Grass Hut - 2 - Living Lightly On The Land

[Christopher]

We might imagine, before we buy anything new, that the fat guy who owns the government is watching and smiling at what you are doing for him.

Just avoiding one purchase each trip will at least make you feel better.

Gassho

Christopher, who was born with the three R's, 75 years ago, and still stubbornly refuses to buy new if used still works.
And who sat today.

[Mp]

Here's to Master Shitou and his beautiful hut.

Wonderful Kyonin! =)

Gassho
Shingen

SatToday

[Jika]

Kyonin,
thank you.
We meet in a point too complex for me to explain: when I had nothing, I found sitting.

Deep bows,
Danny
#sattoday

[Josan]

Thank you Kyonin for your teaching,
Gassho,
David

sattoday

[Kyotai]

Thank you Kyonin and Jundo for the video

Gassho, Kyotai
sat today

[RichardH]

Hi. I have been reading and re-reading the poem, and will read many more times. The first thing that comes up is surprise that it is being unpacked for me in environmental terms. It is a very different kind of poem seen in that light.

This is not to say environmental terms aren't important. Only that the poem struck me differently.

Thank you for the video , Jundo. The content can spur a very interesting discussion. Generally I do not feel that the future will be as bad as we fear, or as good as we hope, but sometimes it will be both. Humanity will muddle along. Things will be very different for my grandchildren.


Gassho
Daizan
Sat today

[Heisoku]

Hi all. it's funny how one can live lightly solo. At 30 years old I still owned only a backpack a few sets of clothes and a steam iron?! Then I got married and by the age of 37 found myself with a house, a small family, a car, a job and a mortgage. I also found myself buying my first power drill! Living lightly changes with a family! Stuff accumulates. I have looked into sustainable off grid living and the cost of setting up a small house with a small packet of land is really astronomical. Student debts and mortgages just add weight. Living lightly can still happen but I suggest its not as simple in today's world. BUT after reading Naomi Klein's 'This Changes Everything', it is now more an imperative than an option! There is now a necessity to be creative in finding ways that ordinary folk can achieve this.
Gassho
Heisoku
Sat today.

[Daiyo]

Hi all. it's funny how one can live lightly solo. At 30 years old I still owned only a backpack a few sets of clothes and a steam iron?! Then I got married and by the age of 37 found myself with a house, a small family, a car, a job and a mortgage. I also found myself buying my first power drill! Living lightly changes with a family! Stuff accumulates.

You've hit the target Heisoku.

I can remember when I was 19 or 20, I only owned a pile of rock/metal CDs and Magazines, some rock/metal t-shirts, two pair of jeans and two of sneakers.
My main concern was which was the next concert I was going to. I didn't want anything else.
I miss those times.

Gassho, Daiyo.

#SatToday

[Theophan]

I lived a very cluttered life over the years. My fondness of books got the best of me when I ended up with 12 large bookcases full of books. When I retired from the Army and moved to Oregon I ended up shipping 92 boxes of books. When having to find a place to live which could accommodate all the large bookcases I began to open to see that I really needed to get rid of some of my books and bookcases. I had to simplify my life. My books became chains holding me down. I realized my priorities were upside down. I trimmed my books, etc., but then I found myself chained to my computer and other possessions so much that I hated to leave my house. I was always worrying someone would break into my house and steal my stuff. My daughter who is a minimalist would talk with me about living a simpler lifestyle. She showed me a way to de-clutter, and have a life that is without all the worry, and distraction. I knew I would be so much happier once I got my priorities straight, and focus on what I actually need Instead of all the things I want. While I still got a way to go I am making the changes needed to make and lead a simpler happier life.


Gassho
Theophan
Sat Today

[Byokan]

Hi All,

wow, what an interesting conversation! I think a lot about the true cost of things. When someone tells me they went to W***mart and got something dirt cheap, I ask, ‘why do you think it was so inexpensive?’ Nine times out of ten, they say, ‘I don’t want to know.’ Many people feel they have to shop there, that they can’t afford not to. I wish everyone could watch that video that Jundo posted. (Ok, it’s not exactly impartial, in fact it’s a little propaganda-ish in tone, but I agree 100% with the points that it makes.) When I’m considering buying something, I think about the cost in producing it; the cost to the environment, the social and economic cost. I think about how many hours I have to work to buy it, and how many hours I’ll spend maintaining, upgrading, and caring for it. I think about how it will be disposed of at the end. There are other costs too. I can download a videogame app for 99 cents. But I know I’ll get all obsessed with it and lose hours and hours playing it. Ok, it’s kind of fun. But it’s not really a good quality kind of fun, not like playing with my dogs, or hanging out with a friend. I save a lot more than 99 cents by not downloading it. For someone else, though, that game might be a way of connecting and spending time with their kid.

