The Helpful Gardener
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Returning to the Source

It is in this chapter that Fukuoka-sensei lets us know he brings us not a new way but a very old one. This no-till system he proposes is a thosand years old, the way things were done before the Tokugawa Shogunate.

He goes on to show that it is not the method, but the attitudes of those around it that have changed.
Nature does not change, although the way of viewing nature invariably changes from age to age. No matter the age, natural farming exists forever as the wellspring of natural farming.
How have we, as the generations most removed from agricultural pursuits, been led to view nature? I put forth that we have been sold an adversarial position from birth to death, a position that has embraced chemical warfare and scorched earth policies to the detriment of all organisms involved, not excepting ourselves.

F-san sets the stage...

HG

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rainbowgardener
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Not new or old, just central and natural.

"No matter the age, natural farming exists forever as the wellspring of agriculture."

The still point around which all the activity whirls.

The touchstone we can always come to, by ceasing activity and effortful striving.

I am a Quaker. In my faith, we have a jokey kind of slogan, that hides a kernal of truth.

"I am a Quaker. In case of emergency, please be quiet."

So I think Fukuoka-san is talking about a kind of being quiet, listening to what nature tells us. It's not about re-capturing what people used to do how ever many hundreds of years ago. I'm sure not all of his method is the same as back then. It's not about applying the newest laboratory findings (though like you, I don't reject all that). It's about holding still, being quiet, and letting the land and the plants tell you what they need.

Perhaps the most touching part of this small chapter is the opening sentence:

"Leaning against the long handle of my scythe, I pause in my work in the orchard, and gaze out..."

Hold still, be quiet, look and listen ...

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rainbowgardener
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Incidentally, in Quakerism, we have many names for the Divine, since we understand that it can't really be captured in words. Among them are:

the Seed, the Light, the Source....

So returning to the Source has an extra layer of meaning for me:

That of God in everything, listening for what the Spirit tells you about how to treat Creation...

The Helpful Gardener
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That still point figures heavily in Zen as well; particularly in Soto Shu, where meditation is the most central tenet. We find the teaching mechanisms of Zen throughout this book, the wise fool, returning to basics to find your way. Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Shu, made a very famous sermon on the way the kitchen should be kept in the monastery. I think we are seeing the same sort of teaching from F-san.

It is funny how when you find real truths, they are universal, and found again and again no matter where you look. I find it a good way to recognize them...

HG

muland
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Fukuoka makes no claim that what he is saying is new. On the contrary...it is a timeless way. He is sure that others have had the same view and have had the same gift of seeing "the world as it is" at various times throughout human history. In one of his more reflective moments once he said that he lost the clarity of his original vision for many, many years and was kind of going through the motions. Finally he saw that using the word "nature" had become a block. It became a shorthand that hijacked him back to his mind. "People would be better off without using words at all," he said. He saw God and nature as one. It is manifest in all of creation. That is, the flower is God/nature. The dragonfly is literally God/nature. And so are we. 8)



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