Continued progress towards a flourishing common future requires commitment and learning about the material and spiritual dimensions of human progress. Material advancement unmoored from spiritual and moral foundations is not only unsustainable but, ultimately, illusory in the long term.

These were among the contributions of the Baha’i International Community to the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing, China on 15 and 16 May 2019.

The global conference opened with a keynote address by the President of China, Xi Jinping, and brought together more than 2,000 government officials and representatives from 47 Asian countries around the theme of "exchanges and mutual learning among Asian civilizations and a community with a shared future.”

A delegation of five Baha’is representing communities from Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore attended the conference and delivered remarks on themes related to cohesion and sustainability. The Baha’i International Community was represented by its principal representative to the United Nations, Bani Dugal.

“It is easy to view the concept [of spirituality] in a superficial way, to approach it as little more than a tool for maximizing satisfaction or a veneer of activities or rituals designed to soothe the anxieties roused by a materialistic life,” said Ms. Dugal on a panel alongside academics and civil society.

“But true spirituality, faithful to the example of those transcendent Figures who gave the world its great belief systems, reaches to the very roots of human existence. It permeates action and channels individual and collective efforts for the betterment of society. It cultivates thirst for knowledge, elevates work to the station of worship, and promotes empathy. It provides for the control of selfish impulses and emphasizes oneness and interconnectedness. It fosters generosity and humility and nurtures appreciation for diversity and attraction to beauty.”

Dr. Lee Lee Loh Ludher, representing the Baha’i community of Malaysia, spoke on building communities illumined by the light of the spirit.

“The collective life of Southeast Asia suffers when any one group thinks of its own well-being in isolation from others, or pursues economic gain without regard for how the natural environment, which provides sustenance for all, is affected,” said Dr. Ludher.

“Perhaps, the center of our social life should be ‘life’ itself and orbiting around it are the social, material, spiritual, cultural and intellectual aspects that come in the form of work, health, family, religion, service to community and others.”

Ms. Dugal added that material means should be used to foster unity and facilitate access to knowledge in order to contribute to human progress.

“Asia’s record of economic development over the past century is notable indeed. Yet welcome as these steps were, the Asian development experience reinforces one central truth as emphatically as the Western one does: that material advancement alone, unmoored from spiritual and moral foundations, is not only unsustainable, but ultimately illusory.”

“It can be seen that even the most technologically advanced and economically dominant countries of world today, whether of the East or the West, are being assailed by destructive social forces such as materialism, self-interest, and prejudice.

“These, in turn, are giving rise to a multitude of social ills, ranging from poverty and crime to corruption and hypocrisy, from deterioration of the natural world to disintegration of the social fabric, from conflict and hostility to alienation and indifference.”

In order to contribute to the advancement of a full and integrated civilization, material means need to be used to “foster unity, to uplift and edify the life of society, and to facilitate access to knowledge for all people,” said Ms. Dugal.

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Read the full remarks of the Baha’i International Community to the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations here

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