views pose to established religions and faiths, but says he doesn't seek to encourage conflict or dispute.

"Eco-philosophy doesn't want to exclude any religions," he says - except perhaps the religion of the marketplace, which subscribes to the atti-tude expressed by 18th century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, who argued that the marketplace was desti-ny.

"I think God has better ways to manifest himself than that," Professor Skolimowski says.

In an increasingly materialistic, technology-led age, the obvious question begs itself - who is going to be interested in new spiritual paths when the over-riding goal of life seems to be to get rich as quickly as possi-ble?

"I'm told that statistically, I'm losing," he says, but this is a man who refuses to concede defeat - especially, he says, if he looks into the eyes of the messenger, when he has no doubt he will see a yearning for a better way.

"People are coerced, over-whelmed by what they are told. But when you meet them one to one, or make them meet themselves...there is nobody who prefers being manipulated, who prefers to live in the machine as opposed to the sanctuary."

He promises that the principles of eco-philosophy, of humanity recognizing and rever-ing the Earth as a sanctuary, will happen. "Creation won't allow the alternative."