Zen-people are sometimes suspected that their strong focus on what they do “right know” makes them ignore the long-term effect of their actions. Always when I visit the Kyoto Kokusai Zendo, I see a poster hanging at the wall with words from the Temple’s head priest Hozumi Roshi:
The headline あすおもう (asu omou) can be translated as “let’s think of tomorrow”, with the five Japanese syllables a-su-o-mo-u standing for:
- ありがとう – I am grateful
- すみません – I apologise
- おかげさま – I am content with what I have
- もったいない – I won’t waste
- うれしいな – I am so glad
Acting in that way moment by moment, we can enjoy a happy life while acting responsible with the resources we just borrowed from our next generations.
I was shocked (but not surprised) to read yesterday that high levels of toxic strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant. The radioactive isotope strontium-90 has a half-life of 28.8 years (that means: after 28.8 years still 50% remain) and is mainly accumulated in the bones of the human body, where it can can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia. It is not mentioned as a health danger as frequently as the radioactive caesium-137, because luckily it is much less volatile after a nuclear accident. But Tepco recently planned to release huge amounts of that radioactive water into the sea …
What else do these experts plan?
Let us share forces to stop that! Let us conduct our life moment by moment considering あすおもう (asu omou)!