My wife, Cyndi Lee, landed at Narita Airport near Tokyo at almost the exact time the earthquake hit last Friday. She had come to Japan to lead a yoga teacher training program in Tokyo, and then a public program the following weekend in Osaka.
At the very moment she was handing the customs officer her passport, the entire airport began to shake. The shaking continued and intensified for several long minutes. At that point, all the passengers were quickly ushered out into the parking lot and were asked to stay there for several hours.
Cyndi ended up spending the night sleeping on the floor in the airport, and in the morning, with the help of some new "earthquake friends," she was able to make her way to Tokyo and to her hotel there. In Tokyo there had only been minor damage from the quake, and in some sense life was mostly "normal" for a couple of days.
The first two days of the teacher training program at Tokyo Yoga went reasonably well (with most participants in attendance), but it became increasingly obvious that travel was getting more difficult for the students (due to closed roads, rolling power outages and gas shortages). Aftershocks were making everybody nervous, and the emerging crisis with Japan's nuclear reactors was creating a very unstable environment.
I was scheduled to join Cyndi in Tokyo on Wednesday March 16 to lead the meditation aspect of the training over the following weekend, but after much consideration, Cyndi decided to postpone the program, get herself back to terra firma in New York City as quickly as possible and re-schedule our programs there to continue in September.
Like most of us, I have been glued to HuffPost and CNN to see the latest evolution in this powerful drama that has been unfolding in Japan. People's lives have been transformed within minutes, sometimes even seconds. It seems impossible for us to understand all the forces at work here, and why one person is snatched away by a tsunami in the blink of an eye, never to be seen again, while in the same situation, rescuers can find a baby that has survived on her own for three days in the midst of all that turmoil and devastation.
As I watch these dramas unfold, I am struck once again by the strength and fragility of our human life. If we do not understand the one, we will not truly understand the other. There are such powerful forces that can take away our life at any time.
From the Earth's and ocean's point of view, these recent events are actually small in scale. It's like the shrug of a giant when asleep, slightly shifting position -- a very minor adjustment. Yet for us here in the human world, that shrug, that shift, can mean life or death in an instant, or at least a complete transformation of everything we held to be reliable and solid up until that very moment.
I can't really offer a clever Buddhist analysis to make sense of all these events, but I would like to note that we, as human beings, seem to have so much strength and wisdom to draw on -- even while our situation is so completely ephemeral and hazardous. How is it possible for us to reconcile this strength and fragility within our being and in the world we inhabit?
In the Buddhist view we talk about karma -- the chain of causality. Causes and conditions from the past come together and create the current circumstances we face. We choose our response to these circumstances and create the basis for further causes and conditions moving into the future.
But who can say they comprehend, in this powerfully interdependent world we all share, the deeper meanings of these catastrophic events in the natural world and the profound currents and shifts in human society that are brought about by them?
There is, however, in this vast ocean of uncertainty, one thing I think we all can agree on: In times like these, we do have a powerful choice to make. We can choose fear and panic, or we can choose mindfulness, love and compassion. Such is the power of our human heart and mind.
Our hearts go out to our friends in Japan. They have survived powerful obstacles in the past, and no doubt they will rise to this new challenge. We are connected to them in seen and unseen ways. Their fragility is our fragility. Their strength is our strength. Their suffering is our suffering. Their survival is our survival.
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2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami
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I'm thinking of the dog that was guarding and staying with the injured dog. It isn't all about us all the time- I am often inspired by other animals and their actions in crisis situations.
Thank you
Are you an atheist or a non-theist? Buddhism is said to be non-theistic --- not based on affirmation OR denial of any kind of external deity (deities), but atheism goes further and actually solidifies the negation of any kind of deity in this regard.... if you're into metaphysics we could chat further about it.... otherwise sending all best and thanks for your comments! DN
I am enlivened by the monologues that I am fortunate to be able to review.
Solitary sadness is of no avail, as far as I can see.
If we vote for people who will invest in infrastructure, there will be fewer victims on our shores the next time. (What of the many warnings that Katrina would happen? -- most of the damage was preventable and not done by the storm itself.)
If we vote for people who would rather spend our money on ensuring all Americans have healthcare (rather than, say, spending $450 billion every year on paperwork that profiteering insurers use to work the system in their favor), there will be more helping hands and more money for millions of people to give, the next time.
If we vote for people who balance political power for the middle class with the richest, for people who would have made intelligent consumer laws all along the way so that we never went down this 30-year-long-shakedown-of-ordinary-consumers-economy there would be many more Americans secure in their homes and able to help, instead of in foreclosure and hardly able to help themselves.
We wouldn't as a nation be in such debt. We wouldn't as a nation have our troops focused on wars we didn't absolutely have to wage.
We may have no control of mother nature. But we do have a lot of control of how we live our lives and what collective resources we have to care for one another when the worst happens -- in our midst and overseas.
Awareness is certainly part of that fight. But I see far too many romantics who seem to think that they will be one with nature and somehow think that Mother Nature will just nurture them. It won't. Quite literally our survival is a constant fight against Mother Nature. Perhaps I am just one of those who sees the glass as half-full.
the japanese are so amazing about all this too -- they seem so patient and strong and organized. i think it was Rumi who said "patience is the key to all relief" and they truly embody that. they are so inspiring to see. they are just working so hard to minimize all the suffering for everyone.
may all the survivors remain patient and strong and have the courage to thrive and may all the rescue and aid workers be safe and strong and swift and may all those suffering be at peace.
But the question people believing in karma would avoid answering is why has such bad karma befallen on the Japanese people?
Since we can't always see the biggest picture, therefore practicing compassion and mindfulness in all situations is best advice under those circumstances..... DN
Japan lies in the earthquake zone, over the century many of the people there died from eathquakes, tsunami and fire resulting from these natural disasters they know that living there they are subjected to such disasters. That is why the Japanese are prepared, calm and accept the constant threat of these disasters. In other words they accept the karma for living in such a dangerous place.
Only when people do harm to others will they be subjected to human effect karma as Jesus mentioned 'do not do unto others what you do not wish others do unto you'.
I too have taught meditation as a Christian Raja Yogi, as volunteer though. Speak volumes of you and your wife teach meditation in a Buddha society. Amazing.
My master talked of the common goal of Buddha, Christ and Krishna of self enlightenment.
For me it is easy intellectually to deal with the tragedy of material life. Maya or the cosmic delusion is simply that. I GROCK it. Knowing this has helped me deal with the loss of loved ones, like the death of my only child. My world and Karma changed in an instant. That shock on the rest of my life continues today, my Karma.
But instantly I was able to deal with the material pain and self loss knowing the past was a treasure I must be thankful for. It could not have happened at all. What else could I do but be thankful for Josh's moments we had together. We were able to be Father and Son, then great friends sharing fun and support, and now his eternal life continues and my material life and becoming Spirit continues. My Karma not to feel sorry for myself for the loss to me and give thanks that he continues on in his eternity.
It is an enlightenment of Spirit over Material. I am Spirit. Now the Mercy and Sharing of the pain of Japan. Bless the Helpers.