Yemeni government forces say they have ‘secured’ Bab al-Mandab Strait as reflected on by Sensei Michael Jinpa
From the zendo porch at Clear Mind Sanctuary, I often watch the commercial tankers and small fishing skiffs. They navigate the narrow mouth of Harborview Point. Even in calm weather, the tidal rip through our channel demands total attention. If a helmsman tightens his grip in panic, or tries to force his will upon the surge, the vessel drifts toward the breakwater rocks. The ocean does not belong to the pilot. Furthermore, the channel never yields to insistence. It simply moves according to causes and conditions, far older than our charts. Therefore, true security remains elusive when we try to dominate the Bab al-Mandab Strait or any other waterway.
Reading reports from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, I recognize a familiar human impulse. Competing military forces trade claims over who has secured that slender neck of water. The strait, whose name translates to “Gate of Tears,” remains one of the world’s most vulnerable maritime choke points. Governments declare victory; insurgent media issues flat denials. Both sides speak of securing an element that cannot inherently be possessed. In Zen practice, we describe this grasping as the delusion of ownership. It is the belief that an impermanent arrangement of force can freeze reality into lasting security.
Beyond Grasping for Control in the Bab al-Mandab Strait
True security cannot be built upon the edge of a sword. Additionally, it cannot be sustained by claiming mastery over a waterway that belongs only to the earth. When human systems obsess over strategic choke points, whether for oil corridors, commercial shipping, or military dominance, fear becomes the fundamental motive. This terror stems from vulnerability, scarcity, and loss. Yet, the Buddha taught that craving security through territorial dominance inevitably produces its opposite. It creates heightened friction, perpetual vigilance, and suffering for those dwelling along the conflict’s periphery.
During my years as a hospice chaplain, I sat with many people. They spent lifetimes attempting to secure their lives against uncertainty. They fortified their finances. They defended their reputations. Furthermore, they guarded their borders against emotional risk. At the threshold of death, every single one discovered a profound truth. What brought peace was not the territory they had captured. Instead, it was their capacity to let go and abide in openness. The tragedy of armed conflict over geographical choke points is clear. It squanders precious human lives in pursuit of an illusion. This illusion dissolves the moment political winds shift.
Embracing Interdependence for True Security
The fishermen here in Harborview know this well. When two boats fight over the narrowest lane of the harbor, both risk capsizing. True navigation is collaborative. It acknowledges mutual vulnerability and the shared depth beneath every keel. When nations treat the earth’s natural arteries solely as leverage for geopolitical power, they forget an essential truth. Water is an element of flow, connection, and life. To turn a channel of transit into an instrument of siege violates the basic ethical reality of our interdependence.
Radical compassion asks us to look past the rhetoric of territorial advances. We must consider the coastal communities, the sailors, and the ordinary families. They live under the shadow of these strategic disputes. Their safety does not increase when one army replaces another on the overlooking bluffs. Real protection arises only when leaders recognize a crucial fact. No faction can be truly safe while its neighbor lives in ruin. Interdependence is not an abstract ideal. Ultimately, it is the physical architecture of our world.
This evening, the bell will ring for our twilight meditation. We will sit facing the tide as it washes past the rocks of our bay. We will hold in our awareness the people living along the shores of the Red Sea. We will breathe in their exhaustion. We will breathe out whatever quiet clarity we can muster. May we awaken from the dream of domination. May we release the clenched fist that mistakes possession for peace. Furthermore, may we learn to honor the open water that carries us all.
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