Ten Thousand Things
Multicultural Webfinds

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Anja Light's SLOHAS tour through Japan through June 7 – Towards a Life-Sustaining World

Singer, writer, mother, environmentalist, Slow Life advocate, and friend of KJ Anja Light was recently in Kyoto, during her SLOHAS tour through Japan.

Light's thoughts on the tour and a response by Ryuichi Nakamura, co-founder of the Sloth Club, are thought-provoking and uplifting.

Nakamura's idea that we must bring our own reassurance to the natural despair we feel when witnessing destructive processes in our world is reminiscent of Joanna Macy's "All Beings" views on our "Great Turning" from an industrial growth to a life-sustaining civilization.

Anja Light and Ryuichi Nakamura remind us that a life-sustaining and life-valuing world is possible, and the first step is realizing how we are part of an untenable set of global economic structures and to consciously shift towards more affirmative and sustainable choices:

"We are witnessing an incredible time in the Earth history - the breakdown of the world’s ancient ecological systems, the destruction of forests and the changing climate, the melting down of major economic systems, the increasing chasm between rich and poor in both money rich and money poor countries. We are partly trapped and partly willing participants in this economic system that causes so much destruction and suffering - but as it becomes more obvious we have reached a turning point we may have best opportunity to pause, breathe and choose a different path.

"But what should we do? Where do we find the courage and strength to keep our eyes open and our hope alive? How can we survive? Do we really want to survive? What does it mean to be 'Alive'? Can our children grow up in mainstream society and not be caught by the ‘consumer fever’. What is the best way with clarity and honesty? How can we tap into the abundant energy that sustains life on this beautiful planet – being like a tree that reaches straight to the sky but moves with the wind?

"These are some of the questions I ask myself in this slow forest life and I would love to share this discussion with you.

Ryuichi Nakamura's Response:

"Written in Japanese, “LOHA” of LOHAS is similar to a Chinese character meaning free in sense of price. This coincidence reminds me Buy Nothing Day; don’t newly buy, use what you own already in free like you do.

"You need less money so that you don’t have to do unwanted works and will be integrated into what you want to do. Easier to be involved into self-sufficient way of life or agri-X style (Han-Noh, Han-X or semi agricultural and semi X life style; half of their income is gained by agriculture and another is by something else such as writing).

"You may know Akira Gotoh who used to be a member of Sloth Club board. Now he spends simple and fulfilled time in a rural village with income as same as 20-30% of average Japanese people’s.
http://www.yukkurimura.com/blog/

“'SLOHAS' reminded me Keibo’s “DOLOHAS.” A lotus flower finishes its life to be nutrition for following flowers in mud (in Japanese “doro”). Lotus is found in Ende’s 'Momo' too [as "time-lily"].

"Children may say to attendants, in there parents’ funeral, “thank you for all what you had done for my father in his sei-zen.” They express his living time as“sei-zen,” literally meaning pre-birth. That means one’s death is a birth really.

"Slow Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability
—>
Slow Lifestyles of Happiness and Sustainability

"Let me think “SLOHAS” stands for Slow Lifestyle of HAPPINESS and Sustainability.

"I suggest “happiness” for “H,” because important is being happy even in there illness.

“'Reassured despair'? a saying of the House of Bethel, a community of mentally ill people. They smile while they are ill. Sloth Club can learn more from Bethel’s people.

"Looking forward to see you in Japan, Anja."

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