Harmonizing
with Nature |
By brother-initiate John Morton,
San Francisco, CA, USA (Originally in English)
Scientists and government officials around the world are now reporting that the Earth's environment is changing in many dramatic and unexpected ways. Global warming, climate change, acidification of the oceans and a growing scarcity of water are some of the problems being discussed in the news.
For example, the BBC News' World Edition recently posted a series of online articles about these phenomena. Regarding climate change, the News' Science/Nature section for August 12, 2004 ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ science/nature/3559426.stm ) states that last summer thousands of people died in a severe heat wave in France, and similar conditions are predicted for Europe and North America in coming years. In this article, a scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research asserts, "It's the extreme weather and climate events that will have some of the most severe impacts on human society as the climate changes."
Researchers believe that global warming - the heating up of the planet's atmosphere due to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air - is the cause of the current weather problems. Whenever carbon is burned in the form of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - carbon dioxide that was previously trapped in the earth enters the atmosphere. Once in the air, the gas acts like the glass windows of a greenhouse, trapping the sun's heat so that it cannot escape back into space. The primary source of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide is fuel burned for transportation and the making of electricity. Cutting down the world's forests adds to the problem, as the harvested trees can no longer take carbon dioxide from the air.
BBC's World Edition also discussed the rising acidity of the world's oceans ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/ nature/3571152.stm ), explaining how the seas absorb excess carbon dioxide like a sponge. The BBC report says that, according to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, each day the oceans take in some 20-25 million tons of carbon dioxide, which changes into carbonic acid when it enters the water. And because fish breathe water like humans breathe air, slight changes in oceanic acidity can have disastrous consequences for marine life. Corals, shellfish and even plankton, the tiny plants that provide the basic food source for fish, are strongly affected by this increasing acidity.
Meanwhile back on land, large-scale waste and pollution continue to reduce the world's fresh water supplies, and global warming is creating massive shifts in rainfall patterns, resulting in more flooding in some areas and reduced rainfall in others. Thus, generally speaking, fresh water is becoming scarce. And because agriculture accounts for 70% of our fresh water use, and grain-fed animals require far more water than do grain crops alone, meat eating may soon be possible only if people in poor countries are denied the resources to grow food.
According to the Stockholm International Water Institute, ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3559542.stm ) "It's going to be almost impossible to feed future generations the kind of diet we now have in Western Europe and North America." Thus, while Quan Yin practitioners are vegetarians, many people in the world still desire to eat animal flesh, and so meat's future scarcity will cause suffering in rich and poor countries alike.
Why do the problems and disasters mentioned above take place? Spiritual practitioners know that because the entire universe is a harmonious interaction of its spiritual, emotional and material elements, all physical events that affect us are the results of karma. In the case of global warming and the wasting of resources, we can see that our desires for personal physical comforts have led us to ignore the well-being of other humans, of animals, of the forests, of the air and of the water upon which all life depends. When we fail to listen to God internally, Hes acts through natural catastrophes in the external world to wake us up. Thus, through nature we must experience retribution when we become arrogant, greedy or careless.
For example, we enjoy driving cars, living in air-conditioned homes and working and playing in big cities supplied with food, water and electricity, tending not to notice the pollution we create through these activities. And we give only a passing thought to where our resources come from. The engineers and technocrats who design and manage our technology, and the corporate and government officers who control it are often preoccupied with personal or financial considerations, and fail to consider its impact on the earth. However, now that scientists are bringing the problems resulting from technological advancement to our attention, we must all modify our behavior to get more in harmony with God and nature.
Enlightenment is the answer to every problem; we know this from our individual experiences as Quan Yin practitioners. But we have to become enlightened as a species as well. Master Ching Hai says that to truly understand the workings of the universe, we must become one with God.
Therefore, from God's perspective, a natural holocaust that pushes humanity back to the Stone Age may be better for us than a man-made nuclear war or genetic accident that destroys all life on the planet. If we do not know how to use our technological toys wisely, out of love Hes will take them away.
To sum up, there are almost six billion human beings on the planet today. As a species, we are growing up, but we will have to improve both our habits and our thinking if we hope to manage the world properly in coming decades. As long as we act without listening to God, we will bear the karmic consequences. But if we can see God in nature and act accordingly, learning and growing in the Golden Age will be blissful.
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