Can't Get No Satisfaction?

                                                                             Masanoba Fukuoka
                                                               Japanese farmer and philosopher
                                                                   Author: One-Straw Revolution

​Western Civilization has advanced? to the now common practice of living by the axiom of freedom is busy-for-money... even the homeless man has to be busy: collecting cans or otherwise scheming for beer-food-motel money... Whether homeless man, industrial giant, movie-maker, or member of Congress: dissatisfaction and only dissatisfaction keeps the wheels greased and spinning... It's all the same, only the scale differs...

As a direct consequence for our collective life-by-dissatifaction, our very Planet itself is giving every evidence of its own essential dissatisfaction: global warming is a tirade of judgment on the entire system of dissatisfaction... On the other hand, there have long been folks like Masanoba Fukuoka who have observed the rhythms of nature: get up at dawn, get something to eat, lolly-gag around, nap in the afternoon, eat again as the sun goes down, wrestle in the grass with a lover, and then simply sleep... The attainment of a certain quality of leisure gave rise to philosophy, the arts, meaning-making, and the construction of all of the underpinnings of civilization... Indeed, philosophy is the cultivation of satisfaction...

​How much is enough? is a relevant question for the individual person and society both. By now, it is no longer a question motivated by jealousy to ponder what it means if a person who spends a million dollars a day for his own consumption or pleasure, could still make a profit: as is the case for any number of folks in the billionaire-class... A solid gold toilet is still a toilet...

​The Unholy Trinity (Privilege, Profit, and Power), needs the concentrated push-back of the citizen-voter-activist standing to serve and save democracy from the schemings of the solid-gold-toilet-billionaire-brigade... controlling Congress, media, banks, agriculture, the courts, the police, and every civil institution, it might seem too much for the solitary citizen-voter-activist... which is true enough, for as far as it goes...

​But on the other side of true enough is where personal transformation and social change reside in creative freedom, resistance, and rEvolution... A nation of gardeners, consciously sequestering carbon in their small-scale urban farms, is perhaps the most consequential action we could take: scale down in life-style: embrace simple living: build intentional community: and cultivate satisfaction in one's daily life... this is the antidote to the cruelity of "freedom is busy-for-money"... Happiness is the cessation of the search for happiness: happiness is supposed to be the satisfaction that is generated by "enough"... 

​And what are the tell-tale signs of "enough":  isn't it time for thinking, time for relaxation, time for play, time for children, time for walking, time for holding hands, time for making love any time, time for volunteering, time for cooking incredible meals for a common table that includes family, friends, and welcoming strangers, time for civic actions and commitments, time for working the garden, time for planning a trip to Paris, time for a bike ride, time for climbing a mountain, time for teaching someone how to read... time is literally endless when we have recovered our natural sensibilities and have learned our philosophy of life: life is for living with grace, with gentleness, and with the peaceable kingdom in mind... 

​Heaven is inexhaustible in bringing forth wild bounty. (The I Ching, translated by David Hinton)

Quotes by Masanoba Fukuoka:  

​Could there be anything better than living simply and taking it easy?

I believe that if one fathoms deeply one's own neighborhood and the everyday world in which he lives, the greatest of worlds will be revealed.

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Ignorance, hatred, and greed are killing nature.

​Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature.