None of us can deny the obvious today: lack of respect lies at the heart of many of the problems facing our contemporary societies. In the flood of information broadcast across the planet every day, not a single day goes by without our being confronted, personally and collectively, with a lack of respect for oneself, for others and for the environment.<\/p>\n
It is urgent to find concrete answers that can be applied quickly and adapted regardless of culture or class. This is why we have chosen as the theme of this 7th International Conference of the Aumist religion \u201cRespect, a priority for today\u2019s world\u201d.<\/p>\n
As I am only introducing this conference, I will mention in this presentation the different aspects of respect that will be taken up and developed in the talks that follow: respect for oneself, respect for others and respect for the environment.<\/p>\n
Then I will speak to you about Aumism, a universal religion with respect at its heart.<\/p>\n
Laws govern life and the Universe: causes always produce effects. Our physical and mental balance is governed by principles that must be respected. Yet these principles are often undervalued, or even abandoned, and we give in to the pressures and constraints of a consumer society and of the easy way out.<\/p>\n
Imbalances and deficiencies thus set in, often leading to the use of drugs, alcohol and tranquillisers. So many evasions that lead us to contempt for the body and to illness.<\/p>\n
We lack respect for ourselves:<\/p>\n
We lack respect for ourselves when we forget to cultivate beautiful thoughts. Thought is at the origin of everything that is created. Thought must be cultivated positively so as to keep our course towards the Light and maintain our serenity, our enthusiasm and our joy of living.<\/p>\n
Yet what very often saturates our thoughts today are daily worries, at work and in the family, the pursuit of material things, and disasters. All this generates fear, aggressiveness, violence and sometimes hatred. Often, too, overwork no longer leaves us the leisure to devote the necessary time to our daily appointment with our Inner God, who is our reason for living.<\/p>\n
We lack respect for ourselves when we let our bad tendencies grow. We make sure that the inside of our homes is as pleasant to live in as possible. We all know that we must clean our home regularly so that dust and dirt do not bury the furniture and objects we have often acquired through hard work and savings. We know that we must regularly pull up the weeds in our garden, or else they will invade our plants and choke them.<\/p>\n
But we forget that we have an inner garden to tend. And we often leave this inner garden neglected because today\u2019s society offers us no product to look after it!<\/p>\n
Bad tendencies are part of human nature: selfishness, laziness, pride, jealousy and so on. When these bad tendencies are not fought, when we let them grow freely, they poison our inner world. Since the society we live in fosters and stimulates the cult of emotions, sensations, violence and sex, all these are so many occasions that make us lose our sense of self-respect. To restore our self-respect, we must police our thoughts.<\/p>\n
Adults who lose the sense of respect for themselves also lose the sense of respect for others. Not only do we observe this loss of respect for others, but we all experience it and suffer from it. Children no longer respect their parents, and parents no longer respect their children. Adults no longer respect one another, incivility is spreading, and aggressiveness is a daily experience. Violence has become commonplace, with extreme acts occurring even within schools. Children who are not taught to respect themselves cannot respect others, and a vicious circle sets in. This is why education is fundamental to acquiring respect. Some parents, often absent, have forgotten that they have an essential role to play in teaching respect for others. The role of parents, perhaps because it brings no short-term return, has been undervalued by our materialistic society.<\/p>\n
Our society is based on profit and on privileges that lead to social and economic injustice, to the excessive exploitation of some for the satisfaction of a minority. By forgetting to place respect for others at its centre, our society has signed up for a deterioration of social relations.<\/p>\n
The lack of mutual respect affects the whole functioning of our societies and of States.<\/p>\n
We lack respect for the earth when we exhaust the soil through intensive farming. We lack respect for the earth when we saturate it with chemicals that poison it, chemicals that seep into the groundwater and flow into rivers, lakes and oceans.<\/p>\n
We lack respect for the water of the oceans when we pollute it with illegal discharges from ships and throw our waste into it.<\/p>\n
We lack respect for the air, which suffers from the polluting smoke of our industries, when we release into it the exhaust gases of our means of transport.<\/p>\n
We do of course see initiatives that help to restore respect, such as sustainable development and the many activities of NGOs. But the consequences of the lack of respect remain no less worrying.<\/p>\n
Responding to the concerns of our time, the Founder of the Aumist religion, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, sets an example of respect. He wrote 22 books that teach us, in particular, why and how to develop more respect for our environment and our fellow human beings.<\/p>\n
Aumism gives us the means to transform ourselves and to work for peace by making us aware that the Divine is present in all that lives: the Divine is present in every mineral, every plant, every animal and every human being, and for this reason we owe respect to all the kingdoms of nature in their diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue Unity,\u201d says Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, \u201cis above all union in respect for differences.\u201d This respect for differences, whether between individuals, communities, peoples, religions, or philosophical and political ideas, is essential to peace, unity, reconciliation, fraternity and solidarity.<\/p>\n