Description

The 4th World Spirit Forum hosted prominent scientists, thinkers and spiritual leaders from all over the world, uniting to discuss plans to deal with a world filled with crises.

Transcript

ARI Films

The Club of Budapest International
in conjunction with
The World Wisdom Council
presents
Wisdom in Action

Part 1: Tokyo to Arosa, from Plan to Action

Prof. Ervin Laszlo (President and Founder of the Club of Budapest and The World Wisdom Council - Italy/Hungary): We have a common purpose, which we developed in Tokyo, which says, "creating a new civilization." Here every word is important:

Creating - there's something that we need to do; something that we can do.
New - because it's not the one that we have now
Civilization - because it's not just business, it's not just politics, it's not just ecology, it's the whole thing; it's the way our humanity lives on this planet.

Narrator: Somewhere in Southern Switzerland, there's a small town named, Arosa, which is known as one of the world's most desireable holiday ski resorts.

Arosa is every skiers dream. It provides all the most modern facilities, and attracts thousands of skiers and visitors every year. But in 2004, Arosa changed its vocation, by becoming the meeting place of The World Spirit Forum.

The second meeting of The World Spirit Forum took place on January 22, 2006. On this occasion, members of The World Wisdom Council were among its guests. Renowned scientists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders from around the world were making their way to Arosa. Their gathering, while at the same time, at the other side of the mountain, another convention is taking place in Davos. Their feelings are razor sharp; in this gathering it is clear the fate of the world is at stake.

Dr. Michael Laitman (President and Founder of the Ashlag Research Institute {ARI}and the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute - Israel): Yes, but how do we come to it?

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris (Evolutionary Biologist - Greece/USA): by doing the inner work.

Mr. James O'Dea (President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences {IONS}- Ireland/USA): I'm hoping that it is able to bring together some ideas around spirit that opens up the possibilities that spirituality can be something that we all attach ourselves to.

Dr. Jane Goodall (The Jane Goodall Institute - England): Only if we all get together, take action, no matter how small it may seem, only then can we expect a surge of positive hope, which hopefully is in time to stop the continuing downward trend.

Prof. Moty Benyakar (President of the World Psychiatric Association - Argentina): It's important not only to talk about this, but it's important to try to be in programs and complete programs for development.

Mrs. Lillian Holt (Director of the Centre for Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne - Australia): I've come here with an open mind and heart. I know I'm in the right place and I'm very much looking forward to the next few days.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris (Evolutionary Biologist - Greece/USA): I'm trying to envision the best possible future for humanity and looking at how we can take steps toward that, and how we can encourage people, in all walks of life, in kinds of organizations, to come to the notion of true global family, and implementing the kind of world we all dream of.

Mrs. Audrey Kitagawa (The office of the Secretary General for children and Armed Conflict - The UN/Hawaii): Our lives of isolation are over and we must be able to understand how to engage with our brothers and sisters all over the world, moving toward a period of spiritual resinence and solidarity in our one human family.

Prof. Tu Welming (Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University -USA): So my sense is that if an increasing number of people take the challenge absolutely seriously--not just survival, but also flourishing--then we have a fighting chance.

Prof. Ashkok Gangadean (Harverford College - USA): And my highest hope for Arosa is that we will be able to model and live that and actually experience a resonant connection amongst ourselves, as we reach out to build networks that can bring people together around the planet, at all levels, from the grassroots to the leadership, to connect in this new spirit of bringing forth a global civilization.

Part 2: We Have To Act

Narrator: After a journey from Zurich on the famous Orient Express, the congress begins.

Host: Very, very warm welcome here in Arosa. It's nice to be back for the third time. Three days; we will not be here together all the time, but I think now we would like to start with a ceremony.

Narrator: The participant get straight to the point for which they have gathered; they begin their discussions.

May East (Social Activist, Director for International Relations and Education Coordinator, Findhorn Ecovillage - United Kingdom): Dr. Goodall, can you open for us this session please.

Dr. Jane Goodall (The Jane Goodall Institute - England): There are two reasons I'm actually very glad that you asked me to do this. First of all, because in so many meetings like this, the voice of the animals is forgotten. And we talk about them as part of the environment, but we forget that they're individual beings with lives of their own.

So we can imagine we're in the forest. I think in the forest I found that which has been described as, "the peace beyond all understanding." And if we are to feel peace in the world today, it is beyond our understanding and that is the peace we must aim for, to carry with us.

Mr Angaangaq Lyberth (Canada/Greenland): I know all about peace because I never had war. If you really want to know what peace looks like, come to me, I can tell you.

Narrator: All attention is now tightly focused on the suggestions being offered. Trying not to miss a single word, the room becomes engulfed in a solitary thoughtfulness, and the participants are united by a feeling of shared responsibility.

Jonathon Granoff (The President of the Global Security Institute and Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Arms Control and National Security - USA): I learn that--brothers and sisters--I want to remind us that we are in a race against time. We are the first generation that has to choose whether to be the last generation. What I keep reminding people about, nuclear weapons--that they are launch-on warning, air-trigger alert; instruments of destruction beyond imagination; not six million, but six billion people at risk as we speak; twenty-three minutes from all of them going off is true. We cannot have the luxury of allowing our analysis to be derogated to the realm of aesthetics. Our analysis has to have multiply, powerful capacities: 1- It has to awaken people internally to the mystery of the human birth. The mystery, the humility before the un-nameable.

Madame Massami Saionji (Chairperson of the Goi Peace Foundation - Japan): To me, it's like a lot of boats sailing in the ocean, and trying to navigate which way to go, which direction to take. And I feel that The World Wisdom Council is primarily to act as a lighthouse and send forth light to all the boats, and become the guiding post; and throw light, and emanate light so that these boats will know where to gravitate to.

