The spiritual wisdom we need for a planet in crisis - Tariq Al-Olaimy

You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Regardless of your faith, it feels safe to say we need systemic change at all levels to work towards a better future for ourselves, our communities and this planet. In this beautiful talk, ecological futurist Tariq Al-Olaimy shares how he helps people rise to their best selves by turning to spiritual wisdom. He explores how faith communities, often overlooked in the climate movement, offer powerful tools for navigating environmental collapse with moral courage, resilience and a spiritual compass.

您正在收听的是《TED每日演讲》，我们每天为您带来激发好奇心的新观点。我是主持人Elise Hu。无论您的信仰如何，可以确信地说，我们需要各个层面的系统性变革，为我们自己、我们的社区和这个星球创造一个更美好的未来。在这场精彩的演讲中，生态未来学家塔里克·奥莱米分享了如何通过求助于灵性智慧，帮助人们展现出最好的自我。他探讨了信仰社群——这个常在气候运动中被忽视的力量——如何提供了强大的工具，让我们能以道德勇气、韧性和灵性指南针来应对环境崩溃。

There is a sound the planet makes when it asks a species to grow up. Can you hear it inside of you? Many faith traditions teach that at thresholds, two paths appear: one of contraction and one of evolution. Today, 8 billion of us stand at humanity's most consequential threshold yet. And these moments arrive in many different forms. It's the families forced to abandon coastal homes because of sea level rise, it's communities watching decades of memories reduced to ash, its elderly couples choosing between cooling or eating because of rising bills. These are real experiences I've witnessed in the past year.

当星球要求一个物种成熟时，会发出一种声音。你能在内心深处听到它吗？许多信仰传统教导说，在门槛时刻会出现两条道路：一条是收缩，一条是进化。今天，我们80亿人正站在人类迄今为止最具决定性意义的门槛上。这些时刻以多种形式降临。是因海平面上升被迫放弃沿海家园的家庭，是眼睁睁看着数十年记忆化为灰烬的社区，是因账单上涨而在制冷和食物间做选择的老年夫妇。这些是我过去一年亲眼所见的真实经历。

And as political leaders make climate decisions that arbitrarily mark billions of lives as disposable, perhaps you've also felt that catch in your chest when wondering, will the future still want me? This is what thresholds can feel like: loss resonating on one side, yet luminous possibility on the other. And these climate thresholds do mirror our personal ones. It's the unexpected diagnosis. It's the loss of a loved one, it's the path that suddenly closes. Each and every single time, they ask us who will we become when everything we know unravels.

当政治领袖做出气候决策，任意将数十亿生命标记为可抛弃品时，或许你也在疑惑“未来还会需要我吗？”，并感到胸口一紧。这就是身处门槛的感受：一侧是回荡的失落，另一侧却是明亮的可能性。这些气候门槛确实映照着我们个人的门槛。那是意外的诊断，是失去挚爱，是突然关闭的道路。每一次，它们都在拷问我们：当我们所知的一切分崩离析时，我们将成为谁？

And this is what I want to explore with you today. Not just an environmental challenge, but an invitation: can we all still rise to our best selves even when collapse tempts us towards self-preservation? Now, for years, I believe the climate emergency was primarily about technical and systemic solutions. But in devastated communities I found that those demonstrating the deepest resilience drew on something more fundamental. It was spiritual wisdom cultivated across generations.

这就是我今天想与大家共同探索的。这不仅是一项环境挑战，更是一份邀请：即使崩溃诱使我们走向自我保全，我们是否仍能展现出最好的自我？多年来，我曾认为气候紧急状况主要关乎技术和系统解决方案。但在遭受重创的社区里，我发现那些展现出最深切韧性的人们，汲取了某种更为根本的东西。那是世代培育的灵性智慧。

In each disaster zone, I found a pattern the reports had missed. It was the spiritual infrastructure all around us. Church basements, mosque courtyards, Sikh gurdwaras cooking tons of free dal that kept communities together until formal aid arrived. Yes, water pumps are vital. But someone must believe that strangers deserve that water. Faith, as I've come to learn and realize, is actually about the logistics of the heart. These traditions are not relics, but living laboratories of resilience. Their rituals aren't superstition, but social circuitry routing courage when normal circuits fail.

在每个灾区，我都发现了一个被报告忽略的模式。那就是我们周围无处不在的灵性基础设施。教堂地下室、清真寺庭院、锡克教谒师所烹饪着成吨的免费豆汤，在正式援助到来之前将社区凝聚在一起。是的，水泵至关重要。但必须有人相信陌生人也配得上那些水。正如我逐渐领悟到的，信仰实际上是关于心灵的“物流”。这些传统不是遗迹，而是复原力的活体实验室。它们的仪式不是迷信，而是在常规电路失效时输送勇气的社会回路。

Science can give us the numbers. Policy can give us the laws. But you know that the numbers don't comfort frightened children in a storm. And laws aren't the prayers that we speak at funerals. For the past decade, I've been fortunate enough to work with global coalitions of faith communities, confronting climate change and restoring ecosystems from land to ocean. And today, I'd like to share just a few of these insights—what I learned from these traditions about how we might rise to our best selves.

