Recently the annual IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was published. It shows that 70 percent of identified plants, 35 percent of invertebrates, 37 percent of freshwater fish, 30 percent of amphibians, 28 percent of reptiles, and 12 percent of birds are under threat. The survival of a total of 17,921 species is in jeopardy. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

We humans are causing the sixth mass extinction, with more than a hundred species becoming extinct per day. We have created the global problematique, with population explosion (a 50 percent increase is expected worldwide in several decades), habitat devastation, environmental pollution, resource exhaustion, climate change, desertification, and wars all intertwined. We face ecological and economic collapse, twin human-centered devastations that have become the ego-logical problematique of our age.

This is due to our karma. Most advanced in selfishness, societies, statuses, symbolism, and sciences, humankind is acting as a cancer, causing…

Again, again, and again!

When does it stop?

Never, never, and never!

Unless you stop it.

   Soldiers and horses entered Mt. Yun-ju. The master (Yun-ju) sat upright and    motionless.

   The commander,  without bowing, sat facing him and asked, “When does the world    attain peace?”

   The master said, “Waiting for the commander’s mind to become satisfied.”

   The commander then bowed and made him his teacher.

So long as everyone thinks “that’s none of my business,” it never stops. It is the karma of thinking so and acting so. Isn’t it karma of the people here?

   Men of great power, why can’t you lift your legs?

Even though great, one cannot lift even one’s own legs. Why? Because: one is bound by karma.

   Men of great strength, you row so hard! But, your boat is moored.

However hard one may try, one cannot advance. Why? Because: one is bound by ego.

   Seeing a fire…

In a previous entry (Do You Really Want Peace on Earth?) I mentioned the upcoming Mindfulness Day. We had a nice event, meeting new and old friends and enjoying “golden wind” on a clear autumn afternoon. In my presentation, one of three offered that day, I talked about why we have problems and how to solve them.

All problems come from selfishness due to self-preservation. The accretion of four billion years of self-preserving action and its results (karma) has created hard shells with which we shroud our individual and collective selves, like shellfish. Confined and limited, we can no longer move freely, knowing and acting well.

No one likes the selfishness of others, but everyone loves one’s own. Selfish individuals or groups are hated, hit, hypnotized in hubris, but eventually humiliated due to their own karma, like iron crumbling in its own rust. Like cancer, selfishness grows from its essence and destroys…

We at the Missouri Zen Center were recently invited to a college class on Happiness to show why and how to do sitting meditation. It was a beautiful autumn day with bright sunlight shining on yellow, red, and brown leaves. Amazed at the brilliant colors and filled with joy on seeing them, I remembered an 800 year old great gingko tree at Zuioji Temple in Japan, where I practiced under my teachers Tsugen Narasaki and Ikko Narasaki many years ago. Whenever I recall its abundant resplendent yellow leaves in autumn, a Zen phrase comes to mind: The body exposed to golden wind.

I told the students that “just sitting” (shikan-taza, intent sitting) is the direct and practical way to happiness. Anyone can witness this “come and see” way here and now without discrimination of race, religion, gender, generation, age, area, etc. It is good for oneself and others in the beginning, in…

The old adage, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”, has been validated this week by Rush Limbaugh’s denial of NFL team ownership. If Rush is receptive, a life lesson on karma may be attained.

On some level, good comes to those who do good. I think we are psychologically hardwired to honor and help others for good behavior. Karma is manifested daily in our interpersonal relationships.

We also recognize that bad things happen to good people. The story of Job is a lesson in this reality. Karma is expressed in one way, but not in all ways. Karma is a chapter of our existence but not the whole story.

Rush Limbaugh was denied the privilege of NFL team ownership last week.  What did he do that evoked negative karma?  Historically, Rush has been derisive and hurtful.  This blog makes no attempt to judge any specific comments by Limbaugh (not that…

We at the Missouri Zen Center are frequently invited to talk about Buddhism and Zen at schools and other institutions. This Civil Religion site provides a forum to engage in interfaith dialogue and discussion. While we enjoy and seek out opportunities to have these discussions, we also note the paradox of the situation. An essential characteristic of Zen Buddhism is the recognition that, ultimately, human language is incapable of expressing the truth. Language is like a finger pointing to the moon of truth. By practicing zazen, or meditation, we seek to witness truth by going beyond language and other human creations.

Language is just one of the many things that humans create. We dwell in things – cities, civilizations, castles in the air – and then we hold onto things such as money, matter, and mind. Ultimately, we are shut in and bound by these things, becoming separated (selfish, sinful) and disintegrated…

I visited Costa Rica to attend the Fourth Global Alliance Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace from September 17 through 23. It started with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and second term president Oscar Arias’ address and ended with that of the Vice Minister of the new Ministry of Justice and Peace.

This country became the third to have a Ministry of Peace after the Solomon Islands and Nepal. The atmosphere and content of the conference with 102 delegates from 21 countries were warm and wonderful. The conference was held in open green space at Quinta del Sol (Call of the Sun).

Costa Rica (Rich Coast) has 5% of the world’s biodiversity in its 0.1% of the planet’s land, and it relinquished capital punishment in 1877 and its military force in 1949. Six percent of its budget goes to education, and its literacy rate is 97.5%. Its ecology and tradition of…

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama stunned the world, including himself. At 5:00 a.m. on the day of the announcement, before going to the Missouri Zen Center as usual, I read the first email of congratulations to The Peace Alliance, an initiative to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. I wondered if this were another dream, like those we created recently in a brainstorming session at the Fourth Global Alliance Summit in Costa Rica.

It turned out to be real. The satellite TV news from Japan reported citizens’ voices from Hiroshima and other cities throughout the country: hope for humanity to make a world without nuclear weapons, etc. On the way back home from the Center, I listened to NPR conveying pros and cons and doubts from all over the world. The Global Alliance listserv posted joy and anger and calls for a realistic approach. Eventually, exuberance…

Sixteen Webster University students and staff, part of the Webster Works Worldwide team, arrived at the Missouri Zen Center early Wednesday morning to sit zazen (seated meditation), transplant trees and flowers in our garden, and make repairs to our building. After a few hours they and our staff enjoyed lunch with bon appétit under the warm sun surrounded by trees and flowers, with baby mice and a big snake they found rounding out our garden’s abundant biodiversity.

Before starting zazen, I talked about the global problématique (all ecological, economic, and ethical crises intertwined) and the sixth mass extinction – the first to be caused by humans – that threatens to destroy the whole global life system. Then, I talked about how we can avoid our catastrophic demise by sitting calm and clear, stopping our karma (cognate of ceremony, repeated action resulting in habit), and becoming truthful and peaceful, like a tree…