Now that mega natural disasters have been occurring on Earth, what are the things we can do? Yoko Oki & Michiyo Furuhashi share the spirit of Konohana Family, Japan behind their practical workshops on emergency preparation.
A seven-year-old girl, Himiko, who was born and has grown up in Konohana Family, Japan worked on the weather observation as her summer vacation homework. One day she said, observing a cloudy weather, “It is human minds that create clouds and the weather! However, people do not think like that. They think it just rains, it is just cloudy and it is just sunny! However, the truth is that human minds create not only wars but also heavy rain and storms. The plants and animals in nature feel hurt because people have not realized it yet. And the Earth is angry! If human minds become beautiful, more beautiful and sunny days will come on Earth!!”
Now that mega natural disasters have been occurring on Earth, what are the things we can do? One of the responses is to broaden our worldview and transcend the individual ego. Some might imagine fear because of the increase in natural disasters. However, looking at the history of the evolution of living beings on earth, six great extinctions have already occurred in the past 600 million years. And each extinction became an opportunity to destroy old beings and create new ones.
In the same way, we all have encountered various difficulties in our lives, but these can also become a chance to reflect on our old way of living and create a new life! Therefore, if you can broaden your worldview to see human existence on the global level, you will be able to understand the true meaning behind the phenomena.
However, most people are trapped in the narrow perspective of the ego and tend to maintain their current situation. Considering preparation for emergencies, it seems to be based on trying to maintain the current situation. That is why they just try to avoid an unexpected event that they consider fearful. However, the times keep changing. This world never stops and repeats changes, transformation and transfiguration. Therefore, we, humans live in a new world at every moment. In the sense, living for all lives is changing, growing up and evolving as the expression of the era.
Looking back on the human history, people have developed science, physics and technology since the Industrial Revolution, and achieved rapid economic growth while ignoring the impact on the global environment. That is because people have prioritized their own benefits and sought material wealth excessively. As a result, they have created the world of competition and conflicts, and various contractions have been brought on Earth. Now, human activities based on Western material civilization have reached their peak, and natural disasters are about to destroy such a world. The time has arrived when humans create a new world in the flow of the times.
Moreover, we have entered the 21st century and havefaced some great turning points. The sun orbits the Milky Way galaxy every 226,000,000 years and spirals about 9000 times in the interval. One spiral takes 25,800 years. We had the winter solstice of the galaxy in 25,800 years on December 21st, 2012, and shifted from times of darkness and conflict to times of light and harmony. Moreover, Pluto orbits the sun every 248 years. Pluto made a complete circuit in 2008 and the Western material civilization that has continued for 250 years from the time of the Industrial Revolution came to an end. And now, the times have begun when the Eastern spiritual civilization will blossom.
The fact that Earth’s magma has entered an active phase, responding to the solar movement, has been guiding humans to a more harmonious world. Now that humans have faced the environmentally severe era, they will not be able to insist on individual egos anymore and have to support each other to survive. Only when people transcend the individual ego and become harmonious, natural disasters will not occur on Earth, naturally.
If you consider yourself as only the physical being and continue to seek physical happiness and pleasure in the traditional manner, the coming difficulties will become only fear. However, living in the true meaning is weaving a part of the history and creating this world, going beyond just physical matters. Our reality is a spirit. Then, the physical body is formed to contain the spirit in it. If so, even after the physical body comes to an end, the spirit remains. And if the spirit comes back to this world again as a new life, living this moment leads to creating your future.
When we broaden our worldview in this manner, we will be able to see that our current way of living influences not only our future, but also all the living beings on Earth. If people have such a viewpoint, the human way of living will naturally change. And then a new era will naturally emerge. The time has arrived when each person should question him/herself how to live this moment.
Difficulties such as natural disasters give us a great chance to broaden our worldview and transcend the individual ego. That also brings you the true perception of life and death. Death definitely comes to you. Therefore, with the true perception of life and death, you will be able to live delightfully and leave your physical body graciously.
Based on the above worldview, Konohana Family gives a practical workshop on emergencies during the one-month-stay educational program. As specific examples in daily practice, we set every full moon day as a disaster preparation day, and practice a simulated training. The disaster preparation team which was formed spontaneously with members from each working team and house holds a meeting every other week, and plans the details of the monthly disaster preparation day. The purpose of this initiative is not for our own survival, but to make a contribution to wider society, since we have the solid base such as big safe indoor space and a good amount of food stock in case of emergencies.
The best thing we can offer among all is our harmonious mind not to bring natural disaster on Earth and create a peaceful world where everyone and everything can live happily. If all humans have such a beautiful mind, more beautiful and sunny days will naturally come on Earth!
