April 2002

IMAGINATION AND VISION ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE

As we are entering the Third Millennium, let us be aware what a significant moment of history we are about to experience. Let us also be aware that history does not make itself. It is made by people. We can say without much exaggeration that the shape of history is created by the shape of human visions. When there is no vision, people wither.

Someone has said that the map of the world which does not contain an utopia is not worth looking at. When we analyze in depth the whole development of the human race, we cannot but be impressed by the fact that this is a road from an utopia to an utopia. Human life would have been still crawling and most probably in the caves, if we did generate great utopias which led us to the sun and light.

A great American thinker, Buckminster Fuller, In his prophetic book entitled: Utopia or Oblivion has said it all — in the very title. We have in front of us either a meaningful utopia or a path leading to oblivion. Clearly our utopia, our new vision, must be judicious and wise. It must allow us to meet the necessities that confront us.
There is a number of necessities which confront us.

The first necessity is the continuation of the human species.

The second necessity is the continuation of human life which is lived in dignity.

The third necessity is the creation of peace and harmony between the human and the rest of creation.

The fourth necessity is the creation of peace and harmony within ourselves.

This inner harmony is the condition sine qua non of all other harmonies. Because we are in a continuous conflict within ourselves, we are also in conflict with nature. From the inner disharmony also follows the lack of dignity and beauty in our daily life. Embroiled in conflicts, we undermine the foundations of our own existence.

These four necessities which I have touched upon require a new perspective on the world and on the human life. Cleaning and healing the world, cleaning and healing our minds and bodies, making peace with nature for our own good and for the good of future generations, these are the tasks which require building a new world.

We must not allow our lives to be cut to size by small visions which lead to an existential and ecological degradation. We are the creatures made of clay. But also illumined by the luminosity of the stars. Our search for wider horizons, our aspirations to reach heaven, our quest to self-actualization are in harmony with what is most important in human nature.

The mechanistic age has burnt itself out. Its fallout is now incapacitating us and leading to ruin. The ecological vision of the world makes us aware that we need a new holistic vision. This vision recognizes that the world is a sanctuary.

From the main assumption that the world is a sanctuary follows immediately deep reverence for the world; also reverence for oneself and for all creation. We are, each of us, a sanctuary. This sanctuary needs to be respected and revered. From deep reverence follows Responsibility — for the fate of the Planet and for our own destiny. This new vision, outlined above, is a necessary condition for our survival as the human species, worthy to be called "human."

We are not certain about the future course of history. We are not certain whether a civilizational collapse and the destruction of culture will not occur. I am personally convinced that this collapse will not happen — with the provision however that all of us, in the spirit of solidarity and harmony, take the responsibility for the future fate of our planet.

We have an aspiration to make this university, The University for Global Well Being, a laboratory of new consciousness, for new ways of life which are indispensable for the survival of civilization and perhaps even of humanity. We are convinced that the road to cleaning the chimney of our factories leads through cleaning the chimneys of our minds.

We shall provide knowledge which is exact and systematic. But also knowledge which is holistic and life-enhancing. Our mission is the cultivation of holistic knowledge which is par excellence life-enhancing. We shall attempt to provide education which prepares the human being for the fullness of life, the kind of life which is not a renunciation of human possibilities, but an apotheosis of human potential.

We have no desire to impose our visions and ideas on others. We wish however to invite others to a common dance, to common action, to common participation in the project that cannot wait. It is an imperative of our times that we educate people who possess the art of living, who are not reduced to little wheels and cogs in the soulless process of production. Let me emphasize, we shall teach our students how to live. This does not exclude the capacity for finding worth-while jobs through which their material needs will be met. We should remember however: we work in order to live, and not the other way around — we live in order to work.

We have happened to live in extraordinary times, in which history and evolution are at the turning point. Centrifugal forces lead to disintegration of civilization. Centerpedal forces lead to integration, to healing, to an unity of the human kind on a scale unprecedented in history. The future does not shape itself. Our university may become a laboratory in which new shapes of reality are forged. We need to marshal new resources of imagination. Albert Einstein has insisted that "imagination is more important than knowledge. "

The intelligence of a race lies in its capacity to generate new imagination, when unprecedented problems emerge. May our imagination and vision be adequate to our problems and dilemmas. May our resolve and compassion be our guides as we attempt to create world-wide peace and enduring harmony with all creation.

Henryk Skolimowski