DB230800
In one of the recent segments of my UnMind podcast titled, “What if This is Hell?,” I indulged a “what if” conjecture, speculating that this earthly life may not be some kind of test, as many religions conceive of it — wherein those who pass the test go to their reward in heaven, while those who fail are condemned to an eternity in hell — but that this level of existence, if there are levels, may actually be hell itself. I then explored the implications of that supposition. In the most recent segment, titled “Change the World,” due to drop first week in August, I carried the thread a bit further, issuing a challenge to consider what would you actually do if you had the power to change the world, and where would you begin?
Unfortunately, these days everything is subject to being politicized, and even classified as partisan, if we are even mildly critical of the status quo. So I want you to indulge a huge caveat here. Please set aside any knee-jerk reactions to categorize as partisan my discussion of the world as I see it, and my fears of where it may be going in the near future. I don’t have all the facts at my disposal, which places me in the same class as all other writers and commentators. Nobody has their arms around “the full catastrophe” — thank you, Zorba the Greek. These issues are not merely a matter of political opinion.
In an early piece lost somewhere in my ever-expanding archive of prior writings, I made the somewhat specious point that it is not lost on me that those who are, or have been, resistant to recognizing the validity of concerns over global warming, or the less threatening label of “climate change,” as opposed to those who have been loudest about it, tend to be reflective of the two dominant political parties, as currently defined. Further, the former tends to populate the “flyover,” more rural areas of the country, while the latter are more concentrated in coastal, more urban locales.
Thus, my hopefully ironic point was, if worse comes to worse, and the coastal areas are flooded by rising ocean waters owing to the worst scenarios predicted by the “woke” faction coming true — let’s call them the “blues”; the other side let’s call the “reds” — the latter may welcome the idea that we will have a truly “red” country from coast to coast, though on a significantly smaller continent, as all the “blue” coastal cities are now under water. A crude but compelling rendering of one potential consequence of our actions, or inactions, following from our inattention to Mother Nature’s mandates.
But seriously, folks, let us assume for the sake of argument that the doomsday predictions which are, after all, the majority of scientists, are for real. That the oceans are irreversibly warming, and that the ice caps at both poles are melting. the South Pole being the most concerning, as it is apparently being defrosted from underneath by the warming Antarctic waters. When those ice cubes fall into the drink, that glass of tea is going to overflow. To the tune of a ten-foot rise in the world-around oceans. Goodbye New York, L.A., San Francisco, Miami, Savannah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, you say, we will just all move inland, head for the hills, the high ground.
The interior of the country is not exactly a paradisical refuge these days, what with natural and man-made disasters with concomitant loss of crops, harvests, and resultant general mayhem disrupting country folks’ formerly pastoral lifestyle. The refugees will encounter forest fires, drought, flash floods, and geometrically expanding tornados and hurricanes, along with air pollution on steroids. What have been labeled as “once-in-a-lifetime,” 500- or 1000-year events, may now be annual or seasonal events, increasing in magnitude each year
Further, in today’s divisive political climate, it is anyone’s guess whether the blues fleeing from the coastal deluge will find themselves welcomed, or confronted, by the reds — many of whom are armed to the teeth — as the scarcity of resources increases, and easy access to the necessities of life decreases.
Another major concern: major coastal flooding will not only take out major cities, or major parts of them, but will also disrupt the seaports through which much of the commerce of the world flows, including increasing imports of fresh food shopped and shipped from other countries. Throw in the possibility of yet another pandemic, with supply lines permanently — not temporarily — disrupted, and you begin to see the dystopian possibilities.
In this case, what’s a Zen person to do? One suggestion would be to not sweat the small stuff. And its corollary: it’s all small stuff. At least, our usual preoccupations are.
We once had a young man visit the Zen center who had trained with Tony Packer, the heir apparent to Philip Kapleau, who had famously turned down an offer to take up his mantle, or robe. She had published a book on her approach to practicing Zen without calling it Zen, which I asked to borrow from him. One of her main points was to avoid falling into “comparative thinking,” which was exactly what this young man had done. From the first time he joined the meditation sessions, he continually questioned and criticized each and every detail of the protocols we followed at that time.
To address his concerns, I invited him to give a guest talk on his opinions. I also made up a parable, or analogy, for him to consider. I said: A monk is travelling through a remote mountain pass late at night, needing to get to the other side of the range. A sudden storm blows up, forcing him to seek shelter. Fortunately, he finds a cave nearby, and settles down to wait out the weather. But as his eyes adjust to the dark of the cave, and his sense of smell adapts to the stale air, he begins to notice the remains of carcasses strewn about the floor. Just as he realizes that he is ensconced in the lair of some kind of beast, and is preparing to make his escape, a large, furry silhouette appears in the entrance, blocking him from leaving. Standing there, shaking in fear, he asks himself: What is the best way to confront this situation: standing flat on my feet, or up on my toes?
In a situation like this, the details are clearly not all that relevant, and create a distraction from what is starkly relevant. Similarly, in the situation we are confronting globally, the details fall into insignificance. We are left with the question implied by Master Dogen in Fukanzazengi—Principles of Seated Meditation, when he asks:
Now that you know the most important thing in Buddhism, how can you be satisfied with the transient world? Our bodies are like dew on the grass and our lives like a flash of lightning — vanishing in a moment.
So whatever comes to pass, and however our lives come to their conclusion, there was never any other ending to the story. What matters is what we do about it now. As Matsuoka Roshi would often say, demonstrating the zazen posture, “This is the most you can do.”
