Helping Japan--With and Without Money

My sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed Haiku poems as we meditated on the Loss of Home...the Loss of One's World, both of which have occurred on a colossal scale in Japan. 

There are many funds to which one can contribute to help Japan. One of my favorite fund sources is Unicef.  This organization is the "Grandfather" of the rest, and its ability to rush to disaster areas and  put resources in place for children is nothing short of amazing. Any donation to Unicef will be very well-used indeed. Also, consider receiving their catalogue with their unique cards, calendars, and gifts. All purchases help fund Unicef's efforts, and the products are exceptional and aesthetically satisfying. (You can also shop online.)

We often forget, however, that not all help is financial or even physical. Dr. Emoto is a Japanese scientist who has done phenomenal studies with water and words.  Read about his work here.  For now, I will share just one example. Dr. Emoto asked a group of people to speak words of love and gratitude over containers of water. He asked a second group to speak words of hate over other containers of water.  Then he froze the water samples and photographed them with a dark field microscope.  The "loved" water revealed a crystalline structure that was beautiful. The "hated" water's crystal-structure, on the other hand, was deformed, discolored, and ugly.

This is what Dr. Emoto has asked citizens of the world to do now for his country: 

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To All People Around the World,

Please send your prayers of love and gratitude to water at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan! Human wisdom has not been able to do much to solve the problem, but we are only trying to cool down the anger of radioactive materials in the reactors by discharging water to them. Is there really nothing else to do?

I think there is. During over twenty years of  research of hado-measuring and water-crystal photographic technology, I have witnessed that water can turn positive when it receives pure vibrations of human prayer, no matter how far away it is.

I would like to ask all people around the world to please help us to find a way out the crisis of this planet! Please say the following phrase: “The water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer. Please forgive us. We thank you and we love you.”

Please say it aloud or in your mind. Repeat it three times as you put your hands together in a prayer position. Please offer your sincere prayer. Thank you very much from my heart.

With love and gratitude,
Masaru Emoto, Messenger of Water
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Dr. Emoto's message makes me realize that I have been thinking of the radioactive water as a "thing."  Water is actually more Being that Thing. The water is the symptom. The cause is human greed and carelessness (The plant should not have been built on a faultline and needed to be closed many years ago). I have had no sympathy at all for the water, which is losing its basic, natural identity. It, too, suffers.

This reminds me yet again to practice compassion--with others, with nature, with myself. Loss is much harder when we judge ourselves or others, when we look at life and loss as simple events, rather than long, organic processes.  As we continue to "get along with grief," may we turn more often to compassion and its inherent wisdom.

This closes our contributions for Japan. The next post will start a new chapter to help us all keep "getting along."