Fukushima: From Why to How
by Ida Lawrence
For many years I have held in my heart the question of
‘why’. Why do people do what they do… why is there such great suffering… why
are we unable to see ourselves… why do the words not match the deeds… why does
life not feel like life… why does love not feel like love.
Of course we all hold why questions, and sometimes we
encounter a person who seems to know a bit of an answer. It’s wonderful when
words or voices resonate within us, as the sound of truth… yes, I am here with
you, all is well, we are in the right place, we met on purpose.
Also some years ago, I took in the question of ‘what is’.
What is our lesson of this time, what is our task, what is available to us that
we cannot yet see? What is in the spiritual realms, what is our best method of
expanding and experiencing the pure information of the divine, and what is
Grace?
So, while those questions remain open to new input, I
recently added an additional one… ‘how’. If we can get into why, and get into
what is, then how do we manifest a change… a brave world born in wisdom and respect for life?
what is, then how do we manifest a change… a brave world born in wisdom and respect for life?
I’m guessing that quite a few of you may be familiar with
Professor Mitsuhei Murata, the former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland who is
an anti-nuclear activist. I recently came across a video of his on the subject
of Fukushima, and rather than thinking “This is too heavy, this darkness is too
great for me to handle right now; this is so grievous… so unsolvable…” I
decided to listen.
By the time I got halfway through the video I was taken with
this man’s mind… and his fighting spirit! Toward the end he called on President
Obama… and we know that’s a hopeless dream, but the rest of it was very
insightful. What impressed me most was his call for ‘Mobilizing Human Wisdom’.
It fit with my desire to know the answer to ‘how’.
Regarding Fukushima and the push for nuclear power in Japan,
he said, “This is immoral. It shows no sense of international or
intergenerational responsibility.”
Then he went on to say something that really strengthened my
heart: “Originally Japan had a maternal culture characterized by harmony and
solidarity. After the Miji Restoration characterized by competition and
confrontation, in May ‘34… history shows that paternal cultures end in
catastrophe. Fukushima is the result of the supremacy of economy; another form
of paternal culture introduced after WWII. The maternal culture of harmony is
the remedy for the paternal culture of power.”
Toward the end of the video, he pointed toward a cause:
“Today mankind faces a crisis of civilization. The true cause is lack of
ethics.” He envisioned a world without nuclear weapons and reactors… a world
with zero possibility of such a disaster, saying that the transition to a
maternal civilization is a
prerequisite for this vision.
prerequisite for this vision.
Okay… this is a man who seems in touch with his feminine
polarity, and still very much a masculine person… driven to act not for power
and greed, but for wisdom and harmony. Cool… but how to move it forward?
I decided to share the video with a young man in his
twenties. He listened intently, and took it in. Then I asked him, “As a man,
how would you go about establishing a maternal culture?” His answer… “You have
to control yourself… and be aware of how your actions affect everybody around
you. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. What’s the outcome, and what does
the outcome say to the future, and what does it say about you?”
Cool answer. It seems there are quite a few young people who
are well aware of the responsibility to be ethical. And they take it personally.
I’d guess we all know a few, or have influence with a few who have been paying
attention. They have a burning desire to tip the scale. I didn’t see any fear
in him of a maternal culture, i.e. “I don’t want women taking charge of me”, or
“If I take on maternal values I’ll be less of a man.”
We all have both… masculine and feminine polarities… so
what’s the fuss. In my view, balance is the answer: balance, and teaching and
protecting the youth. They are the ones who will experience the brunt of this
sick system, crowned by the Fukushima evil. They are inheriting hell on a
heavenly planet. How do we change the world other than by investing in them,
and giving them an example of how to be well in a sick world?
Professor Murata said that the true cause of the evil in
this ‘civilization’ is a lack of ethics, and if that is so, what has to be
gained back first, and taught to the youth? Ethics.
People who love behaving in an ethical way do so because it
feels good inside. It is the conditioning and the programming and the
deviousness of the system that torments a clean spirit and twists it into
compromise after compromise.
Are ethics natural to the human being? I don’t know. Could
be that some incarnated to destroy and others to save. But we do know that in a
sick world ethics have to be taught and learned… and practiced as a basis for
that which is to come, borne on the shoulders of the young.
As I write this, I’m hearing repeated explosions… and music!
It’s the Hindu Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Our home is not far away from a
beautiful temple. From what I’ve read, Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, is the
main deity honored at the festival.
Our children are the good fortune of the earth… they are the
lights. Help them become wise. Mobilizing human wisdom can be done organically,
first within self, and then out as far as one light can shine. It will meet
others… it will ignite and strengthen the children. In the absence of any other
‘how’, this appears to be our sacred duty.
Fukushima: even this evil the earth and all who love her can
overcome.
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