Interestingly, the discussion - in process, experience and in suggestions proposed - pointed very directly to a fundamental consideration in realising a global vision. As a Sangha, as a dynamic community, our personal responsibility to each other is in educating, encouraging and supporting each other towards practical manifestations of unselfishness, to experience the happiness and joy in generosity, in giving guidelines for conduct, and in developing the heart of kindness and a clearly alert and aware mind.

In our innermost hearts we know, feel or sense that, from the enlightened perspective, everything is basically already perfect - so there really is no need to struggle for, or force change; nor a need to resist it. Yet a seeming paradox is that emanating from the heart of this perfect vision is the radiance of compassion, which manifests spontaneous purity (of behaviour and relationship). In practical terms, this means one is still continually functioning towards the well-being of all. This action is not motivated by hopes or expectations to make the world become like one's ideals, but by a totally selfless offering in response to the living need - a fluid vision of this living moment, evoking an immediacy of the spontaneous action. Through our ever stepping into the unknown - the future blossoming into The Now - we can be fully responsible for it; and we know what needs to be done, in the very act of doing it. Such wise living is the natural functioning of genuine faith.

In Buddhism we call this awareness 'mindfulness' -'mind fullness'. This fills both the world within and the world around with that which heals our inner fragmentation and the false vision of our outer separateness from one another. The vision of this noble truth, and the way of manifesting it practically, is the Buddha's compassionate dispensation ('prescription') for the illusions of the world's problems ad the sense of dis-ease we experience through our being born, not just physically but also mentally and spiritually, into such problems. Through it we are given the grace of discovering ourselves and developing skill in mindful living. This enables us to serve more wholly the world without, while making more whole (more holy) the world within.

Such a noble vision of mutual reflectiveness between the inner and the outer world is the keystone to our success in both inner and outer action. It is the natural root for the blossoming forth of personal responsibility and commitment to blessing the communion of our common humanity. In so touching each other, community becomes real and tangible, from the household up to the global family. In the well-rooted love, miracles and wonders arise in the ordinary. And in the mutually reflective vision, unifying the world within and without, self and other, the wondrous and the ordinary, we find the miracle of mindfulness has the power to dissolve all problems in our return to their source.

Though I have offered reflections from the perspective of a monastic community, offering humanistic and spiritual reflections on a global vision for the future, obviously it is not special to Buddhism or monasticism. All the great religious traditions have a tremendous wealth of wisdom, and skilful means and experience from which untold benefit can be drawn. But each of us must be willing to strive, offering ourselves individually and communally, as a courageous experiment to explore how these timeless teachings apply. Only by our living them can they become relevant and be communicated to the people of the world, both present and future.