科学能给我们数据。政策能给我们法律。但你知道数据无法安慰暴风雨中受惊的孩子。法律也不是我们在葬礼上诵念的祷文。过去十年，我有幸与全球信仰社群联盟合作，应对气候变化并恢复从陆地到海洋的生态系统。今天，我想分享其中的一些见解——我从这些传统中学到的，关于我们如何能展现最好自我的东西。

And I have actually already shared the first one with you. It's that faith functions as a collapse navigation system. These traditions that are sometimes dismissed as archaic actually hold the key to civilizations' continuity. Think about it. These traditions survived multiple plagues, empires, endless wars and even mini ice ages, serving as civilizational black boxes for these uncertain times—times like these when we face different interpretations about what this moment means and who it calls us to become. And faith traditions can offer us some guidance to this uncertainty.

实际上，我已经与你们分享了第一个见解。那就是：信仰发挥着崩溃导航系统的作用。这些有时被视为过时而被摒弃的传统，实际上掌握着文明延续的关键。想想看，这些传统经历了多次瘟疫、帝国兴衰、无尽战争甚至小冰期，充当了这些不确定时代的文明黑匣子——就像当下这样，我们对这个时刻的意义以及它召唤我们成为谁有着不同解读的时代。信仰传统可以为我们提供一些应对这种不确定性的指引。

So I invite you to think about those moments when you participate in something that is actually older than markets and older than nations, those daily practices etched into human muscle memory long before borders and currencies defined our exchanges. These traditions aren't just relics, they are your navigation technologies, tested through collapse after collapse. So ask yourself, what ancient algorithm of survival am I carrying? Because the wisdom we now need is not just waiting for us in new inventions, but it's also encoded in these daily practices that have sustained human dignity across history's hardest passages.

因此，我邀请大家思考一下：当你参与某种比市场、比国家更为古老的事物时，那些在国界和货币定义我们的交换之前，就已刻入人类肌肉记忆的日常实践。这些传统不仅仅是遗迹，它们是你们的导航技术，历经一次又一次崩溃的考验。所以问问自己：我承载着怎样的古老生存算法？因为我们此刻需要的智慧，不仅存在于新的发明中，也编码在这些贯穿历史最艰难时期、维系了人类尊严的日常实践中。

Yet we also know that even the most sophisticated navigation technologies require accurate data about where we truly stand. And this brings me to the next insight: radical honesty. A truth that is always surprising about climate action is that it begins with a paradox. You must look inwards before we can effectively act outwards. I love how the tradition of Hesychasm in Eastern Orthodoxy and the social tradition of Musharata in Islam teach that our true work involves reconciling the irreconcilable. And climate action needs that same reconciliation.

然而我们也知道，即使最精密的导航技术也需要关于我们真实处境的准确数据。这引出了我的下一个见解：彻底的诚实。关于气候行动，一个总是令人惊讶的真相是，它始于一个悖论。我们必须先向内审视，才能有效地向外行动。我很欣赏东正教的静修主义传统和伊斯兰教的穆沙拉塔社会传统所教导的：我们真正的工作在于调和不可调和之事。气候行动也需要这种调和。

Now, let's be real. We've all become experts at identifying external obstacles: political gridlock, corporate interests, colonial legacies. All very real. But faith traditions invite us to look at a more subtle barrier: our own contradictions. Hypocrisy isn't just a sin. It's a GPS pin that can point us to deeper transformation. Islam calls this Muhasabah. Hinduism calls it Adhyayana. Whatever the language, the practice is constant: hold up a mirror and name the gap between the world we dream about and the one our actions create.

现在，说实在的。我们都成了识别外部障碍的专家：政治僵局、企业利益、殖民遗产。这些都千真万确。但信仰传统邀请我们审视一个更微妙的障碍：我们自身的矛盾。伪善不仅仅是一种罪过。它是一个GPS定位点，能指引我们走向更深层的转变。伊斯兰教称之为“穆哈萨巴”（内省）。印度教称之为“阿迪亚亚那”（研习）。无论语言如何，实践是恒定的：举起一面镜子，指认我们梦想的世界与我们的行动所创造的世界之间的差距。

Whether it's a climate activist always flying to summits or the congregation preaching stewardship while their endowment funds fossil fuel expansion, these aren't necessarily disqualifications, but they're doorways to deeper authenticity. And radical honesty should also apply to the continuous examination of the value systems that we hold most sacred. I know that faith traditions that also birthed liberation movements sanctified colonial conquest. And also, today's climate activism, with all of its moral clarity, can still become rigid, dogmatic and blind to its own contradictions.

