[Oe List ...] Japan, memories and speaking to the truth

Tue Mar 29 20:34:31 CDT 2011

Greetings, this might be my first humble message on the OE network, good to
be home!

Have been reviewing some things to work on some poems in response to this
tragic series of events. As many of you know I spent 13.5 years in Japan,
Oubari HDP and Fukuoka House and then Fukuoka after I left the Order in the
early 80's. This has been difficult, I can feel the pain and emptiness that
my sisters and brothers are feeling. To add the power stuff I am sure,. Is
reliving Hiroshima and Nagasaki for some. In reading and re-reading Jaime's
list I have been taken back a bit. It comes to me as a little over the top
relative to the culture and character of the Japanese people. I have chosen
not to parse it here, I appreciate Jaime's reflection, but it is not mine. I
have found the following essay more helpful in my thinking, and hope you
find it helpful as well.

Tsunami and Cherry Blossoms

The destruction wreaked by the earthquake/tsunami in Japan last week is
almost unfathomable. Our hearts go out to the millions of people who have
been directly affected by this terrible tragedy. Yet in spite of the large
number of causalities, it is remarkable that there were not more, given the
magnitude of the earthquake. 

>From 1968 to 2004 we lived in southwest Japan, far from the area devastated
by this natural catastrophe in northeast Japan. But we have close friends
(and former students) who live in the area hardest hit. We have received
word, indirectly, that they have survived, but we imagine they are suffering
in many ways.

In spite of all the loss of life and property, Japan will overcome. The
Japanese people have a remarkable resiliency. The Great Hanshin Earthquake
(near Kobe) occurred in 1995. There was almost unimaginable damage to the
buildings and roads in the region; more than 6,000 people were killed. Just
a few years later when I was in Kobe for the first time after the
earthquake, I saw little evidence of their having been a major catastrophe.
It was almost unbelievable that the city could have recovered so quickly.

The Japanese are resilient partly because of their high level of energy,
their ability to work long and hard, and their concentration on what needs
to be done. Their resiliency is also due to a view of life expressed by the
Japanese word hakanasa, which means ephemeral or transitory. 

The Japanese love cherry blossoms so much partly because of their widespread
awareness of hakanasa. Again this spring as the cherry trees bloom across
Japan, where they can people will gather for parties under the trees,
eating, singing and drinking sake-enjoying life while they can.

The cherry trees bloom in all their glory, but then quite quickly the
blossoms begin to fall. The parties are held under the trees with the
blossoms gently falling, and with greater or lesser levels of awareness, the
Japanese tend to see the falling blossoms as indication of the transitory
nature of life. 

Part of the Japanese sense of hakanasa undoubtedly comes from the frequency
of natural disasters across the nation. In addition to earthquakes and
tsunami, the country often suffers from typhoons also, and historically
fires have been common calamities in cities crowded with wooden houses.

Rebuilding seems to be a part of the Japanese mindset. The Ise Grand Shrine,
dedicated to the Sun Goddess, is one of the most important Shinto shrines in
Japan. The major buildings of Ise Jinju are dismantled and new ones built on
an adjacent site every twenty years. (The present buildings, dating from
1993, are scheduled for rebuilding in 2013.) 

To be sure, it will take enormous effort to rebuild from last week's
catastrophe in Japan. There is need for massive assistance from individuals,
organizations, and countries from around the world. But over the next few
weeks the Japanese people will once again gaze upon the cherry blossoms,
perhaps thinking about the transient nature of life even more than
before-and then continue determinedly to overcome the vast devastation
caused by the tsunami last week. 

Leroy Seat, Ph.D
1307 Canterbury Ln
Liberty, MO 64068-3209
(816) 841-9586

I have appreciated ALL the reflections on Japan you all have sent. Sitting
here in the woods of East Central WI. I am also sending along a Healing
Ritual a Wicken/Pagan leader created and send my way the day after all this
broke. I have used it in a Text Study Group, and the four Sangha I serve in
State Correctional Institutions as part of the Buddhist Meditation Program
of the Milwaukee Zen Project to 12 prisons in our state. It certainly
touches the symbols and spirit of this wonderful culture and people. 

Hope all is well with you my colleagues. Karen and I are enjoying our
retirement, even though she works one or two days a week as a Hospice
Chaplain. We have five adult children and 11 soon to be 12 grand children.
We travel a lot. I write poetry and am part of the Jack Kerouac School of
Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder for the second summer, 2
weeks this time. Have been thankful for a life time for my part in the
Spirit Movement and the Order and feel as though it is not over yet. We have
all experienced what community is all about whatever our spiritual path.
Deep bows and compassion to you all..

peace, ko shin, Bob Hanson, Milwaukee Metro, LXC, Order and globe

Ko shin's Blogs: http://chasingwindmillswhynot.blogspot.com/

June 2010:  http://adharmabumreportingfromnaropa.blogspot.com/

Face Book:  Bob koshin Hanson

Tweeter:  1940oldman

920 293 8856   Home    414 234 0954  Cell   skype  920 240 4325

Added June 3, 2010: FACT: More peace activists were killed on 31-May-2010,
than Israelis have been killed, by Gaza rockets, in 10 years  Tweeter on
this day

seeker of truth by  <http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/C/cummingsee/> e. e.
cummings

seeker of truth  follow no path
all paths lead where truth is here

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of
the oppressor."
~ Desmund Tutu.

Without compassion, what hope?    Q: Is there any cause for optimism?  A:
Well, personally, yeah. Everybody's got a life to lead and they've got a
bodhisattva tendency, everybody wants to do good, so I just think on a
personal level, yeah. On a larger scale, there doesn't seem to be any hope
unless compassion becomes a more widespread important teaching on how to
live. Compassion to self and others.-Allen Ginsberg, from "Spontaneous
Intelligence: An Interview with Allen Ginsberg," Tricycle, Fall 1995

There are those who do not realize

that one day we all must die.

But those who do realize this

settle their quarrels.

Dhammapada 1.6

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