I once came upon a great piece of Zen wisdom which was in a book called 'Manase, Relax Please' by Swami Sukhbhogananda. It helped me very much and I think it is very relevant to the Japanese people today when they are facing a natural disaster that may aggravate further. I remember posting this story somewhere before itself.
A village was facing a severe drought and the villagers didn't know what to do. There passed upon a traveling monk and the people told him the situation and asked for any suggestion. The monk asked for a spot in the village to meditate and started meditating. Soon, the clouds formed and rain started pouring. The villagers became happy and asked him how he could do it. The Zen monk replied that as he sat there, he made himself calm and since there is a definite interaction between him and his environment, the atmosphere which had till now been unruly and unpredictable, became calm as well and the rain that was to pour on time poured.
Today, Japan needs people to be calm, collected and rooted in themselves.
The Japanese are a great and generous people who have helped many countries with their wisdom, management techniques, financial aid etc. and the world has to do everything in it's capacity to get them back on their feet. I'm sure they will recover fast.
A village was facing a severe drought and the villagers didn't know what to do. There passed upon a traveling monk and the people told him the situation and asked for any suggestion. The monk asked for a spot in the village to meditate and started meditating. Soon, the clouds formed and rain started pouring. The villagers became happy and asked him how he could do it. The Zen monk replied that as he sat there, he made himself calm and since there is a definite interaction between him and his environment, the atmosphere which had till now been unruly and unpredictable, became calm as well and the rain that was to pour on time poured.
Today, Japan needs people to be calm, collected and rooted in themselves.
The Japanese are a great and generous people who have helped many countries with their wisdom, management techniques, financial aid etc. and the world has to do everything in it's capacity to get them back on their feet. I'm sure they will recover fast.
