At noontime today, when the bell sounds for two minutes of mindful breathing, send energy of peace and love—to people suffering from war, hunger, discrimination, poverty, and so on.
Practice meditation of the five-year-old child—vulnerable and waiting for our compassion—in yourself, your father, and your mother. Then meditate on a grain of corn: planted, it becomes a young plant in twenty-one days, yet still is the seed in new form. This insight is the wisdom of non-discrimination and the Middle Way: no sameness, no otherness—“you are neither the same as…nor entirely different from” the five-year-old child, your parents, or the seed and plant of corn.
Interbeing with your body parts—five harmonious fingers; two hands that love and care for one another without pride or blame—teaches how to live at peace. If Muslims and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians knew this, war would cease.
In “The Son’s Flesh” sutra, refugees who kill and eat their boy suffer remorse each day—Buddha warns that unmindful eating destroys compassion. UNESCO says forty thousand children die daily of hunger. In the US:
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87 percent of agricultural land (45 percent of total landmass) raises animals for food
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2,500 gallons of water per pound of meat vs. 25 gallons per pound of wheat; meat diets use 4,000 gallons daily vs. 300 gallons for vegetarian
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Animal waste 130 times human excrement (97,000 lbs/sec), polluting waterways
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260 million acres of forest cleared for animal feed—one acre every eight seconds; 55 sq ft of rainforest per ¼-lb burger
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Animals eat over 80 percent of US corn and 95 percent of oats; cattle consume feed equal to caloric needs of 8.7 billion people
Reducing meat-eating and alcohol by fifty percent can change the world. The Five Mindfulness Trainings—1) protect life, 2) practice generosity, 3) protect against sexual abuse, 4) practice loving speech & deep listening, 5) practice mindful consumption—are concrete steps.
Manifesto 2000 (six points) was signed by over 75 million people (25 million in India) but forgotten without community practice. Global No-Car Day aims for 100,000 No-Car Days. On global warming, Buddha advises: “Breathing in, I know…my civilization is of the nature to die…Breathing out, I accept that.” Only with peace born of acceptance can we summon the collective will to heal the Earth.
