Catastrophe

The current horror over Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami speaks more to the delusions of modern man than to the magnitude of the disaster. As a young Japanese woman said in a radio interview this morning, "We are used to earthquakes in Japan. They happen every day. This one is simply worse than most." I was fortunate for some years to be in the company of Japanese Buddhists here in the U.S., who were secularized and working for world peace and human equanimity. I learned something of the Japanese ability to be both detached and tremendously energetic in all things. I see that amazing ability at work now in their reaction to this natural disaster.

The greatest impediment to any recovery is panic. And who is more likely to panic? Those who live in a dream or those who are wakeful and watching? So many of us live in a dream of material pleasure under the delusion that our luxury, by comparison to the lives of the majority of the human species, is guaranteed and never-ending. Perhaps this lies at the core of age-phobia in U.S. society. Those who are awake maintain a constant awareness of the impermanence of all things.

Living life is a state of wakefulness is another way to look at practice. As the Buddha says in Dhammapada,

By watching and working

The master makes for himself an island

Which the flood cannot overwhelm.

Practice is watching and working at being the master of the mind and body. Meditation, proper diet, proper exercise and provision for basic human needs in daily life with an emphasis on healthy living contribute to mastering mind and body. With mastery of the self comes greater security in the otherwise chaotic and catastrophe-prone world. To live without practice is to live an unhappy life of reactions and panic in the face of difficulty.