The planet Earth has become increasingly susceptible to human-induced (anthropogenic) ecological disasters. The currently raging COVID-19 pandemic adds to the vast scale of destruction and suffering that humanity and the planet are experiencing. In this paper we explicate the meaning of ‘human-induced’ destruction in the terms of the damaging and hurting metaphysics (beyond the physical or material) that modern humanity has been entertaining in their conceptual and emotional minds and materially projecting onto the world. In turn, the damaging and hurting metaphysics is explicated in the terms of atomism that conceives all existents as self-existing and independent, necessarily engaged in competition against each other for survival. We propose to replace such metaphysics with one of the processual ontologies, such as that of Alfred North Whitehead, in which humans see themselves and each other as continuously interfusing and co-creatively re/e/merging relata of complete interdependence. This way, all of us, all the time, become “one with The Ten Thousand Things.”—an expression in Chinese for the phenomenal world of thriving diversity and conviviality. We further explore self-cultivation of inner work that aids the shift from ego self to eco self , such as meditative and arts-based practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed torrents of global suffering at a devastating scale, necessitating a strong response to alleviating suffering. This paper begins with noting that the conventional approach to suffering in North America is to be positive and not to be negative. The paper summarily explores the philosophy of positive psychology underlying the first- and the second-wave of positive psychology, commenting on the evolution from dualism and a binary conceptualization in the first wave (PP 1.0) to a non-dualism of integrating binaries in the second wave (PP 2.0). PP 2.0’s enhanced therapeutic efficacy is noted for its non-dual framework. The paper then explores and suggests a different conceptualization possibility of non-duality, fundamental non-duality, that is related to but distinct from the one in PP 2.0. A case is made that fundamental non-duality has a radical possibility of therapeutic efficacy. Being consistent with the philosophy of non-duality, further suggestions are made that non-duality of PP 2.0 and fundamental non-duality can be therapeutically deployed together for greatest efficacy. The exploration contained in the paper is largely philosophical, arts-based, and autobiographical, creating an enacted and lived experience of applying theory to practice.