The Zen master, Yunmen (Japanese:Ummon), is credited with two great koans which have always puzzled me when practically applied to extreme personal or societal disasters. The first is “Every day is a good day.” And the second is, “The whole world is medicine.”
How can we tell a family in Fukushima whose livelihood has been destroyed and whose child now has thyroid cancer that everyday is good, that the whole world is medicine? I have thought as deeply as I can about this. I am not completely reconciled. I continue to struggle to understand Yunmen’s profound insight. Perhaps a shift can occur if we begin to allow that “reality”-- to borrow a term from economics-- is less a “stock” i.e. some “thing” fixed in space and time, but rather a “flow”—a continuously changing and emerging process. Viewed in this light the compassionate response of communities to disasters, described by Rebecca Solnit, seem to confirm the wisdom of the koan. Even the personal suffering of the victims of the recent Boston Marathon, at least to an outsider, seem partially assuaged and counterbalanced by the outpouring of generosity and kindness of perfect strangers. Is it possible that the DNA of the universe may in fact be naturally “programmed” toward healing and love?
There is an ancient Chinese poem, “Although the kingdom is destroyed, the castle grasses and mountain flowers are once again in bloom.”
A second insight: Suppose we are able to predict and prepare for natural and man made calamities with far greater precision and reliability than we assume possible. The operating premise—the “consensus trance”--is that we are without the power to peer into the Future and say which grains will grow and which will not. Suppose this premise is unsound. How might we harness the compassion and intelligence of our communities BEFORE such terrible events occur? Will we be able to deploy such knowledge with equal compassion and focused dedication? @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Julian Gresser, author, Piloting Through Chaos—The Explorer’s Mind (Bridge 21 Publications June 2013; www.explorerswheel.com)
ORIGINAL COMMENT
The Zen master, Yunmen (Japanese:Ummon), is credited with
two great koans which have always puzzled me when practically applied to extreme personal or societal disasters. The first is “Every day is a good day.” And the second is, “The whole world is medicine.”
How can we tell a family in Fukushima whose livelihood has been destroyed and whose child now has thyroid cancer that everyday is good, that the whole world is medicine? I have thought as deeply as I can about this. I am not completely reconciled. I continue to struggle to
understand Yunmen’s profound insight. Perhaps a shift can occur if we begin to
allow that “reality”-- to borrow a term from economics-- is less a “stock” i.e.
some “thing” fixed in space and time, but rather a “flow”—a continuously
changing and emerging process. Viewed in this light the compassionate response
of communities to disasters, described by Rebecca Solnit, seem to confirm the
wisdom of the koan. Even the personal suffering of the victims of the recent Boston Marathon, at least to an outsider, seem partially assuaged and counterbalanced by the outpouring of
generosity and kindness of perfect strangers. Is it possible that the DNA of
the universe may in fact be naturally “programmed” toward healing and love?
There is an ancient Chinese poem, “Although the kingdom is
destroyed, the castle grasses and mountain flowers are once again in bloom.”
A second insight: Suppose we are able to predict and prepare for
natural and man made calamities with far greater
precision and reliability than we assume possible. The operating premise—the “consensus trance”--is that we are without the power to peer into the Future and say which grains
will grow and which will not. Suppose this premise is unsound. How might we
harness the compassion and intelligence of our communities BEFORE such terrible
events occur? Will we be able to deploy such knowledge with equal compassion
and focused dedication?
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Julian Gresser, author, Piloting Through Chaos—The Explorer’s Mind (Bridge 21 Publications June 2013; www.explorerswheel.com)