Look now. We’re changing! For the discerning viewer, there is unfolding a phenomenon more wondrous than any of the celestial happenings that have captured our attention – the century’s longest solar eclipse, the brightest moon in the year 2010 and so on. We are in the midst of a giant paradigm shift which is changing the way we see the world and relate to it. It is changing the way we see ourselves, others, and the larger society. It is changing the way we work, play, heal, live. It is changing our economics, politics, ecology, architecture, science and education. No part of our lives can escape being influenced by the all-powerful change that is sweeping the land.

What is the essence of this change? The essence of this change is a shift in consciousness. It is as if more and more of us are awakening from a stupor and recognising that our view of the world was all wrong. Where we once saw a fragmented, separate world without innate meaning, we are now recognising the essential unity of creation. We are penetrating into the oneness that is the fundamental truth of life.

As more and more disciplines and areas unfold this truth, we are seeing a dazzling synthesis, as polar opposites reconcile at a higher plane. Economics and ecology, for instance, long at war with each other, are now actually kissing and making up, thanks to concepts like gift economy or deep ecology. Science and spirituality, longtime sparring partners, are finding that they are actually describing and discovering the same truth. Even eternal conflicts like the good of the individual and that of society are being reconciled by the understanding that the good of the individual is intricately connected with the larger good.

This wonderful insight of oneness is bringing us together in ways that we cannot even fully understand at this moment. But the time is not far off when it will enable us to finally live in deep and peaceful harmony with ourselves, others, the environment and the universe. The concept of the family is becoming more and more apt to symbolise the relationship we will share with the furthest corner of the universe because our conduct, and attitude will be guided by the values that govern our family relations – the spirit of service, sacrifice, caring and sharing. Governance will be based on these values and business will run on these values. The knee-jerk reactions of pragmatic cynicism will be thrown into the rubbish heap of history as pure and deep idealism proves to be the most practical approach to life.

Here in these pages, we trace the development of 17 holistic ideas and how they are influencing, nay, transforming, our lives.

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