Good morning!
We have now clouds threatening to snow, with temperatures going below the freezing point as forecast. But, after sitting we have a clear and calm world.
Yesterday I visited St. Charles for the first time. I checked a map and expected that highway 364 would show up. But I went too far, so I got off and asked the way at a gas station.
A lady led my car in the right direction. After passing the Missouri River, I thought I knew the way and, signaling with high beams to thank her, departed from her car.
I should have followed further, however, to get to the right place to turn. I turned off to ask the way at another gas station. They told me to turn at the Arena, but I accidentally turned into the Casino.
It was dark and raining, so it was difficult for me to read the street names, especially after getting into the subdivisions with their complicated roads and small street signs.
I often missed the road names, passing them or coming to dead ends. At last I reached my destination; by the time I returned home, my trip had taken three times longer than the time required for a person familiar with the route.
I travel from my home here to the center almost four times every day, so I am familiar with the whole way and, so to speak, know every inch and each scene throughout the seasons and years.
So, the Buddha recommended that we stay in our own realms, not wandering into unfamiliar, uncontrollable realms.
This morning I watched a program from Japan on how to deal with the nuclear disaster. No one knows where the nuclear fuel is, perhaps melted down, through, and into the earth.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster is still going on, unpredictable and uncontrolled, worse than the Chernobyl explosion and of course much worse than the Three Mile Island meltdown.
The European Committee on Radiation Risk estimated that there have been more than 60 million cancer deaths and a 10% life quality degradation as a result of nuclear fallout, even before the Fukushima disaster – 168 Hiroshima bombs according to the Government.
We have more than 500 nuclear reactors, each worth 1,000 Hiroshima bombs, always releasing radiation into the air, water, and earth, with death ash accumulating forever.
We have wandered into the unknown and uncontrolled realms of nuclear radiation, global warming, mass extinction, etc., as if straying into and lost in the dark raining night.
People continue their business as usual, not concerned about these things. It’s like the people of Easter Island, who cut trees to the last one, leaving no trees to build houses and boats.
They eventually had to kill each other and eat human flesh. This is our situation, causing disasters and devastation to the whole global life system.
All have been walking in the broad, natural way – plants, animals, and ecological systems – for four or fifteen billion years, or more. Animals and especially humans have deviated from this way.
This way is broader than Wall Street or Main Street. Mankind, however, has lost its way from the natural broad way and is now missing many signs, wandering into dead ends.
We must “return to our homes and sit in safety (帰家安坐：kika-anza)” Hopefully we find the awakened way, to see births and deaths, witness the ambrosia of immortality, and see the highest dharma clearly.
We must live the awakened way in our day to day life. Our three pillars here are the awakened way, a life of voluntary simplicity, and global ethic, transcending me-ism, materialism, and militarism.
It depends on how each person strives, walking sincerely in the awakened way, step by step, attaining merits and sharing them with all. It depends on how many can do this for all to reach critical mass.
Yesterday I visited the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts with Erin to answer visitors’ questions on Buddhism. Many people were really interested in it, especially in Zen.
We must let more people practice it, to really live on joy in limitless life, light, liberation, love, and learning. Let’s strive strenuously in sharing and realizing the awakened way.
11/27/11
