Saturday 19 March 2011

But For The Butterfly...

“The fluttering of a butterfly's wings can effect climate changes on the other side of the planet”...Paul Erlich


Earlier i commented in Tsem Tulku Rinpoche's blog (http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2011/03/a-panda-seeking-solace-after-the-quake.html) that we are all connected - by "we", i meant Man (of all nations, religions, race), Animals and Nature, regardless of how we organise, divide, classify and label ourselves. The Japanese triple disaster of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear leak has more bearing on us that we have invested due sorrow and concern in.

By calling it the "Japanese Disaster", we feel like it does not apply to us and we go about our jolly ways without much thought. The reality is, so long as we share the same earth, we all share the same fate.



I said in the aforementioned blog post, that if we were to remove national borders, we will very quickly see that the world we ALL live in, is in trouble. Not a foreign far-away nation, but the Nation of the Triumvirate of Man, Nature and Animals, where Man is the self appointed "god" who is unwilling to perform its godly duties to love, protect and care for all.

Here are some of the comments I have heard about the recent world disaster that has got me thinking:

1. "Good thing the wind is blowing the fumes away from Malaysia"

Translation: Screw everyone else, we are OK.

The wind may be blowing the fumes out to the sea but to the best of my knowledge not even the most powerful countries of the world have managed to regulate where the wind blows. Much as we have divided "air space", do we really think that the Wind cares how we have carved the world up? It is yet another of Man's foolishness to think that just because One of the triumvirate thinks so, the other 2 Nations need or indeed should obey.

Birds fly free and pay no regard of borderlines, for in fact there are none. Shouldn't someone be giving orders to scramble some jet fighters to their airspace by now? Just in case migrating birds fly cross borders? Or didn't the birds get the memo about borders?

"Blowing out to sea" could very well mean that its coming this way...eventually. Its the very same body of water remember? We may call them the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Straits of Malacca and the Suez Canal. But who are we kidding? Take a look at the map below. Again, have we forgotten that much of what people eat come from the very sea that is the same body of water?


Like it or not we are connected. And the connection that Man ignores,  is in fact reinforced by man-made trade, imports and exports of goods, food, fauna and flora. Funny...cos trade is in fact regulated and encouraged.


The sad picture shows a Panda seeking solace from a man. How apt. And the picture should have been the trigger for us to recall that we really are connected.

The last Pandemic (H1N1) started in a far-far-away land of Mexico, in a place called Veracruz. Never heard of it? What about Fukushima?

2. A Chinese friend commented "they are reaping the karma for WW2 crimes".

It took me a while to register the significance of that thought. What if we are all karmically connected as well? I hope not, tho I may hope in vain.  If Japan is being "punished", what about the karmic repercussion of the nation that killed tens of thousands of members of the Tibetan Sangha (Monks), destroyed over 6,000 Tibetan monasteries and Stupas and Holy Relics and Buddha statues? Is killing a monk the same as killing a lay man? Is burning down a temple the same as burning down a house? Is destroying an ancient scripture the same as destroying your old  1975 Reader's Digest collection?

What is the karma of wanting the Tibetan monks dead? What is the karma of wanting  innocent Japanese children and people who weren't even around during WW2 to suffer and die?

What was once a holy Tibetan Monastery
And what of the Rwanda genocide? Auschwitz and Dachau?


Rwanda Genocide
Jewish Camp Mass Burial

If we are to judge the Karma of a specific nation, we need to understand that the Karma of one country affects all others. For it is only in our deluded minds, is there any real separation.

Which country's Karma is returning when the polar ice caps finally melt? Which Nation? Man?


We are not a world system consisting of  194 countries. We are ONE earth consisting of 3 INTERDEPENDANT Nations. Nations withour borders. Rules of life that transcends the laws of Man. Paul Erlich knew something when he said brazenly said a butterfly (Animal) flutters, the weather (Nature) responds, and Man suffers.

Nature does not discriminate. There is no space on earth that the rain has not fallen. Animals do not discriminate. A dog can love its owner regardless of the owner's race, religion and nationality. Only Man,the self proclaimed "master species" discriminate. And that is our folly for the Buddha did not discriminate. Death does not discriminate and neither does Karma.

There is a reason the Buddha taught us to pray for all sentient beings, to care for them and to develop the wish to see them well.

May ALL sentient beings have happiness and its causes,
May ALL sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes,
May ALL sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss,
May ALL sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger