ASAKUSA Underground > Two old men, Fukuoka and Lao-tzu
Do you like Tao Te Chin?
It surprises Japanese tourists when they find many copies of the book on the oriental philosophy piled up in a bookstore in an occidental country. Japanese youngsters prefer books on Tarot to those of profound traditional thoughts.
Tao Te Chin was written by Lao-tzu, which means an old man. Some suspects that he was rather an imaginary character, whose name was given to the collective wisdom of Chinese people who had lived a few hundred years before Jesus Christ.
There is another remarkable old man, still full of life at the moment of writing, in Japan. He is not just as thoughtful as the old man in China, but also makes miracles. He is an ecologist who is well known for planting trees in deserts. He uses balls of mud mixed with seeds. Once the plants hatch, they help each other and, a couple of decades later, the desert will become green.
He is Masanobu Fukuoka; born in 1913; a winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award, an Asian Nobel prize. He is highly respected internationally and utterly ignored locally. It is a pity that this old ecologist is a perfect example of a French proverb “On n’est jamais prophete dans son pays. (You can’t be a prophet in your own village)”.
These men have some similarities besides their old age. One of them is their philosophy of “let be”. In his own paddy fields, Fukuoka doesn’t till. He doesn’t weed. He gives no fertilisers. He uses no pesticides.
Instead of summarizing their thoughts, the author of this article should follow their teaching and “let them speak”. Here are quotations from their writings.
Wind Heart
The centrifugal development of the human civilization has reached its limit.
Does it keep on expanding until it destroys itself?
Or, does it turn around and start shrinking centripetally.
Destruction or revival, man has to choose one.
The ground he is standing on is not solid anymore, and the skies are dark.
We have ruined our bodies, which has confused our medicine.
We have tortured our mind, which has bewildered our education.
We have destabilized our society, which has devastated our moral.
Is it all right?
We rack our brains in vain, and laugh at ourselves to tears.
We panic and just run around because we don’t know what to do.
Even then, we still believe our intellect, and hope that we can solve the problems by doing something.
Stupid animals don’t do anything stupid because they don’t know stupid
things.
Smart humans commit something stupid, knowing that it is stupid.
We dream about the future, knowing that the end is near.
Some deplore the polluted earth.
Some show off their intellect.
All of them love their fellow human beings.
We don’t know who protects nature and who gets us into trouble.
No botanists nor farmers created our sacred forests.
Who protects us?
Who judges us?
The oil polluted the sea of Seto and destroyed hamachi (yellowtail) farms.
The fishermen got angry, but wait!
First, they bought the new nets made from oil and motors that needs petrol.
They were happy because they got more catch, and over fished.
The following year, they had much less catch than usual, and needed to start fish farming.
The oil annihilated the raised fish.
The pollution caused a red tide.
The fish and the seaweeds were slain.
The sea was slain.
Some sushi chefs stood up, saying, “Give us back the delicious fish of Seto!”
Housewives organized demonstrations.
When they got to the factory, the manager turned on them and said, “Why don’t you complain to the farmers, who are polluting the rivers with their chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They are the cause of the red tide. Compared to them, the sewage from our factory is nothing”.
When they got to the farmers’ cooperative, they asked them, “Do you want us to have worse harvest of rice, the national staple?”
When they got to the town hall, the bureaucrats said, “We don’t know how we can finance the construction of a sewage treatment plant.”
When they asked a specialist of the red tide treatment, he answered, “It is very simple. The laser beam can annihilate planktons easily”.
It is a good idea!
Once all the planktons stop living and are piled up, tens of thousand years later, they will become oil.
Do you think human beings can survive until then?
Let’s fill up the sea of Seto with chemical slimes!
Raise planktons and make oil out of it!
Then we don’t need the Arabian oil.
We don’t have to worry about if the tanker will get stranded or the oil tanks will be damaged.
That’s a splendid idea!
But wait.
If we don’t want tankers, we won’t need steel and will have much lower consumption of electricity.
That’s a big problem against the construction of nuclear power plants.
The workers there won’t get paid.
Well…
Scientists pursue their dreams.
They do smart things like this.
Gosh, it is horrible.
Let’s think about the very beginning of all the problems.
We had had no problems before man started judging and arguing about whether nature is good or evil.
Nature is neither good nor evil.
Nature is neither the world of survival of the fittest nor that of mutual prosperity in coexistence.
Man thought it has to be either of them, which was the biggest mistake.
Though we had been happy doing nothing particularly, we thought that if we did something, we would be happier.
Though material things themselves do not have any value, we created the conditions where we were forced to rely on them, and fooled ourselves to think that they were valuable.
Man is disconnected of nature.
All the problems are the result of his so-called intellect running wild.
Now we must go back to nature, which has no intellect, no value, and no intention.
If we learn that nothing exists, everything will revive.
I grow rice by not tilling the ground, giving no fertilizers, using no pesticides, and weeding no weeds.
Its surprisingly rich harvest teaches us the green philosophy of non-doing.
I sow seeds and cover the land with straws.
