Title: FW: [globalnews] Global Strategic Alliance for Peace and Human Progress: By Deepak Chopra
Global Strategic Alliance for Peace and Human Progress
By Deepak Chopra
Dear Friends,
I would like to update you on several matters in which both the Chopra
Center and Chopra Foundation are engaged. I recently attended a conference
on Peace and Human progress, hosted by Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias,
and the Senate of Puerto Rico. The conference was attended by several other
Nobel Laureates and also representatives from various governments. I had
the privilege of giving a keynote speech at this conference and in the
final meeting agreed to play the pivotal role in the creation of a global
strategic alliance for peace and human progress.
I think it is very important and urgent that we address the moral issues of
our time. The moral issues of our time are not the extramarital sexual
adventures of our politicians nor the eating disorders and eccentricities
of Hollywood celebrities. The important moral issues of our time are war,
weapons, violence in all its forms, economic disparities, extreme and
abject poverty, ecological devastation, prejudice, racism, and sexism.
Every second somewhere in the world a child dies from hunger or other
preventable diseases. Less than 4% of the world's annual military
expenditures would cure this situation.
Since the end of World War II, more than 32 million civilians, mostly
women, old men and children have perished as a result of hatred and
ignorance and the sale of weapons sold by merchants of death and
destruction.
By the year 2000, the military expenditures of the world were equivalent to
35% of total yearly income of nearly two billion people. Our hearts seem to
be immune to the procession of televised imagery that continuously portrays
a strange mixture of fiction, news and advertisement that constantly feed
our addictions to adrenaline.
Organized religion has failed to achieve its highest purpose because it has
so often fostered divisiveness and xenophobia, at times manipulating people
through fear and violence. Unfortunately, our religions are the legacies of
our tribal ancestors whose ideologies and conceptual frameworks have
generally failed to progress with our understanding of modern cosmology or
evolution. Similarly, our current state of evolution demands that we
re-examine our notions of nationalism.
Tribalism has taken on the garb of nationalism so that mass murder during
wartime is rewarded with medals of honor. Einstein called "nationalism an
infantile disease, the measles of humanity." Erich Fromm said, "Nationalism
is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. Patriotism is its
cult." These are harsh words but unless we are prepared to honestly look at
our outmoded beliefs, our unquestioned ideologies and ourselves, there may
be no hope for us.
In regards to the Chopra Foundation, the new strategic plan is rapidly
taking place. A number of notable goals and objectives are being
considered. For example, the Chopra Foundation is going to take a leading
role in the creation of the Global Strategic Alliance for Peace and Human
Progress so that we can influence public opinion and ultimately public
policy.
We need a critical mass of people that will no longer participate or
tolerate a culture of violence that is based on profound indifference to
the pain of our fellow beings and lack of respect for life. It took a
critical mass of awareness to ban cigarette smoking in public places.
Today the relatives of people who have died from cigarettes are suing
tobacco companies. It is quite conceivable that the day may come when the
manufacturers of weapons will be held accountable when an innocent child
dies at the hands of a gun. Today governments label the deaths of thousands
of innocent people as "collateral damage" so that we can numb ourselves to
the anguish and images of horror through the use of words.
The only way to create the critical mass of awareness is to create a
strategic global alliance of people and organizations that are contributing
to growth as well as the betterment of humanity and the environment.
Many Nobel Laureates, representatives of international humanitarian
agencies,and influential people from governments around the world have
greeted this idea with great enthusiasm. The critical mass would be created
through a very concrete engagement of educational institutions, the
entertainment industry, news media, and information networks, including the
Internet. Some of the best-known representatives in the entertainment
industry and international news media have already agreed to participate.
To restate our goal --- we want to create a critical mass of awareness that
influences public opinion and policy so that we can take remedial measures
and create a new culture where violence, weapons, poverty, ecological and
environmental degradation and devastation can be addressed as the major
epidemics of our time that need to be addressed with great urgency. In this
process it will be important not to think in terms of an "Us versus Them"
psychology. There is only one of Us - we are one body in one world. In the
tangled hierarchy sinner and saint, divine and diabolical, sacred and
profane are different faces of our collective Being. Therefore angry
activism driven by rage, however justified it seems, is really not going to
work. I believe that the tangled hierarchy wants us to move to the next
state of evolution and very strongly desires us to take that quantum leap
of creativity.
There are many other exciting things on the horizon. I hope you will
participate in some way by becoming a voice in our Foundation. If you wish
to participate in any way in this endeavor, please send an email to
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with your ideas and how you would like to
participate. The world's consciousness is demanding an authentic
spirituality that is based on a scientific understanding of the domain of
awareness where we experience our universality.
This is none other than our inner self. It has been waiting patiently,
Inviting us to enter the luminous mystery in which all things are created,
nurtured, and renewed. When we enter this luminous mystery of existence, we
experience great wonder, humility and love.
Where there is wonder humility and love, there is the opportunity for healing.
Namaste,
Deepak
--
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we
are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore
Roosevelt (1918)
