This Earth Summit is called the “Adult Summit” in Japanese. Adult means a grown-up in Japanese, and its Chinese character is expressed as a big person. It is the word distinguished from a child. However, adult here does not mean someone who is distinguished by age. Originally, adult is someone who has a consciousness to make a good contribution to this world, regardless of age.
The word of “adult” has two pronunciations: Otona and Wotona. This comes from the wisdom of the Katakamuna civilization that existed in East Asia about 13000 years ago. Katakamuna people developed a highly systemized cosmo-physics. First, the sound of O in Otona means expansion and development. It is to explore things in a big scale, and at the same time, to contract and explore small things. Therefore, O means to explore in the macro and microcosm, and to expand things and proceed. We humans have lived in the era of such a development, especially from the Industrial Revolution over 250 years ago. Also, if we consider it from the viewpoint of yin and yang, O expresses yang. Therefore, the world with physical wealth and convenience has spread, and it has been the era when physics, science and technology have been developed.
On the contrary, the sound of Wo in Wotona expresses yin from the universal viewpoint. It means to take off what has been developed and expanded, sort out what is necessary and unnecessary, and stabilize. People have strong desires, so they have tried to gratify their wishes and hold whatever they wanted from the past. However, “Wotona” is someone who masters the skills to sort out what is necessary and unnecessary in a true meaning, and has consciousness to bring about a healthy society.
We have had the era of development called “Otona”, so people have sought out unnecessary things and competed. Now, the era has reached its peak. Therefore, a lot of garbage has been generated, the environment has deteriorated, and people have competed, prioritizing their own ego. As a result, diseases, poverty and more confusion have spread, and we have reached the current state of the world. It was a necessary era in a sense to know the possibility of human abilities. If we learn from such experiences, we humans will be able to collaborate with others and live harmoniously, as the one with the highest ability out of all earth-dwelling beings.
Now, the time has arrived when we humans should communicate with the Earth as an earth-dwelling being. That is because the capacity of the Earth has reached its limit for the expression of human desires. Therefore, the time has come when we should change from “Otona” to “Wotona.” In order to do so, it is essential that we have a broad worldview. Moreover, it is significant to match our will with the way of the Earth, and the universe, as the life network of the Earth. This means that we must become people with high consciousness. This is not guided by a leader. In order to create a new era, the time has arrived when each one of us becomes aware of our consciousness. We must find the will to live as “Wotona,” to communicate with the Earth, and to live in harmony with all living beings.