Our focus is on the double crisis confronting contemporary societies: The first crisis asks us: “How can we hope to live a truly meaningful life before our deaths? Is it possible for us to experience a life full of understanding, joy and personal fulfillment?” The second crisis asks us: “How can the human race possibly survive? Are we all doomed to an actual death delivered by threatening yet unsolved problems?” Solving the first one yields the basis for solving the second one. It is the further development of the individual that is the basis for the continued evolution of society. This paper has an introduction followed by three sections. The first, Our Double Crisis, describes the nature of our two fundamental problems, derived from our bureaucratic way of life.This is followed by Learning to Play the Game of Life, focused on the first crisis. It emphasizes the East-West strategy, an approach anyone and everyone can learn to use, but requiring considerable time and effort to learn. It yields continuing personal development or evolution, building on the Buddha’s problem-solving procedures coupled with an interdisciplinary science of human behavior. We conclude with a section centered on the second crisis called Constructing the Future. It is based on studies of the most successful social movements that have occurred throughout Western history. Our overall approach emphasizes an interdisciplinary science of human behavior, with its initial presentation in Creating Life Before Death: Before Disaster Strikes the Ship of State, 2nd edition. We focus on an extremely general or paradigmatic approach to understanding the way of life of contemporary societies, and pointing toward solving personal and world problems.