That’s all to have the harvest.
That’s enough to change the world.
We can start the green human revolution with just a straw.
For anyone can do it right now.
From “One straw revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka, translated by Asakusa Underground.
絶聖棄智、民利百倍。絶仁棄義、民復孝慈。絶巧棄利、盗賊無有。
此三者、以為文不足、故令有所属。
見素抱樸、少私寡欲、絶学無憂。
Stop judging and throw away intellect, and we will gain 100 times more.
Don’t be charitable and stop being right, we will start loving each other again.
Stop being smart and forget about profit, we will have no more thieves.
Judgement and intellect, charity and righteousness, smartness and profit; these things are superficial.
We need something more fundamental.
Show your pure self and stick to your instinct.
Forget your little ego and don’t desire too much.
Don’t study, and you will be all right.
“Tao Te Chin”, book 1, chapter 19, by Lao-tzu, translated by Asakusa Underground.
[Related articles]
・Eat Alfalfa
Tips to travel healthily.
・Cheap Sushi near Asakusa
A organic-conscious Sushi restaurant.
・The best Minshuku
A minshuku hotel where they serve only organic vegetables.
[Reference]
Lao Tsu Tao Te Chin, translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Penguin Classic
[Reference in Japanese]
http://www.geocities.co.jp/noboish/case/yamai/fukuoka.html
http://www.j-world.com/usr/sakura/words/w060.html
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~topos/siso/fukuoka.html
Roshi, by Osamu Kanaya, 1997, Kodansha-gakujutsu-bunnko
Tao: A New Way of Thinking, by Chang Chung-yuan, 1977, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc; Roshi no shiso, translated by Hiromichi Ueno, 1987, Kodansha-gakujutsu-bunnko
[Recommended sites]
・Organic food and gardening
The site for everyone who wants to eat and live organically: why going organic is good for you and good for the environment
・Greenest Before Dawn
Thinking about Sustainability
・The Ancient Bristlecone Pine
About the world oldest tree.
・heart circle sangha
Do not judge.
The old Chinese wise man left this world long, long time ago.
The old Japanese wise man still lives in Oohira, Iyo city.
It is worth visiting this beautiful corner of Shikoku, which is famous for its delicious oranges, but visiting the old ecologist is not recommended because of his age.
If you really want to be a witness of his extraordinary agricultural revolution, no one can dissuade you from going there. Then, please use your discretion and try not to bother the old master too much.
His organization used to accept the donation of seeds to plant in African and Asian deserts, but not any more. For in most countries the authorities do not allow them to bring in their seeds.
Two old men, Fukuoka and Lao-tzu
Do you like Tao Te Chin?It surprises Japanese tourists when they find many copies of the book on the oriental philosophy piled up in a bookstore in an occidental country. Japanese youngsters prefer books on Tarot to those of profound traditional thoughts.
Tao Te Chin was written by Lao-tzu, which means an old man. Some suspects that he was rather an imaginary character, whose name was given to the collective wisdom of Chinese people who had lived a few hundred years before Jesus Christ.
There is another remarkable old man, still full of life at the moment of writing, in Japan. He is not just as thoughtful as the old man in China, but also makes miracles. He is an ecologist who is well known for planting trees in deserts. He uses balls of mud mixed with seeds. Once the plants hatch, they help each other and, a couple of decades later, the desert will become green.
He is Masanobu Fukuoka; born in 1913; a winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award, an Asian Nobel prize. He is highly respected internationally and utterly ignored locally. It is a pity that this old ecologist is a perfect example of a French proverb “On n’est jamais prophete dans son pays. (You can’t be a prophet in your own village)”.
These men have some similarities besides their old age. One of them is their philosophy of “let be”. In his own paddy fields, Fukuoka doesn’t till. He doesn’t weed. He gives no fertilisers. He uses no pesticides.
Instead of summarizing their thoughts, the author of this article should follow their teaching and “let them speak”. Here are quotations from their writings.
Wind Heart
The centrifugal development of the human civilization has reached its limit.
Does it keep on expanding until it destroys itself?
Or, does it turn around and start shrinking centripetally.
Destruction or revival, man has to choose one.
The ground he is standing on is not solid anymore, and the skies are dark.
We have ruined our bodies, which has confused our medicine.
We have tortured our mind, which has bewildered our education.
We have destabilized our society, which has devastated our moral.
Is it all right?
We rack our brains in vain, and laugh at ourselves to tears.
We panic and just run around because we don’t know what to do.
Even then, we still believe our intellect, and hope that we can solve the problems by doing something.
Stupid animals don’t do anything stupid because they don’t know stupid
things.Smart humans commit something stupid, knowing that it is stupid.
We dream about the future, knowing that the end is near.
Some deplore the polluted earth.
Some show off their intellect.
All of them love their fellow human beings.
We don’t know who protects nature and who gets us into trouble.
No botanists nor farmers created our sacred forests.
Who protects us?
Who judges us?
The oil polluted the sea of Seto and destroyed hamachi (yellowtail) farms.
The fishermen got angry, but wait!
