..續本文上一頁ch things as mobile phones upset our natural equilibrium. We call our cities ”urban jungles”, but really they are urban deserts, as almost nothing grows there. I am not suggesting that we need to return to the countryside, but we need to acknowledge the need for a natural environment for our own well-being and mental and physical health.

　　 Along with the industrial and technological revolutions have come destructively high levels of pollution. There are now 500,000 man-made pollutants in our environment. As a result city life makes us very tired and weak. We suffer from allergies, headaches, colds, coughs, memory loss, and also more serious illnesses.

　　 Worldwide in the 19th and 20th centuries there has been the development of science and high technology, which has brought many wonderful benefits to modern society and which is now enabling so many human beings to survive on our planet. At the same time we need to distinguish between technologies that are good for us and those, which harm us. We can choose green technologies and leave a positive legacy to the future generations.

　　 For example, lead pollution is a neural toxin, which lowers children”s intelligence; chemical food additives cause hyperactivity and so on. In many ways we are creating the conditions for poisoning and killing our body, mind and our environment. To improve our physical and mental health we need to make peace with the environment. We need to increase our awareness for nature and for saving our environment and it”s inhabitants. We have already unleashed the greatest wave of extinctions in seventy-five million years. We need to re-evaluate our dependence on this planet and develop a non-violent attitude towards it, if we want to create a sustainable society. We have a huge global responsibility and technological progress and business must go hand in hand with healing the planet. Whatever we want from life, be it physical health, material success, a beautiful healthy place to live in, or we wish for spiritual liberation and Enlightenment, we need to take care of the five elements and purify and re-energize them so that they become strong and clean once again.

　　 We need to respect and heal both our natural and urban environments. Our ancestors created balance and harmony through good city planning and architecture. Of course we need to take into account the complexity of modern city life, but the great city-states of ancient times still have many wonderful ideas to offer us. Our ancestors understood how to balance the urban and natural environments. All ancient cultures highly respected nature and sacred spaces as integral parts of their city planning. Especially in China you have the great science of Feng Shui and Tao, and a precious heritage of great masters like Confucious or Lao Tse, who taught about the natural laws of the five elements and the effects on the environment, our health, stability, wealth conditions, etc inpidually and collectively.

　　 I grew up in an ancient society, in Tibet, that was deeply rooted in spiritual and environment values. In Tibet unless we were rich and had a horse, we walked everywhere, and we were directly in touch with the earth every day.

　　 Modern society has lost touch with the Earth and consequently this is creating many difficulties and dangers. Not only have we lost touch with the earth, but we have also lost contact with the space, wind, water and fire elements. These elements are the very basis of our physical existence, that we have become disconnected and alienated from and as a result, we have spread pollution and destruction all over our planet. We do this out of ignorance, not realizing that we are also destroying our bodies and minds at the same time. It says in the Kalachakra …

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