无论是一个总是飞往峰会的气候活动家，还是一个宣讲管家职分同时其捐赠基金却资助化石燃料扩张的教会，这些不一定是取消资格的理由，而是通往更深层真实性的门户。彻底的诚实也应适用于对我们所持最神圣的价值体系进行持续审视。我知道，那些也曾孕育解放运动的信仰传统，也曾使殖民征服神圣化。同时，当今的气候行动主义，尽管有其道德上的清晰性，仍可能变得僵化、教条，并对自身的矛盾视而不见。

So tonight, let us ask ourselves, where do our actions cast shadows on the very values that we hold most sacred? Can you think of an example from your own life? Now, this question isn't meant to shame us, but to free us. For it's precisely when we stand in these tender spaces of contradiction that moral courage can emerge. And when we apply the same radical honesty to economic systems, we arrive at our next insight. It's what I like to call the systemic sacred.

那么今晚，让我们扪心自问：我们的行动在何处给我们所持最神圣的价值观投下了阴影？你能从自己的生活中想到一个例子吗？这个问题并非意在让我们羞愧，而是为了解放我们。因为恰恰是当我们站在这些充满矛盾的、脆弱的地带时，道德勇气才可能涌现。当我们将同样的彻底诚实应用于经济体系时，我们就得到了下一个见解。我称之为“系统的神圣性”。

It's when our deepest values and economic choices converge. Now, if you look back throughout history, you'll see that both faith and commerce together have shaped civilizations. When they diverge, cultures can tear. But when they harmonize, cultures can bloom. Judaism's Shmita cycle embeds ecological rest and debt forgiveness into economic rhythms of life. Buddhist economics emphasizes sufficiency over endless growth. Catholic integral ecology recognizes forests and rivers as kin rather than commodities.

这就是我们最深层价值观与经济选择融合的时刻。纵观历史，你会看到信仰和商业共同塑造了文明。当它们分道扬镳时，文化可能撕裂。但当它们和谐一致时，文化便能繁荣。犹太教的安息年周期将生态休养和债务豁免嵌入生活的经济节奏中。佛教经济学强调充足而非无限增长。天主教整体生态学将森林和河流视为亲属而非商品。

Out of these traditions emerges a fundamentally different approach to economics, one that supports the three great restorations: ecosystem restoration—healing our planet's wounded systems; economic restoration—reimagining how we exchange value without extraction; and inner restoration—renewing our moral imagination when despair threatens to narrow our vision of what is actually possible.

从这些传统中，诞生了一种根本不同的经济学方法，它支持三大修复：生态系统修复——治愈我们星球受伤的系统；经济修复——重新构想我们如何在非榨取性的前提下交换价值；以及内在修复——当绝望威胁着要缩小我们对可能之事的视野时，更新我们的道德想象力。

Now, in my own work advising banks and NGOs on sustainable Islamic finance, I've actually seen how this can scale. And it's pretty incredible: if just 5% of the projected eight trillion dollar Islamic finance market by 2030 is invested in climate resilience, that represents 400 billion dollars for regenerative infrastructure. Now that is not charity; that's reciprocity restored.

在我自己为银行和非政府组织提供可持续伊斯兰金融建议的工作中，我已经看到了这如何能够规模化。这相当不可思议：如果到2030年预计八万亿美元的伊斯兰金融市场中，仅有5%投资于气候适应力，那就意味着四千亿美元可用于再生基础设施。这不是慈善；这是恢复了互惠关系。

So if you shape our economic future, especially those of us in boardrooms and institutions, try this: subject your next big decision to a spiritual audit. Ask not just "will this generate sustainable returns?" but "does this contribute to the three great restorations?" Because markets, like our souls, are also waiting for instructions worthy of the threshold moment that we face.

所以，如果你在塑造我们的经济未来，特别是我们这些在董事会和机构里的人，不妨试试这个：让你下一个重大决策接受一次灵性审计。不仅要问“这会带来可持续回报吗？”，还要问“这有助于三大修复吗？”因为市场，如同我们的灵魂，也在等待配得上我们所处门槛时刻的指引。

And while economics relates to our material exchanges, the final insight I'd like to share illuminates something a little bit more subtle. It's the power of beauty to guide us when certainty fails. If we read today's story of humanity backwards, it might actually just begin with us dismantling beauty. We turn forests into lumber, animals into production units. We extract wonder from children's eyes and break our relationship with the natural world.

