This is from "Spirituality and Global Sustainability: A New Strategy for Inclusive Global Change," a presentation by Alfredo Sfeir-Younis of the World Bank. He spoke at GEA's [Global Education Associates] Religious Orders Partnership Conference: Global Sustainability: Towards Unity Among All Living Beings in April 2001. Used with permission.

If I make the proposition to shift towards a new spiritual paradigm, I am sure that I will find a great echo in this audience and, by now, in many circles around the world. Many people think that this is the time for that critical change, and that we must take the crucial turn right now.

But do we know when we are really living this new paradigm? Is there any way to go beyond the language and the embroidery of the material paradigm with the spiritual aspects of our lives.

It is imperative that we know if we are in or out of this paradigm, otherwise we will continue to make inconsistent decisions between what we feel in our soul and what actually economic development and progress yield for us all.

Let me suggest some landmarks of this paradigm.

1. The first and most important dimension of the spiritual paradigm is living our existence in the state of the absolute. Notwithstanding the reality dictated by our material existence (our body in particular), it is essential to know that the spiritual paradigm is the paradigm of the absolute. It is the experience of the full expression of life, no matter what color, shape, race or geography it comes from.
2. The second is that the spiritual paradigm does not exclude anyone. It is a totally inclusive paradigm. Color, shapes or forms, that are essential to the material paradigm, cease to exist in the realm of spirituality. We are all the same because we have our existence at the source of its unity.
3. The third is that it expresses unity in thinking and in action. Unity of our diversity, of our pluralism, of our differences, of our total existence. All our existence is seated in the state of unity. The source of every action comes from the experience of the unity in its absolute state: life in its true potential. Life that can express itself in the material and in all possible forms.
4. The fourth is that in the spiritual paradigm we accept the evolutionary nature of life. And it is the realization of this evolutionary value that allows humanity to proclaim the unity of life for all beings. And all beings go far beyond just human beings. There is an organized order where material existence must take place and we cannot simply violate the Laws of Nature, in the name of the market forces, economic progress, or any other category in relationship to that.
5. The fifth is that the spiritual paradigm is the paradigm of the transcending. It must be transcendental in the sense that it is the only source to break the boundaries we are so affected by in this material life.
6. The sixth is that the spiritual paradigm has no ingrained value judgments, and that these only exist in the realm of our material reality. The essential engine of this paradigm is love, and love in its own transcendental existence does not have material form and it is only for this but not for the other one. But we should not confuse the state of not being judgmental, with an absence of realizing what is happening around us. This is not a call for indifference, on the contrary!
7. The seventh is that the spiritual paradigm is the paradigm of human identity that expresses the direction and quality of change in our human existence. It is impossible to attain full human identity within the material paradigm alone. The reason is simple: we are not material beings having an occasional spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having a material experience.

There are many more elements of this paradigm. What is important to leave behind in this conversation is that once you experience it, you may never come back out to use the other paradigms within this material reality.