On 9–10 October 2018 an international public and scientific conference of the International Centre of the Roerichs “The Living Ethics and its Actuality in the Contemporary World” will take place in Moscow.

The 20th century brought to the world the Teaching of the Living Ethics, which implies new cosmic thinking and a new learning system, related to the analysis of the process of the cosmic evolution of the humanity, planet and universe.

The Teaching entered the cultural and spiritual space of our planet in 1920–30s owing to the Roerichs family, whose scientific, philosophic, artistic and literary legacy as well as cultural activity were permeated by its ideas. In the unique and versatile legacy one can find the world of verity and sublime Beauty, new evolutionary possibilities for the development of science and all spheres of human life.

The Living Ethics is a universal open system of scientific and philosophic comprehension of the past, present and future of the humanity, which unites different ways of knowing (scientific as well as extra-scientific), ancient and modern knowledge, Western and Eastern thinking, creating a united synthesis knowledge system, substantially enhancing the capabilities of the traditional knowledge system.

The philosophic system of the Living Ethics does not raise the question considering the primacy of the Spirit and the Matter, as they are regarded as parts of an integral system “spirit-matter” being an integral phenomenon. The new knowledge system includes different aspects of empirical, contemplative, artistic and religious thought as well as intuitive insights proved by the discoveries of the modern science. Thus, the Living Ethics can be regarded as a prophetic teaching predicting numerous future discoveries etc. The Living Ethics also considers the Heart to be the most important means of learning being the source of consciousness and thinking together with the mind. This principle contributes to extending the boundaries of scientific knowledge, developing its moral and spirituality.

Besides highlighting common scientific and philosophic issues, the Living Ethics includes solutions to the problems considering the social life of mankind, draws attention to the Great Cosmic Laws, influencing the historical development of the humanity. The Living Ethics is the first teaching to systematize and reveal the cosmic laws of human development, for example: the most developed parts of the evolution are guiding the lower parts; the law of Teaching, the law of duality, the law of Cooperation, the law of the Common welfare etc.

Today the Living Ethics and its new learning system give us an opportunity to re-estimate the most important evolutionary and historical processes on our planet, define their reasons and tendencies and to define the role of the humanity and society in them from the standpoint of the Cosmic Laws. Now the Living Ethics using the modern language and drawing on the rich knowledge of cosmos and humanity, is highlighting not only the processes taking place in cosmos but also the evolutionary necessity of moral principles of life, reflected in the Great Cosmic Laws and embodied in the love for one’s neighbour, mercy, compassion, cordiality, kindness, mutual understanding, cooperation, striving for beauty, expanding the scale of creation and knowledge.

The principles of the Living Ethics are deeply humanistic as they are aimed at spiritual development of people and society and can be applied in the daily life. It is especially important, thus, to understand Culture as worship of Light and the base for the evolution of mankind. The freedom of thought of any modern human requires high ethic pillars. The most important among them is the knowledge including the notion of the common welfare, the Teacher, psychical energy etc., which is extremely important for the evolutionary movement of the humanity to the future.

It is necessary to point out that in today’s world the Living Ethics has provoked an ambiguous reaction and a controversial attitude, which sometimes resulted in ignorant and false interpretations, inconsistent with its deep evolutionary meaning. Including the most valuable thoughts from the past and present of the humanity, uniting the findings of the Russian cosmism together with the teachings of East and West, the Living Ethics has revealed that the modern humanity ignores and misunderstands the cultural heritage of the past.

This also revealed the existing problem of cooperation between the materialism and idealism, the scientific and extra-scientific knowledge, which could be solved by using a dialectic approach and understanding of the sense of the Living Ethics. Unfortunately, today the Living Ethics is not studied by the contemporary science and official philosophy. Some modern scientists point out that the knowledge contained in the Living Ethics is not accepted because of the narrow and unilateral thinking of its adversaries, as their mind is lacking the necessary spiritual element.

Nevertheless, we can still talk about the dialectics of the development of the knowledge. The historical process has reached a certain point, when the attitude towards the ancient knowledge is changing. Some of it becomes open and the modern society has an opportunity to perceive it. The Living Ethics contains the knowledge that is ahead of our time. Thus, the knowledge itself, as soon it is spiritualized, becomes the leading principle and constitutes an enormous evolutionary force.

The Teaching of the Living Ethics is especially topical nowadays as it promotes immutability and viability of the moral principles, formula and ideas, which help people to confront the chaos of spiritual impoverishment engulfing our planet and destroying its cultural heritage. In this global process we are observing the degradation of the overall cultural level which results in losing high moral criteria and patterns, which used to prevent people from destruction of personality and degradation as well as from losing humanistic qualities. Children become the victims of physical and spiritual violence all over the world, thus, the humanity cannot remain indifferent to its future.

The ideas of the Living Ethics can be found in different fields of knowledge such as philosophy, art, pedagogy etc. However, if they as well as their depth and scale are not completely understood, they will not be able to fulfill their potential that can change our life for the better.

The Organizing Committee of the Conference invites all scientists, public figures and cultural luminaries interested in the subject to take part in the conference and to discuss the following questions:

1. The evolutionary significance of the philosophic system of the Living Ethics and its role in the development of Spiritual Revolution in Russia.

2. The Living Ethics in the artistic legacy of the Roerichs: new approaches in contemporary research.

3. The Living Ethics and the contemporary world: 

– The Living Ethics and a human being; 

– The Living Ethics and science; 

– The Living Ethics and art; 

– The Living Ethics and culture; 

– The Living Ethics and generation of the social form of culture; 

– The non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich as an example of realization of the ideas of The Living Ethics in life and culture; 

– The Living Ethics and the Orthodox Church; 

– The Living Ethics and the government; 

– The Living Ethics and the future of Russia.

4. The activity of the non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich aimed at realization of the ideas of The Living Ethics in the modern world.

5. Protection of the Living Ethics, the name of the Roerichs and their heritage, the name of the Director General of the Museum named after Nicholas Roerich Lyudmila Shaposhnikova and her work from the ignorant misrepresentation.

6. Protection of the property of the non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich from being looted by the officials of the Ministry of Culture.

The conference is organized by the International Centre of the Roerichs.

The general program: 

The registration of participants – October, 8 

Conference days (scientific reports) – October, 9–10.

Application rules: 

In case of your willingness to take part in the conference, please, send an application including a title of your report and a paper abstract. It should contain actuality and content. 20 minutes is a time limit for the report. 

The last day for submission is July 1, 2018. 

The abstract should be not less than 3000 and not more than 5000 symbols with spaces (Times New Roman font, size 14, line interval 1.5 cm.). If you are not able to come, a video record is possible. 

The reports will be selected on a competitive basis. The list of selected participants will be announced by the Organizing Committee before August, 1.

Participants and speakers pay for airline tickets, accommodation and meal by themselves.

The registration fee – 60 €. Speakers are free of the fee.

Contacts: onckm@icr.su; roerich@icr.su; 7(499)766-92-72