Meditation is the first step to transforming the world

umanity is at a crossroads. We have a choice about whether or not we continue to exist. We can no longer turn away or avoid how we have been living and survive. We must slow down enough to see where we are completely, fully, with vulnerable and unadulterated acceptance.

Once we have embraced the good, the bad, and the ugly—then comes the compassionate inquiry, “How would I like the world to be? What would be best for ALL?”

Then I must take the necessary step, which is to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I must do something. Even if it’s just 0.05%.

One of my favorite stories I’d read during my training at the Zen monastery was “The Starfish Story.” It tells the tale of a young person who was out walking along the beach and confronted by hundreds, if not thousands, of starfish washed up on the shore as far as the eye could see. Those starfish would die if they didn’t make it back into the water. So the story goes that the child was picking up these starfish and tossing them back into the water one by one. An adult walking past was curious and inquired, “There are so many starfish, child! You will never get them all back into the ocean. What difference could you make?!” The child lovingly picked up a starfish, threw it into the ocean and said, “I made a difference for that one!”

As I look out at the world ravaged by its challenges, I will need to ask myself the uncomfortable questions and stare down its inconvenient truths.

There are so many places to begin. It can feel overwhelming.

Meditation allows me to come to grips with the voices of ego within my own head first. The ones that scream, “I want what I want when I want it—even if it’s at the cost of others.”

I can slow down and see a bigger picture. I can understand how I experience frustration at what I cannot change. Perhaps there’s something important to me I cannot resolve because it’s out of my power. A relationship with a relative that I would like to be different but can’t shift. A cause I believe in, like animal rights, that I feel helpless in changing or convincing ‘the powers that be’ is important. Or the world’s climate crisis that seems desperate and spiraling out of control.

In stillness, I see my own frustrations and feelings of powerlessness. Meditation has shown me that this same feeling is universal. It invites me into compassion for myself, others and the world. It permits me to say, “I want what’s best for all—as though the world were my only child.”

And then it asks me to get off my cushion, go out into the world and contribute my 0.05% to making it the way I see is possible.

I can’t solve all the issues. But perhaps—with compassion for myself, others, and life—I can pick one, like a starfish from the beach, and make a difference for that one.
 

In lovingkindness,

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume One).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Two).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Three).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons by Alex Mill.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Meditation and Reinventing Yourself.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, The Zen Life: Spiritual Training for Modern Times.

 

  Alex Mill trained in a Zen Buddhist monastery for nearly 14 years. He now offers his extensive experience to transform people’s lives and businesses through timeless Zen principles.

He is the creator of three powerful 30-day programs, Heart-to-Heart: Compassionate Self-Mentoring, Help Yourself to Change, and Your Practice, as well as the online Zen meditation workshop, Taming Your Inner Noise (now offered as The FREE Zen Workshop).

Alex has also written seven books on Zen awareness practice. The latest are entitled A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons (Get it for FREE here) and the 3-book series Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness.

He is a full-time Zen Life Coach who offers guidance and life-changing support to his private clients worldwide. Book a call.