4.1.4 Regenerate Life

At this level, aim changes from doing good to acting as a tool for being evolution. One learns to see themselves as living processes that are entangled and connected with all the other processes that comprise a living world. A profound and compassionate resonance with each unique living being one comes into contact with takes the place of the sense of own identity. This resonance inspires an unwavering dedication to making it possible for all living things to awaken and develop their innate potential in support of life’s evolution. From the broad and universal to the particular and specific, one has made a striking transition. Only when one has a truly embodied understanding of something, is it alive and at work, and is mutually involved with its immediate environment, can one regenerate life for that object, whether it be a friend, a beloved town or scenery, or a favored enterprise. Only once one has mastered the ability to comprehend them as full living individuals rather than as abstractions would one be able to work on regenerating bigger and more complicated systems, such as rivers, nations, or industries. When this living knowledge is present, it creates a space for a tremendous amount of creative energy to flow as the being—whether it be a single person or an entire ecosystem—finds fresh ways to communicate its essence in harmony with the changing world around it.

In the regenerate life level, one’s perspective shifts from doing things for or for other people to serving the growth of their talents, capabilities, and agency. This implies admiration for and belief in the capacity of living things to develop as independent sources of imagination and self-determination. We do not intend to advocate for a laissez-faire strategy that compels people and communities to either drown or swim, relying on what assets they can summon. Instead, we are emphasizing a steadfast commitment to building the infrastructure required to sustain the growth of living systems as they become more and more successful stakeholders in evolutionary processes. Helping all things and everyone access its innate tendency toward progress is the focus of available energy.

A regenerative economy is defined by its commitment to maximizing the potential and efficiency of all living things, from the tiniest molecules to the largest entire systems. Everyone is invited to go on an evolutionary path, developing their capacity to handle increasingly complicated connections in ways that generate wealth and new potential for all stakeholders. In order for the river it feeds to be able to supply wholesome, oxygenated water for people, ecosystems, and ultimately the ocean, a damaged watershed evolves its capacity to integrate biological populations that are more complex than before. A company develops its capacity for managing invention, production, and distribution and becomes increasingly capable of bringing to market goods that have the potential to revolutionize both its industry and the lives of its customers. A kid develops into maturity by taking on progressively ambitious and personally meaningful problems, thereby expanding her capacity for thought, collaboration, and self-expression.

A route of evolution cannot be predicted, thus anyone invited to follow it must do so without assumptions about its speed or direction of development. They must be established by the living person on the path, in consultation with its surroundings. After all, for the process to be evolutionary, this creature must significantly improve the health of its surroundings in the future in order to guarantee a place and a function for itself in that future. This is the way that the regenerative paradigm confronts the darkness of the do good paradigm. The viewpoint, innate potential, motivation, purpose, and desire to contribute of the thing one aspires to serve always directs the good that one goes out to achieve on a regenerative level.

A regenerative economy strives to maximize the potential and increase the ability of each living thing to produce value. The matches between what a living creature has the ability and aspirations to become, the function that this permits it to play within the framework of a bigger system, and the worth that it can give are the main considerations of such an economy. From a regenerative standpoint, social institutions, including economic institutions, have a responsibility to promote and support this live evolution for everyone. Although we emphasize the significance of developing self-determination, we always want this to be viewed as taking place within a context of reciprocal interchange and cooperation, backed by developmental infrastructure. We don’t want to imply that social institutions don’t have a place, but rather that we should assess how effective they are based on how much capability and self-determination they have contributed to.