How Fragile We Are: The Japanese Crisis and Oneness

The title of a song by Sting (“How Fragile We Are”) kept running through my head today when I read about the continuing horrors in Japan. One minute Japan was a thriving country, and the next minute it was hit by a major earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear radiation—lives and homes lost, environment and economy destroyed, and a radiation cloud threatening much of the Pacific area.

So how do we live with the fear of spreading radiation, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.? It seems we need to embrace the fragility of human life– -with both detachment and an open heart that carries the pain of our brothers and sisters in Japan (as well as in the Middle East and New Zealand) in our own hearts. We live with an awareness that our planet itself is undergoing an initiation into greater light, a fiery transformation (literally). And we recognize our essential oneness as a human family sharing the same earth together.  There are  important lessons about how to survive a crisis that we can learn from the communal spirit and excellent organizing abilities of the Japanese people, which I discuss below.

If anyone doubts the fact of human oneness and that we are all interconnected in the web of life, you need look no further than Japan. Nuclear energy (a word which sounds like “new clear” energy)–makes it all very clear: radiation doesn’t stop at a nation’s borders, and carelessness about the safety design of a power plant in one country can affect many others. (I shudder to think that the same company that neglected safety concerns and caused a huge gas explosion, killing 8 people and destroying 38 homes, is also responsible for nuclear plants in the state where I live!)

As I wrote in our book Spiritual Politics 17 years ago (after the Chernobyl disaster), we need to examine the deeper symbolism, meaning and significance of world crises. I noted that nuclear energy is built on the fission of the atom—breaking it apart—whereas the new process of nuclear fusion brings the parts together and leaves no radioactive waste like nuclear fission. In splitting the atom, we have lost the sacred fire of unity itself at its most basic level which holds our world together. Is there a symbolic lesson in this for us?

The meaning of an event reveals where love is present or lacking. It seems that many Japanese people have risen to the occasion and expressed real love for each other. The courageous action of the workers at the most dangerous nuclear plant risking their lives to stop the radiation inspired people. Writing from Sendai after the earthquake, Anne Thomas noted that her neighbors were leaving supplies like water and food in each other’s doorways anonymously, sharing heaters and supplies, etc. She saw no looting or pushing in lines, and old men in green hats were going door to door to make sure everyone was OK. People kept saying, “This is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped each other.” The loss of electricity and lights revealed many more stars in the quiet skies, as people contemplated the cosmic significance of this disaster—the fiery transformation of our planet.

As one of the organizers of a meditation conference in Tokyo nine years ago, I’ve never met such a friendly, helpful, and group conscious people—they were so gracious to our group of international visitors. As Ryu Murakami recently wrote in The New York Times, the Japanese people are adept at forming cooperative systems in the face of great adversity. With all they’ve lost, they seem to have regained hope in their collective ability to help each other.  The Times also reported later how the residents of Hadenya,  like many isolated villages, self-organized and created a impromptu governing committee (lead by the head of the local nature center) to assign tasks such as searching for water and gasoline, chopping firewood, cooking food, etc. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24isolated.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=severed%20from%20the%20world&st=cse )

Maybe the Japanese, who survived the atomic bomb dropped by my country 60 years ago, can now teach us what it takes to heal a nation–and a world–which has forgotten how to truly love and care for each other, and how to cooperate to solve our immense crises.

–Corinne McLaughlin (www.thepracticalvisionary.org; www.visionarylead.org)

Advertisement