Sustainability

Everyone wants sustainability.  The opposite of sustainability is deterioration or death.  Sustainability, therefore, is the perpetuation of life, so of course everyone wants it.  But, the desire for something and the knowledge of how to obtain it do not always emerge simultaneously.  In building our strategies for sustainability, I believe it would be helpful to understand its origin.

The origin of sustainability is The Law.  The Law of which I speak might be referred to by religions as “God’s Law” or by philosophers as “natural law”.  You may notice it in the rules of Math, and through the discoveries of science.  Whatever you call it, it is what dictates the outcome of all action.  The Law is a set of rules, an “if/then” sequence which cuts through the void, establishing things as good or evil.  The Law divides the light from the dark, positive from negative, yin from yang.  The Law brings order to our existence.  The Law is the axiom from which all of life and creation follow logically. 

Our universe is orderly.  Consider the planets and their rotation, the regularity with which the sun sets and rises, and all the laws of physics.  Consider our bodies and the predictability of their functions.  Predictability is a bi-product of The Law.  Just as it does with our bodies, The Law likewise determines our spiritual and social health.  It decides which actions tend to spiritual wellness, independence and inter-connectedness, in the same manner with which it decides which substances and activities tend to physical health.  Our needs, that propelling fountain perpetually springing up in us, get met or go unmet based on our “if” in this “if/then” sequence.  The meeting of our needs constitutes life; our needs going unmet constitute death. 

That some things operate in ways unpredictable to us is not evidence of an absence of The Law, but rather evidence of our ignorance of some part of it.  The Law doesn’t exist because we discover it; we discover it because it exists.  In all areas of life, humans are discovering more aspects of The Law.  Our discovery of and compliance with The Law constitute our development and happiness, with happiness being the object and design of our existence.  We are no more capable of knowing The Law of ourselves than a child.  Like children, we learn The Law from our Father.  We will have happiness like a child when we accept God’s will like a child accepts his parents’ will.

The sooner we learn and accept The Law, the more fully will we live life and secure its perpetuation, speaking individually and collectively.  This is sustainability.  I know both sides of The Law.  One side is life; one side is death.  Sustainability is choosing the light – the living side of The Law.