There are many important efforts necessary in the world today and many life-supporting, world-changing efforts to support. 8400 is one. The reason is not about Buddha or “Buddhism” but because understanding the Truth – the non-deceptive, underlying, incontrovertible Truth of life and death, of desire and its drive, of fear and protectionism, of love and its attachments, of generosity and its benevolent impartiality, of patience and its self-less-ness, and of wisdom – the wisdom that is inside us that understands Truth – these will change the world. Planting trees comes from seeing the interconnectedness of all things and the responsibility that you and I have to live from inter-being not self-being. Being courteous, respectful, kind, authentic, and not imposing in any way on any being all stem from one’s heart, living it, trusting it, and recognizing the same in all other living beings.

The effort to translate the words of the Buddha might sound like a work that supports Buddhism, but that is not so. A buddha’s birth into a planet only rarely occurs (four so far in the 4.5 billion years of Earth’s evolution). The teaching they bring is plain and simple like everything changes and is impermanent or that all that exists in the world is present due to causes and conditions including you and I, our circumstances and life experiences. If these two Truths were accepted like Socratic principles, human beings would not have created the human-made problems of the world – or would have done so knowingly so.

This short video is so beautiful. Two minutes of line-drawings that cut to the core of Compassion and Wisdom.