Drive all blames into one.

Delta - photo by Arthur Belala, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

          Farmers here have begun fertilizing their fields in preparation for the growing season. Plants in nature extract nutrients from the soil, and what gets used by them is returned when the plant dies. However with cultivated crops, what gets extracted isn't given back and requires the addition of fertilizers. Unfortunately what benefits the farmers has adversely impacted our coastal waters. The water runoff from the fields includes nitrates, which wash down the major rivers into the sea. Algae and other microorganisms feed on the nitrogen, bloom and die. Their decomposition creates a low-oxygen area known as a "dead zone," where no animal can survive. Four hundred of these hypoxic zones have been identified around the world, with one of the largest being in the Gulf of Mexico. Should we blame the farmers for these lifeless waters? Or perhaps the agricultural corporations and the consumers should be held accountable? One could even argue that the environmentalists who pushed for the production of biofuels are partly at fault. The twelfth lojong slogan suggests boiling all the blame down to one thing - the self-centeredness of the ego. When we search for a scapegoat, we instantly armor ourselves from the pain of what has gone wrong. Yet if we allow ourselves to feel those tender spots and drop the drama, we have a chance to focus on the real issue instead of getting caught up in who's to blame.

True spirituality is not a removal or escape from life. It is an opening, a seeing of the world with a deeper vision that is less self-centered, a vision that sees through dualistic views to the underlying interconnectedness of all life. ~ Jack Kornfield

For more information on the twelfth slogan, go here.