I have been working on a song I started in college. My boyfriend-at-the-time, Jason, bought me a T-shirt at the mall. It was white and had a big blue Earth with the words 'Open Your Eyes.' Those are the opening words, the opening line of the chorus.
My understanding has changed a bit since the time I chanted with my friends and fellow activists at Texas A&M's Texas Environmental Action Coalition 'Save the Trees, save the forests, save ourselves, save ourselves...' as we marched up to the capital building in Austin to protect clearcutting of our state's forests. I have noticed the separation that is created and/or deepened when there is an 'Us' that is called to action, that loves the Earth, that 'knows' who the bad guys are and a 'Them' who we have to bip on the side of the head, so to speak, with our passionate chants and protests so they can wake the hell up and see things our way.
As a child who was bipped on the head on occasion, I can tell you that it did not make me more likely to hear what the 'bipper' had to say or make me want to join forces. And so, I've been editing the song a bit to include what I have learned, to reflect my current strategy for I still hear the call of the Earth. The one I first heard my freshman year, the year I realized life was about more than shopping malls and boyfriends or being popular. It was the year I realized I was here for a reason, the year I turned into the weird older sister. It was the year I suddenly started speaking in front of crowds because I had something I wanted to say, had to say. People I meet today have a hard time believing I was painfully shy in junior high, but I think most will understand how you can do things you couldn't do for yourself for those you love, and, in my case, for a planet I loved, one I realized I was a part of and that needed my help.
Today, I ran across a video of my teacher at San Francisco Zen Center, Eijun Linda Ruth Cutts. There are many reasons I was drawn to her in particular, of the many choices there. She embodies many traits I would like to cultivate in myself and she hears the same cries of the Earth.
It was she who gave my my Dharma name during the Boddhisattva Initiation Ceremony, the one where I vowed to devote my life to the Boddhisattva Way, to the Truth, to peace. My name is Chirin Eian: Earth Companion, Song of Peace. In our tradition, the first part of your name is what your teacher sees manifesting in your life in the present and the second part is what she or he sees manifesting as your practice matures.
When I first received the name, my youngest sister thought it very fitting for me - she's known me for awhile. However; aside from the fact that it is hard for people to pronounce, it felt too big to me - I felt like I wasn't doing enough to 'wear' the name. After all, it had been years since I had been in a protest or written a letter to Congress or even been to a beach cleanup. So I didn't use it. Until last summer. I was in retreat and instructed to expand my consciousness to include the natural surroundings (we were meditating outside). After 'being' a tree, birds, the wind and even a passing car, I heard a loud voice come from beneath me, from the Earth itself and it say boldly 'I AM CHIRIN.' And I said, 'Okay.' I didn't argue. It is now my joy to not judge myself as unworthy of the name, but to acknowledge the connection I feel and to discover how that will play out in my life. I notice I am writing songs and singing. Because it moves me. It is my heart's greatest joy. Tell me what you think about this song. I have not performed it yet. I'm still working on the lyrics.
Horizons
Copyright (c) 2009 Linda Daline Limbaugh
E
Open our eyes/minds/hearts/arms,
G
The Earth is asking us to open our eyes/minds/hearts/arms,
Am
She's begging us to open our eyes/minds/hearts/arms
D C D
(1) And see what there is to see/ See what’s happening to you and me(2) See other points of view/ Without respect for each other, we're through.
(3) No need to push people away/ We all really want the same thing.
(4) Embrace with humility/ Close the space that’s between you and me.
G
To you and me and the birds and the insects and fishes,
C D
the marine mammals and amphibians.
G
To the sky and the water, the earth and the forest
C D
How can we just let this all be?
G
For our sons and our daughters will be born tomorrow
C D
(Could we look at them straight in the eye?)
G
It all starts right here, right here in our own hearts.
C D
The Earth won’t be saved without peace.
CHORUS 2
And if we all got together, it’d be so much better. Can you see how good it all could be?
To live in a world so loving and giving
that asks of us only respect.
There’s no man on Earth who is not my brother,
No woman who is not my sis.
I’ll wait for you here with my heart and hands open.
The Earth won’t be saved without peace.
CHORUS 3
I don’t understand why we all can’t be happy.
Do all of our dreams have to die?
But it’s not essential to step on each other
To run to the front of the line.
Do you know what you’re buying with that product so cheap.
Let’s take our heads out of the sand.
But without blaming and shaming and pointing our fingers.
There’s no reason we have to be mean.
Nobody’s hands are all clean.
CHORUS 4
Repeat Verse 1
Repeat CHORUS 1
Adlib...The Earth can't be saved/won't be saved/can't be saved without peace. No matter how hard we try/If there's hatred buried deep inside/We'll keep robbing our brothers/Make bombs and not butter/But the Earth can be saved/will be saved/can be saved by peace/Let's join one another and make of butter/The Earth can be saved by peace...
