Bupposo (仏法僧：Buddha-Dharma-Sangha )

Good morning!

After the strong spring storm we now have spring in full swing, with a bird singing. Don’t you hear it singing, “kite mite, ????, come an’ see!” and “chûi, ??, beware!”

One month ago we had a record earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan. We had no words, but only tears. We never expected such a magnitude of terrible tolls manifesting, and even still developing, with the nuclear crises.

TV Japan showed a man saying, “I lost all my family of five.” While a terrifying tragedy, it is finished. The nuclear disaster is continuing limitlessly. As Mr. Hirai reported, this disaster is constant and continuous, not only at accidents.

As he said, those who have been advocating nuclear power should be responsible for the damages done and to come. But those who oppose it must also accept the responsibility of speaking out about its dangers and diagnosing for alternatives. We must all consider how many we have killed and will kill in the future, as Mr. Hirai has done.

We have the old way, which has been exercised for millennia and firmly established within universal truth, peace, holiness, and harmony. How can we be so deluded as to discriminate and destroy all in space and time?

The Japanese people heard a bird singing and named it “bu-ppô-sô, ???, buddha-dharma-sangha!” When nightingales sing, they hear “hô-hokekyo, ????, the Dharma-the Lotus Sutra!”

The entire population of Japan had a moment of silence one month after the devastation. But birds have something to say: “Beware!” Heed the warnings of the old inscribed stones that tell of tsunamis after an earthquake, and don’t build houses below their positions.

There has been an ocean of tears shed by humans due to all sorts of suffering. The compassionate rain, however, will wash away the spring storm dust, clearing the three poisons, pointing to a greener and greater world.

4/11/11

Limiting the Limitless

Good morning!

We have a beautiful morning on this sunny Sunday, with the spring breeze carrying birds’ singing and a green wind full of flowers – lilacs, dogwoods, redbuds, apples, crabapples, tulips, hyacinths – all kinds blooming full.

Yesterday we worked outside in the garden and inside we discussed voluntary simplicity, energy conservation, and the Global System and Ethic Association. We talked and talked about the name of the association, and suddenly I noticed the difference between what I mean by global system, and what others understand this to be.

What do you imagine when you hear the word “global system”? In this conversation, my companions took it to mean a global governance and economic system, not however relating to ecology and the environment. Even when we say “we,” we are limited – our societies, our nations, our species – not really embracing all.

This is our fundamental problem. At the time of the Flower Festival we can enjoy the abundance of nature. But when we move around busily, we forget this abundance and become concerned only about the things in front of us, or just about our own selves.

Then we create problems and, unfortunately in such a beautiful, bountiful springtime, we must worry about the disasters in Japan. Even though they have started reconstruction, there are still problems, unknown and unsolved, at and around the nuclear power plant.

I read an email where a scientist said that nuclear energy and nuclear bombs have quite different characteristics. While nuclear bombs are not at critical state, and thus safe until ignited, nuclear power is always at a critical state, as the fuel is at the same time the ignition.

Because nuclear fuel is always at the critical state, it is always warming up and igniting anytime. So once the cooling system becomes defunct, the fuel melts and emits radiation by explosion or, to avoid exploding, by venting the pressure and irradiating everything around.

I am very sad and sorry as a Japanese citizen, having had nuclear bombs, that now this nuclear disaster is contaminating the sea, air, and soil. The disaster has not yet been contained, but even now the destruction and contamination have surpassed levels at Three Mile Island and maybe even Chernobyl.

Ryokan made this poem:

Flowers with no mind invite butterflies.

Butterflies with no mind visit flowers.

When flowers bloom, butterflies come.

When butterflies come, flowers bloom.

People also do not know me.

Not knowing is due to the supreme law.

Humans boast of their knowledge, but this is the real problem. It is not even half-knowledge, but the total nescience of our existential nature. This limited and limiting knowledge interferes with limitless life, causing global warming, mass extinction, etc.

Still people say that humans are better than other beings, not knowing the consequences of the power of nescience. Human hubris is the hindrance. Because of this delusion, we lose our freedom and discriminate, exploit, and exterminate others, now even our own species.

We limit and lose limitless life, liberation, and love. So, we need to sit, stop our karma, and see far, deep, and wide enough to celebrate the abundant life beyond our limited views and values. Then, we can enjoy true beauty, goodness, harmony, and happiness.

4/10/11