ABSTRACT
As humanity evolves, consciousness changes. One change we’ve wholly unintentionally drifted into is that ‘Having-based’ culture has largely supplanted ‘Being-based’. But, although we can’t easily live without having things, this is an exploitive mindset: the core reason why we live so unsustainably. Chapter 27 discusses Having- and Being-based attitudes’ linkage to place-design. Whereas compensations for what we lack in everyday life fuel ‘Have culture’, the soul-nourishment beautiful surroundings offer encourages ‘Being culture’. As how we are in spirit influences how things affect us, and consequently how we treat them, liveability can depend more on soul-sustenance than material practicality. Socially, economically and ecologically, looking after things that look after us establishes win-win relationships. That the most powerful spirit-nutrient is love demonstrates this. Its environmental form is beauty. Unadulterated by thought, beauty communicates directly to our feelings. Perhaps unexpectedly, this puts soul-nourishment at the core of sustainability.
