Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide, and pesticide-free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agriculture, commonly referred to as "natural farming" or "do-nothing farming".
Do-nothing farming... Interesting right? Masanobu was so in connection with the land that he knew the land when re-generated and left to itself knew how to be abundant and giving.
If you ever read his book you will see that he was way more than a farmer but a true medicine man too. His understanding of the connection between land, mind, and spirit, was profound.
It is one of the many very inspiring teachers I know. And it always brings me to the deep reflection of how depth of spiritual work can never be separated with a depth of connection to the land in a practical and real way. We need to not only live on healthy land/ground, but we need to be connected to the element of that wellness. Being an active part of it, in it, with it.
If Nature is only experienced "for my own benefits", often in a colonial extracting touristic way, I am not receiving its benefit, I am mainly taking for my own benefits and perpetuate cycles of harm and domination.
It is essential to honestly look at this relationship. How much of it is one way. How much of it is giving back. How much of it is restoring, replanting, repairing harm, and breaking cycles of domination via consumption and "use" of land (and people)?
Reconciliation is not only needed between two-legged friends but between us and the standing one, the land, the ecological systems. In truth, none of us are "separated".
How do I actively stop creating harm?
Looking at my way to travel, consume, eat, dress, etc.
How do I actively participate in restoration?
Looking at the time, energy and funds spent in act of restoration for the land and also the original caretakers of those lands.
How do I actively participate in reconciliation? Looking at the broken part of my relationship with the land (and its original caretakers), the taking vs. the giving, the use of land for my spiritual practice and life vs. the giving to land for the next 7 generations.
As we clear our minds from colonial ways often deeply embedded in the spiritual community, we clear our bodies (and the lands) from trauma.
As we repair, restore, regenerate, reconcile with lands and original caretakers, we clear our mind and the collective mind from the urge to take, the habits to consume, and the inevitable
damage our ways of life harm the land and
the people.
It is way more than farming, permaculture, or ecological awareness. It is true healing. Regenerative work. The depth of the spiritual work, in the depth of the roots of the issues.
Let's get to work.
