It's clear that we are living in difficult times. We are in the throes of a financial, environmental and social crisis. But it is also a time of extraordinary opportunity. It depends on how we respond.

There are six billion egos living upon this planet. We get along with those who share our particular set of illusions. They are our friends. We declare war on those who adhere to a different set of illusions. They are our enemies. And we have no awareness of just how lost we all are in illusion.

To awaken spiritually is to awaken out of illusion, and it seems as though suffering is our preferred method of awakening. Many who awaken do so through crisis or suffering. When the suffering becomes unbearable, they are more willing to open to another way of being.

Given the right guidance, they can find their way into the present moment, which is completely free of the pain and limitations of the past, and anxiety about the future. Belief systems, which have held us imprisoned for so long, begin to lose their grip upon us. We are no longer under the rule of the ego. We awaken to our true nature and to Oneness.

What will it take for humanity to awaken? Global warming? Terrorist attacks? So far, nothing has worked! There is so much resistance to awakening that the suffering keeps increasing, and it will continue to increase until we respond with a fundamental shift in consciousness.

We are now in the throes of a major global economic meltdown. We can see it is a crisis, or we can see it as yet another opportunity to become more conscious in the way we live upon this earth.

It is another opportunity for us to awaken. Maybe this will do it! The extinction of thousands of species each year does not really concern us. Genocide in Darfur does not seem to disturb us. We can digest a daily diet of rape, murder and pillage on our cable news channels.

But if our wallets, and our 401K's, and our share portfolios are threatened, then that is different! That might just create a sufficient disturbance within the dream that we will begin to awaken from it.

As we awaken, we will see how greed and "the culture of more" have contributed to the current crisis. We will see that we are now being held accountable for our willingness to live beyond our means and live on endless credit. We will see that we have been more interested in making a killing on the stock market than creating real wealth through productivity.

We will recognize that the large corporations are essentially ego structures of greed and control, and are nothing more than an extension of our own egos. We will see that the Stock Exchange is really a casino, conveniently here for the wealthiest among us to wager on the ups and downs of the market.

Perhaps we might begin to understand that there are universal laws which govern our existence. One such law states that you cannot have expansion without contraction, any more than you can have day without night, or light without dark. You cannot breathe in without breathing out. You cannot continually blow up a balloon. Sooner or later it will burst.

This is what has happened! Those in power have artificially and dishonestly manipulated the financial system to keep it expanding. It cannot continue indefinitely. A free market allows for the natural flow of expansion and contraction. With a free market, you would have gentle rises and falls.

But the market is not free. It is controlled by super wealthy individuals and institutions manipulating the market. But now they are caught in their own web. And we are expected to bail them out! We would not mind so much if things would change. They will not! In fact, the creators of this crisis will ultimately profit from it, and greed will continue unabated on Wall Street, although it will probably be more subtle.

No matter what is happening in the world, we can end suffering by awakening. Suffering is only necessary because, for the most part, it is the only thing that will awaken us from the dream. But still, very few of us awaken. Who wants to awaken out of a happy dream? And if we are caught in an unhappy dream, or we are in a crisis within the dream, we would rather live in the hope of a happy outcome within the dream than awaken from it. And so the suffering continues.

There is an easier way. If, through our intelligence, we begin to make choices that will gradually lead us out of illusion and separation into truth and Oneness, then there will be no need for suffering. If we can gently release ourselves from our beliefs, like slipping out of an old overcoat, the truth will become apparent.

If we can bring consciousness to all our unconscious patterns of greed, fear and desire, they will gently dissolve. If we can own, acknowledge and confess who we have become, we will be released into the truth of who we are. If we allow ourselves to feel the pain of separation, we will open into Oneness.

For those of us who are ready to awaken, it is time to complete this journey. There has never before been a better opportunity. The door is open wide.

True enlightenment is not about "What's in it for me?" It is not about bliss, or ecstasy or anything else. It is simply about realizing that the only life available to us is life lived in the moment. It is about arising in mastery of our own mind and ego. It is about true power and true responsibility. It is about living consciously and responsibly upon this earth.

It is about "loving thy neighbor as thyself," because you recognize that thy neighbor IS thyself. It is about rejecting that false notion that we have dominion upon this earth, and accepting that, at best, we are caretakers. And it is time to take care! It is no longer a question of morality. It is now a question of our own survival.

This (abridged) article was written by Leonard Jacobson, Oct. 2008.