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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Our Crisis - Miracle or Curse?
by Bill Douglas
"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it."
 -- Albert Einstein


The world is on the brink of war. A crisis is felt worldwide. The Chinese character for "crisis" is made of two other characters combined. One is "danger," and the other "opportunity."


The global revulsion at the idea of an unnecessary military solution to a global crisis, has spawned a global movement for peace that has dwarfed all others in history. What is even move amazing is that it is occurring BEFORE the war begins.


The danger of war is offering the world an opportunity to re-think how we will proceed into the future. A wake up call if you will. We are awoken from our slumber of blind consumerism to consider whether the freedom to consume half the earth's resources by only 5% of the world's population . . . is the legacy we want to leave. Whether it is worth war and the slaughter it entails to ensure an uninterrupted flow of oil.


Einstein wrote that World War III will be fought with nuclear weapons, however World War IV will be fought with "sticks and stones." Our technological advances have made us God's in the sense that we can create and destroy life in ways that would have stunned previous generations. So, the question is, have we acquired the wisdom, or the new consciousness required to wield such power. If we haven't, the power will soon be removed from us through our acts of ignorance, as a matter of natural order.


The answers to our modern problems have been given to us by prophets of the past, but we never listened very well. We preferred to remember more immediately satisfying lines, like "an eye for an eye." Of course Gandhi warned us "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."


"If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
-- Romans 12:20


What would happen if the developed world began answering anger and destruction with kindness and development? With the amount of money offered to Turkey to host troops, we could "end world hunger" and "rebuild every school in America." With the price of a war on Iraq, we could end world hunger, "AND" provide healthcare to much of the world going without it, build schools worldwide, provide every child with education, and help the world find clean, renewable, cheap energy alternatives in the form of solar, wind, hydrogen, etc. that would lift quality of lives worldwide and release the pressure cooker of dwindling energy sources.


The global call for peace that saw 50 million people fill the streets of Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Washington, and San Francisco, leads me to believe that an opportunity is being presented to humanity. The Pope and the National Council of Churches' call for a peaceful solution to this crisis . . . is an opportunity. This opportunity was foreseen by a great American, a warrior and a president.


"I believe the people want peace so badly, that one day governments will have to get out of their way and let them have it."
- President Dwight Eisenhower


If this global peace movement moves beyond "this war" and becomes a global movement for social justice, demanding a globalization with a human face that values people's lives equally to profits . . . we will have seized the opportunity to lead us through the danger of this crisis. If we do not . . . the pressure will build, until our awakening occurs. As Einstein wrote, we can never solve our grand problems with the same consciousness that created them. A massive shift in global thinking and priorities is required. If this occurs this danger we face will give us the miracle of opportunity. We decide whether it is a miracle or a curse.



"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- Dwight David Eisenhower, April 16, 1953.
Bill Douglas,
 Tai Chi & Qigong Author

Bill Douglas is the author of the #1 most popular T'ai Chi book in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.


He can be reached at smartaichi.com His work, called "visionary" by the world's top T'ai Chi experts, is entitled, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong."


Bill is also the presenter in Britain's #1 best selling T'ai Chi DVD, Anthology of T'ai Chi & Qigong: The Prescription for the Future, and author of the acclaimed inspiration book, The Amateur Parent - A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe. It is available at www.smartaichi.com, and at amazon.com.



Bill is also the Founder of World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day:

worldtaichiday.org


and World Healing Day:

worldhealingday.org

now celebrated annually in 80 countries and recognized by the United Nations World Health Organization for it's healing work.


He is a media source on a host of natural health, social, & environmental issues and has been interviewed and/or published by media worldwide, including The New York Times and The South China Morning Post.



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