First, they bought the new nets made from oil and motors that needs petrol.
They were happy because they got more catch, and over fished.
The following year, they had much less catch than usual, and needed to start fish farming.
The oil annihilated the raised fish.
The pollution caused a red tide.
The fish and the seaweeds were slain.
The sea was slain.
Some sushi chefs stood up, saying, “Give us back the delicious fish of Seto!”
Housewives organized demonstrations.
When they got to the factory, the manager turned on them and said, “Why don’t you complain to the farmers, who are polluting the rivers with their chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They are the cause of the red tide. Compared to them, the sewage from our factory is nothing”.
When they got to the farmers’ cooperative, they asked them, “Do you want us to have worse harvest of rice, the national staple?”
When they got to the town hall, the bureaucrats said, “We don’t know how we can finance the construction of a sewage treatment plant.”
When they asked a specialist of the red tide treatment, he answered, “It is very simple. The laser beam can annihilate planktons easily”.
It is a good idea!
Once all the planktons stop living and are piled up, tens of thousand years later, they will become oil.
Do you think human beings can survive until then?
Let’s fill up the sea of Seto with chemical slimes!
Raise planktons and make oil out of it!
Then we don’t need the Arabian oil.
We don’t have to worry about if the tanker will get stranded or the oil tanks will be damaged.
That’s a splendid idea!
But wait.
If we don’t want tankers, we won’t need steel and will have much lower consumption of electricity.
That’s a big problem against the construction of nuclear power plants.
The workers there won’t get paid.
Well…
Scientists pursue their dreams.They do smart things like this.
Gosh, it is horrible.
Let’s think about the very beginning of all the problems.
We had had no problems before man started judging and arguing about whether nature is good or evil.
Nature is neither good nor evil.
Nature is neither the world of survival of the fittest nor that of mutual prosperity in coexistence.
Man thought it has to be either of them, which was the biggest mistake.
Though we had been happy doing nothing particularly, we thought that if we did something, we would be happier.
Though material things themselves do not have any value, we created the conditions where we were forced to rely on them, and fooled ourselves to think that they were valuable.
Man is disconnected of nature.
All the problems are the result of his so-called intellect running wild.
Now we must go back to nature, which has no intellect, no value, and no intention.
If we learn that nothing exists, everything will revive.
I grow rice by not tilling the ground, giving no fertilizers, using no pesticides, and weeding no weeds.
Its surprisingly rich harvest teaches us the green philosophy of non-doing.
I sow seeds and cover the land with straws.
That’s all to have the harvest.
That’s enough to change the world.
We can start the green human revolution with just a straw.
For anyone can do it right now.
From “One straw revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka, translated by Asakusa Underground.
絶聖棄智、民利百倍。絶仁棄義、民復孝慈。絶巧棄利、盗賊無有。
此三者、以為文不足、故令有所属。
見素抱樸、少私寡欲、絶学無憂。
Stop judging and throw away intellect, and we will gain 100 times more.
Don’t be charitable and stop being right, we will start loving each other again.
Stop being smart and forget about profit, we will have no more thieves.
Judgement and intellect, charity and righteousness, smartness and profit; these things are superficial.
We need something more fundamental.
Show your pure self and stick to your instinct.
Forget your little ego and don’t desire too much.
Don’t study, and you will be all right.
“Tao Te Chin”, book 1, chapter 19, by Lao-tzu, translated by Asakusa Underground.
[Related articles]
・Eat Alfalfa
Tips to travel healthily.
・Cheap Sushi near Asakusa
A organic-conscious Sushi restaurant.
・The best Minshuku
A minshuku hotel where they serve only organic vegetables.
[Reference]
Lao Tsu Tao Te Chin, translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Penguin Classic
[Reference in Japanese]
http://www.geocities.co.jp/noboish/case/yamai/fukuoka.html
http://www.j-world.com/usr/sakura/words/w060.html
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~topos/siso/fukuoka.html
Roshi, by Osamu Kanaya, 1997, Kodansha-gakujutsu-bunnko
Tao: A New Way of Thinking, by Chang Chung-yuan, 1977, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc; Roshi no shiso, translated by Hiromichi Ueno, 1987, Kodansha-gakujutsu-bunnko
[Recommended sites]
・Organic food and gardening
The site for everyone who wants to eat and live organically: why going organic is good for you and good for the environment
・Greenest Before Dawn
Thinking about Sustainability
・The Ancient Bristlecone Pine
About the world oldest tree.
・heart circle sangha
Do not judge.
The old Chinese wise man left this world long, long time ago.
The old Japanese wise man still lives in Oohira, Iyo city.
It is worth visiting this beautiful corner of Shikoku, which is famous for its delicious oranges, but visiting the old ecologist is not recommended because of his age.
If you really want to be a witness of his extraordinary agricultural revolution, no one can dissuade you from going there. Then, please use your discretion and try not to bother the old master too much.
His organization used to accept the donation of seeds to plant in African and Asian deserts, but not any more. For in most countries the authorities do not allow them to bring in their seeds.