Category: Population

Rohatsu

by Lee Lewis, posted in Population, Zen

28.xi.16, 8:40a
Mississippi River Gorge
waning crescent moon, cloudy, 50 degrees

It is coming up to rohatsu, bodhi day, the annual celebration of Siddhartha Guatama’s enlightenment and his realization of the interconnectedness of all reality and the path to end suffering. In the zen tradition there is a week-long silent meditation retreat that leads up to the day, and often practioners will sit in meditation through the last night.

For many years I sat rohatsu at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center on the shore of Lake Bde Maka Ska, meaning White Earth Lake in Dakota and formerly known as Lake Calhoun. The lake usually iced up at some point during the week. To be in silence daily for an entire week observing the continual shifts of color, texture, movement and emotion was a rare gift in my hyperactive urban life. There was a sense of gentle, non-grasping anticipation in watching a mundane, and yet miraculous, event.

It is clear that this year the lake will not freeze during rohatsu. It takes weeks of temperatures below freezing before the surface becomes solid, and this year we have had very few of those days. One year a trend does not make; nevertheless, it is an ominous sign. The earth and air are warming, driven by an ever exploding population of Homo sapiens and an ever higher standard of living for a growing number of individuals of our species. Added to that are ever advancing technologies that allow for greater population and resource exploitation, e.g., the “green revolution” and hydraulic fracturing.

I sometimes wonder, too, if there is a dark side to alternative energy technologies, like wind and solar, in that they relieve pressure on the growth of population and consumption. Perhaps our faith in them is just another delusion that with the right technology our resources are endless and we can “have it all.”

I am not anti-technology, certainly not against rapid adoption of alternative energy sources. However, we face an extremely complex situation and there are no simple fixes. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of time to make the fixes. We need to proceed calmly and thoughtfully and as if our hair was on fire.

Which is why I will be sitting rohatsu, though not on the shore of Lake Bde Mka Ska.

It may seem counter-intuitive to sit in silent meditation while the world is burning up and species are dropping like flies. But in buddhist texts this burning world is referred to as the saha world, the world of endurance, the world of suffering, and it is considered a great and rare opportunity to be born into it. It is only in this world that we are called upon to address suffering. From a buddhist perspective, that starts with a deep understanding, beyond mere human intellect and conceptualization, of the interconnectedness of all life. That is what the Buddha discovered during his night of meditation.

Like him, we must get up and carry that profound, unshakeable wisdom and understanding into the world with a sacred vow to honor and protect all beings and to end all suffering.

Allan Toffler/Paul Ehrilich

by Lee Lewis, posted in Population

Allan Toffler, the author of Future Shock, passed away on Monday.  I read it when it first came out.  It was a pretty influential book.  The NYT wrote:

In the book, in which he synthesized disparate facts from every corner of the globe, he concluded that the convergence of science, capital and communications was producing such swift change that it was creating an entirely new kind of society. His predictions about the consequences to culture, the family, government and the economy were remarkably accurate.

The obituary also noted some critics:

…systems theorist Richard W. Longman wrote in The New York Times that Mr. Toffler “sends flocks of facts and speculation whirling past like birds in a tornado.”  In Time magazine, the reviewer R. Z. Sheppard wrote, “Toffler’s redundant delivery and overheated prose turned kernels of truth into puffed generalities.”

However, reading both the praise and criticism, I thought of Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, published with Ann Ehrlich in 1968, two years before Toffler’s book and another “mover and shaker” of the times.  The Ehrlichs were not so much futurists as a biologists who wrote about the future.  They have been criticized, as well, but largely for the failure of their predictions.  To my mind, however, they can’t be criticized for using facts loosely nor inaccurate predictions.  It’s just that the impact of the explosion of human population is being largely ignored and its impact is mistaken as discrete problems, e.g., resource wars, species extinction, climate disruption and famine, not dynamically inter-related to population.

I believe human population growth is the primary driver of suffering in our time and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Both Paul and Ann are still living.  I wish them good health and life as long as they think reasonable.

Check this out: World Population Growth

A Soto Zen Buddhist Climate Statement

by Lee Lewis, posted in Population, Zen

I am a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association which has, in conjunction with the Soto Zen Buddhism North American Office released a statement on climate change. Here it is.

Clear View Blog

Rome Slides 34

The statement below is a unique collaboration among Soto Zen Buddhists in the west. With roots in China and in the 13th century teachings of Eihei Dogen, Soto Zen is one of the largest of Japan’s Buddhist denominations. This practice tradition was brought to us by teachers like Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Jiyu Kennett Roshi, and other spiritual pioneers who established Zen centers across the continent. With an emphasis on zazen, or seated meditation, and a down-to-earth awareness of one’s own mind manifest in all areas of daily life. Zen practitioners and teachers are deeply concerned about the fate of the earth, of our children, of their children, and all beings.

Coming on the heels of the December 2015 United Nations Climate Conference in Paris and Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, this statement is meant to…

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Where Bodhidharma and Aldo Leopold Meet

by Lee Lewis, posted in Natural History, Pipelines, Population, Zen

Bodhidharma [483?-540?] is the reputed founder of ch’an buddhism in China, commonly known in the United States by its Japanese name: zen.  I use the image of Bodhidharma to represent zen teachings.

Aldo Leopold [1887-1948] is considered by many to be the father of the modern conservation and environmental movement and the United States’ wilderness system.  Among his best know ideas is the “land ethic,” which calls for an ethical, caring relationship between people and nature.  His writings have been influential to me and here he represents the present day effort to live in harmony with the earth.
For the longest time, I have been curious and passionate about the intersection of buddhism, zen, social activism, justice, the environment and politics.

With this website I hope to explore that intersection.  What does zen buddhism have to do with one’s engagement with the critical social issues that confront us: land, by which I mean soil and everything connected to it, i.e., the ecosphere; social justice; peace and harmony?  There will entries on zen, discussion of social issues, short essays on nature and links.  I hope some of what is here will be provocative.

Since first encountering buddhism and zen I have felt, at my core, that they offer something very, very important to our social discourse – a critically vital perspective as we collectively do our best to address the conflict, pain and suffering that is in-and-all-around-us in the form of poverty, racial domination, environmental destruction, war, hunger and violence.  I have personally tried to find balance and equanimity while effectively engaging in various social change efforts, even in the ego- and conflict-driven settings of a state legislature, a picket line, non-violent direct actions and the hurly-burly world of real estate development.  Sometimes I have been successful, sometimes not.

I’ve been a student of zen for over 25 years and a priest and teacher for the last 15.  I have been involved in peace, social justice and environmental movements for much longer, starting with the lead-up to the first Earth Day in 1972.  Since then I have been an anti-nuclear activist, training college students in nonviolent civil disobedience techniques; Teamster union steward; board member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and other non-governmental organizations [NGO]; lobbyist for environmental organizations; social worker in the fields of aging and hospice; executive director of a NGO that provided affordable, supportive housing to people living with HIV/AIDS; and meditation teacher in state prisons.

This website is an experiment, a project in progress.

Take care.