经济学关乎我们的物质交换，而我想分享的最后一个见解，则照亮了某些更为微妙的东西。那就是在确定性失效时，美引导我们的力量。如果我们倒着读今天人类的故事，它可能恰恰始于我们对美的拆解。我们将森林变为木材，动物变为生产单元。我们从孩子的眼中榨取惊奇，并破坏了与自然世界的关系。

But I wonder, wouldn't it be amazing if our descendants identified a different starting point for this story: when we rediscovered beauty as essential for survival? Baha'i teachings teach that beauty is a divine attribute made visible. Zen Buddhism's Wabi-sabi sees beauty in imperfection. Shinto honors a spirit in everything from mountains to roadside stones. And all recognize a common lesson: that we rarely protect what we haven't first learned to appreciate in its true beauty.

但我在想，如果我们的后代为这个故事找到一个不同的起点：当我们重新发现美是生存之必需时，那不是很奇妙吗？巴哈伊教义教导说，美是神圣属性的可见显现。禅宗佛教的侘寂在不完美中看到美。神道教尊崇从高山到路边石子等万物中的灵。它们都认同一个共同的教训：我们很少去保护那些我们未曾首先学会欣赏其真正之美的事物。

But this relationship between beauty and protection goes even deeper. Many faith traditions teach that divine assistance in times of climate crisis arrives not from above, but as the presence of hope and beauty within the human heart. Prophets didn't just predict better worlds, they spoke and acted their hope into being. Their imagination was practical, imagining futures invisible to rational thought alone.

但美与保护之间的关系更为深远。许多信仰传统教导说，气候危机中的神圣援助并非来自天上，而是作为希望和美存在于人心之中。先知们不仅预言更好的世界，他们言说并行动，将他们的希望化为现实。他们的想象力是务实的，想象着仅凭理性思维无法看见的未来。

So the next time you encounter a moment of beauty, it might just be divine assistance arriving in its purest form. The eighth century mystic, Rabia al-Basri from Iraq, really understood this when she said to God: "Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure." To reflect on: what if this moment of beauty is trying to show me a more hopeful future, but desperately needs my voice and words to bring it into being?

所以，下次你邂逅美的时刻，那可能就是最纯粹形式的神圣援助。八世纪的伊拉克神秘主义者拉比亚·巴斯里深刻理解这一点，她对神说：“你在我心中的希望是最珍贵的宝藏。” 我们可以反思：如果这美的瞬间正试图向我展示一个更充满希望的未来，但却亟需我的声音和言语使其成真呢？

Now, none of this, let me tell you, is a distraction from our climate reality. But it's a radical act of trust in uncertain times. Because I truly believe our common emergency is an examination of the soul. The same forces behind each ecological destruction arise from the same human heart that also houses mercy, justice and repair. This isn't abstract spirituality. It's about who we become at the edge of everything we know. And some of you might also be wondering. Must I be religious for any of this to matter? No. When despair is polluting the skies, borrowing courage from any wisdom tradition is not only permitted, but necessary.

请容我说明，所有这些都不是对我们气候现实的逃避。而是在不确定时代里一种彻底的信任之举。因为我坚信，我们共同的紧急状况是对灵魂的一场考验。导致每一次生态破坏的力量，与孕育慈悲、正义和修复的力量，同源于这颗人类之心。这不是抽象的灵性。它关乎在我们所知一切的边缘，我们将成为谁。你们中有些人可能也在疑惑：我必须信仰宗教，这一切才有意义吗？不。当绝望污染天空时，从任何智慧传统中汲取勇气不仅是允许的，更是必要的。

Faith traditions are simply very old laboratories that kept the lights on long enough to record what worked. I've seen temple communities restoring the same sacred rivers that contributed to the flooding of their own homes. And mothers planting olive trees under bombardment so that their children may know what peace tastes like.

信仰传统只是非常古老的实验室，它们让灯火长明，足够记录下那些行之有效的东西。我见过寺庙社区在修复那些曾导致他们家园被淹的神圣河流。也见过母亲们在轰炸下种植橄榄树，只为让他们的孩子知道和平的滋味。

So here we stand. At our most consequential threshold. To borrow a lesson from the Book of Genesis, the heart of the human challenge is to honor our promise to the earth, not to destroy the world. And this threshold moment invites all of us to rise to that promise. The door of destruction right now is very easy to find. The door of renewal is quite... so. Who will we become together as we cross this threshold? Thank you for listening.

所以我们站在这里。站在我们最具决定性的门槛上。借用《创世纪》中的一课，人类挑战的核心是履行我们对地球的承诺，而不是毁灭世界。而这个门槛时刻，邀请我们所有人挺身而出，兑现这一承诺。此刻，毁灭之门极易寻得。而新生之门却颇为……那么，跨越这个门槛时，我们将共同成为谁？感谢聆听。

That was tarik al olei at the ted countdown summit in Nairobi, Kenya, in2025.