Prof. Tu Welming (Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University -USA): I want to share a personal feeling and experience which is very stimulating and elevating to me, which is rooted in a classical Chinese text, called, Doctrine of the Mean. Only those who are most sincere, authentic, real, true, can fully realize themselves. If they can fully realize themselves, they can then fully realize the nature of being human. If they can fully realize the nature of being human, then they can take part in the transforming and nourishing process of heaven and earth. If they can take part in the transforming and nourishing process of heaven and earth, then they can form a trinity with heaven and earth.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris (Evolutionary Biologist - Greece/USA): The most wonderful thing about being a human is that each of us has an absolutely unique point of perspective on the entire universe. And from our perspective, and our knowledge, and our values, and our feelings, we create our realities, and we do it all together. But we can also move that point of perspective away from our bodies, which is really startling when you think about it. And so I would say, when you get depressed by what you read in the newspaper, when you think it's really getting hopeless, just lift that that point of perspective up a little higher, and look down on the human drama and discern through your critical faculties, what's going on , without judging it, just discern what is this human drama about right now, and what role can I best play in it.

Mrs. Audrey Kitagawa (The office of the Secretary General for children and Armed Conflict - The UN/Hawaii): Our true purpose in life is God Realization. Know the reality of who you are. You are a perfect child of God--immortal, eternal, and already in God's Light.

Van Jones (The Founder and National Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights {EBC} - USA): Some of the things that are on the table at The World Economic Forum this year, are a stench in the nostrils of God. Friday, topic for discussion, "The melting Arctic ice-cap could unlock the potentially vast petroleum resources that lie beneath." They are planning to profiteer off of the destruction that is coming.

Prof. Franz Joseph Radermacher (Mathematician, Economist, Director of the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing, Deputy Director of the Ecosocial Forum, Europe - Germany): And this is our problem on the globe. There is no neighbor outside the earth giving this trouble, but there is also nobody to help us, so if we do it wrong, afterwards we have to live with this. It's an issue.

Dr. Michael Laitman (President and Founder of the Ashlag Research Institute {ARI}and the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute - Israel): We think we want money, power, and honor; all kind of desires. Basically, what we want is to look good in the eyes of society, and that's what makes a person feel like a person. So, if we change the social values toward giving, then people will just have to change their behavior. If we artificially change social values so that society will appreciate a person only according to what he or she gives, then people will be ashamed of being egoists and will kind of be coerced to give to society. And if my kids appreciate me according to how much I give to society; if my kids, and co-workers, and everything, and everyone will only appreciate me, according to what I give to society, then I will not have a choice, I will have to contribute; I will have to be giver.

I think that our first step should be constructing a permanent, ongoing center, that will deal with everything it has to deal with building our message and portraying or presenting it to the world.

Prof. Ervin Laszlo (President and Founder of the Club of Budapest and The World Wisdom Council - Italy/Hungary): The world is at risk. To change it means a fundamental transformation. The fundamental transformation depends crucially on the evolution of our consciousness; and that has to spread.

Mr. Hiroo Saionji (President of the Goi Peace Foundation - Japan): In order to create a new civilization, the key point is to the awakening in people.

Fred Matser (Humanitarian, Philanthropic and Leading Businessman - The Netherlands): Who is the talent who has it in mind and heart to mould it altogether?

Prof. Ervin Laszlo (President and Founder of the Club of Budapest and The World Wisdom Council - Italy/Hungary): Now, if you think that it can't be changed, you know, then really, you are with the economy saying, "this is human nature; you must compete and the winner takes all."

David Woolfson: I believe very much in the less than ten year time frame to make this major shift. You know, we are in the crisis now, we have to act quickly.

Prof. Ervin Laszlo (President and Founder of the Club of Budapest and The World Wisdom Council - Italy/Hungary): We come here with the expectation that following up Tokyo, we are going to move to the level of practice--doing something.

1. The Awakening Project - Mr Hiroo and Mrs. Massami Saionji
2. The World Wisdom Acadamy - Prof. Ervin Laszlo and Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris
3. Institute of the WWC - Dr. Michael Laitman
4. The World Wisdom Alliance - David Woolfson and Prof. Ashkok Gangadean
5. The Wisdom Channel - Dr. Michael Laitman and Avihu Sofer
6. The Disaster Prevention Project - Prof. Moty Benyakar
7. The D-Day 21.9 of every year (2006,2007) - Robert-Jan van Ogtrop
8. The Youth Involvement Project - Mr James O'Dea
9. Conflict Prevention - Mr. Jonathon Granoff

Ok, so it seems that we have reached reached nine "Wisdom in Action" projects.

Prof. Ervin Laszlo (President and Founder of the Club of Budapest and The World Wisdom Council - Italy/Hungary): We are at crossroads, and it's not going to be decided by fate, it's not a destiny. We are at a point where the future of humanity is going to be decided, but how people think about it today, and how they behave--awareness, awakening; these are the key terms. We have a chance to change. On thing we have to recognize is that to change is no longer a question of whether or not. Change is coming. The only question is whether it is coming unexpectedly and abruptly on us so that we can't do much about it, we become a victim of it, or whether we can anticipate it, create those major changes that will bring about a better future. And that is the unprecedented task of the generation we now live in. Before, it took many generation who could adapt, and anticipate, and hope to work out the kind of life which they wish. Today, it has to be done within the space of a single generation.

Narrator: All this then, is for the sake of the future generation. They will have to continue what the founders have started. In Arosa, they discuss the implementation of concrete projects, and the members of The World Wisdom Council will convene again in Toronto, to continue to unite the world towards a change, for the sake of a new generation.