By Zhihe Wang, Ph.D

(Director of Institute for Postmodern Development of China)

Although more than one year has passed, the beautiful experience of the Yeoju Eco-Forum lingers as if it were just yesterday. To be honest, the great success of the Yeoju Eco-Forum exceeded my expectations, thanks to the hard work of Daesoon Jinrihoe, a main cosponsor and our host. It was a privilege to work with Daesoon Jinrihoe for the first time. 

I was amazed not only by the unique opening ceremony, which kicked off with the thunderous sound of drums performed by a vigorous group of female drummers dressed in red. Likewise remarkable was the hospitality which made us feel at home, and also the deep ecological insights demonstrated by President Yun Eun-do and his colleagues.

There is no doubt that President Yun Eun-do and his team felt the urgency of ecological issues and recognized the extreme importance of a forum like Yeoju Eco-Forum. They realized that, although there had been many global conferences on interfaith dialogue and on ecological civilization, there have been few conferences that combined the two topics of interfaith dialogue and ecological civilization. 

The purpose of the Yeoju Forum was to bring leaders of different religious faiths and top scholars together, to facilitate a dialogue among different religions and spiritual traditions on ecological civilization, and to gather constructive wisdom from this dialogue in order to deal with the urgent ecological crisis and create a new civilization: an ecological civilization.

It was such a sense of mission that made Daesoon Jinrihoe devote its whole organization to actively hosting this forum. I still remember the first time we discussed the original concept of the Yeoju Eco-Forum with the Daesoon Jinrihoe delegation represented by Director Lee Tae-yeol, Manager Jay Cha, and Professor Lee Gyung-Won in Toronto, Canada back in November of  2018. Less than one year later, Daesoon Jinrihoe made it happen. This was the first conference in the world that dedicated interfaith dialogue to ecological civilization. Some 500 leaders and top scholars from different traditions and faiths committed to ecological civilization participated in this historical event. That explained why Dr. John Cobb, a pioneer in promoting interfaith dialogue in the West, felt so excited about the forum. He regarded the Yeoju Eco-Forum as “a breakthrough in creating an ecological civilization.” In this sense, we indeed can say the Yeoju Eco-Forum was historically unprecedented. 

I also learned a great deal from the Forum, especially Daesoon Jinrihoe’s beautiful idea of Haewonsangsaeng (解怨相生), which aims to Promote the Betterment of Others and achieve eternal harmony. I felt very moved by this idea, which reminds me of the crucial role of harmony in traditional Chinese culture. Confucius emphasized, “harmony is what is most precious（和為貴）,” and a Chinese proverb states, “It is better to squash enmity than keep it alive（冤家宜解不宜結）.”

Today, when we look back at the past year, at the devastating impact of Covid-19, a global ecological disaster, we have to pay respect to the wisdom of Haewonsangsaeng. This is the time to resolve the grievances of humanity and nature. Deeply influenced by modern mechanistic thinking, we have been abusing nature for such a long time. It is time to correct our mistakes.

Also, we should pay a tribute to the Yeoju Eco-Forum for enlightening people’s ecological awareness and sense of ecological responsibility. The Forum reminded us that religion, spirituality, faith, and tradition all play crucial roles. There will be no ecological civilization in any particular setting without deep commitments from a multitude of spiritual traditions.

For my part, I am glad that the institution I represent, IPDC (The Institute for the Postmodern Development of China) has made every effort we could over the past ten years to promote postmodern and ecological aims. Working closely with Chinese and non-Chinese partners, IPDC has organized more than 140 conferences, arranged more than 600 lectures given to China by non-Chinese experts, and established more than 30 research centers in China. All of these efforts ultimately aimed at helping China as well as the world to turn towards postmodernism and ecology to create an ecological Civilization.

Whether ethnic nationalists like it or not, nature has no boundaries. Creating ecological civilizations is a way of addressing the many problems humans face today in a holistic way, knowing that they are part and parcel of a larger web of life that has beauty and intrinsic worth. Creating an ecological civilization in order to avoid the wide wreckage humans are inflicting on one another and the earth has become the most important task to be undertaken by every global citizen.

According to Alfred North Whitehead, the founder of constructive postmodern philosophy or process philosophy, the true religion – the religion of shared humanity -- shares a commitment to the well-being of life itself. Religion at its best is “World-Loyalty”,[1] in which “the human spirit has merged its individual claim with that of the objective universe.” [2] It is the true religion that directs people to the end of stretching individual interest beyond its self-defeating particularity.” [3] True religion as well as true philosophy encourages us to broaden our sympathies, thereby enlarging our interest.” [4]

I am convinced that if we all work together --whatever our religious or spiritual tradition -- we can actualize the dream of ecological civilization. History will remember us. Therefore, I cannot wait to work together again with Daesoon Jinrihoe, our ecological partners. I yearn for the next Yeoju Forum and look forward to visiting beautiful Yeoju again in the near future.