My bottom line is, I just don’t want my life to be about my stuff. I don’t want to struggle and stress and obsess and worry over my stuff. I don’t want my work hours -- which are the majority of my waking hours, because I have 2 jobs -- to be in service of getting more and better stuff; I want them to be in service of taking care of my needs and putting what’s important to me into action in the world. I’m happy with enough. I’m happy to recycle, to reuse things, to use things up before I get new things, to be thrifty, to live lightly, to pass things on to others who can use or enjoy them more. Sometimes I’m happy to go without, and I don’t miss what I never had. People laugh at my simple little flip phone. It serves my needs. To me it’s about freedom, and respect for the true cost of things. As time goes on, as I consider these things, I find that I actually want less and less.


I don’t think stuff is bad. I do think we need to think more about our stuff. Is my stuff just what it is, or is it a replacement for love, security, status, youth, etc.? What is the true cost of my stuff? I’m a minimalist, but that doesn’t mean I just get rid of things because less is better. I’ve learned to get rid of the stuff that holds little value for me, stuff that has a true cost that is more than it’s worth. And I’m finding that the things I value most, I don’t own anyway. Who wouldn't trade most of their stuff for time, for health, for love? I wish everyone's hut contained those things.


Ben Connolly writes:
“...abundance is here when we keep it simple, and scarcity is here when we want more.”


For me, that’s true. I always remember what Ma used to say, in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder: “Enough is as good as a feast.” I think everyone has to define what “enough” means for them, and what “simple” means. It’s about awareness and conscious choices.

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Jika]

But it’s not really a good quality kind of fun

Hi Lisa,
great food for thoughts!
I had that kind of discussion with family weeks ago, how I like to be alone on weekends, sometimes meeting a good friend, and mostly reading, walking, chatting to neighbours, sitting. And they said "you should really have good life quality, going out, restaurants, cinema".
We agreed that we were of different opinion what was "good" or best for me at that time.

Why is playing a videogame app and really enjoying it worse than doing something else?
I sometimes watch the birds in the winter trees, just to watch. I don't even know their names.

Of course, it's bad when you get asked about the weekend and you say "Well, first I sat on a cushion, then I played a videogame and then I watched some birds."
You'll get glances.

But I think the media also promote what is acceptable in our spare time - dining with lots of people, doing the right kinds of sports...

So maybe the same rule you apply to possession should apply to activities too?
Too much for one person can be too little for the other.

I have had a hard struggle not to go into the "Empathica Embrace medical watch" trap (no advertisement here, just as explanaition).
They sell very, very expensive, cool looking "smart watches" that can detect stress, something, and epileptic seizures.
They send a bluetooth signal to a highest class phone (which I don't have) to call a phone list you have defined.
Your friends, a child's parents, the ambulance...
Might be useful if a teenager wants to go to the movies with friends (not on mummies hand).
In fact, I have been thinking about it to wean/reassure my own parents who in their worry can be quite extreme.

But I'm wondering, are they promoting the watch, or are they selling the newest generation of cell phones in a cloaked way?
And usually, if something bad happens, sooner or later the family hears.
Maybe I'm too trusting, I know a really nice boy who simply disappeared backpacking in down under, his family never heard of him again, it's been almost a year now.

Was there someone who came to Shitou regularly to see if he had enough food, if he was too ill to look after himself, if he had maybe died?

We have insurances, devices, all to make sure nothing can happen to us.
While it can, and in some way does, every moment.

Gassho
Danny
#sattoday

[Risho]

I love this conversation! Kyonin, Daizan, Lisa, Danny, Jundo and all who have posted.. It all has resonated. I'm on an iPhone in a dentists office so I might have unintentionally forgot some leafers but all of the posts have touched me.

Lisa I couldn't agree more. There is a cost to Walmart. It's a cost to humanity and a trade imbalance. Both the US and China and whoever else buys these goods are as complicit in legalized slavery essentially. And it's everything made in China, not just Walmart. China should not have been allowed in the WTO but greed rules at times.

What is too much?

Is novacaine too much? Is it a luxury? Shitou didn't have it but, then again, he probably didn't go to the Dentist

But I don't to get off topic. Minimalism is interesting to me. I read a lot of minimalist blogs, and I implement some of its tenets. But I think it's dangerous to judge things and paint things with too broad a brush. Doing that is the antithesis of living lightly.

It causes separation, to elevate one group over another.

Let's say you see two people: 1 in a nice suit and Mercedes, the other in a short and tshirt driving a Honda civic. We immediately judge. Maybe we think the guy in the suit is more successful, smarter and happier. That says more about us than them; its a reflection of our patterns and mental habits. It could just as likely be the other way around. I would tend to agree, spending more than 30 grand on a car is lunacy to me but, then again, that's my opinion.

Let's continue. Let's say the Mercedes cost the person 10% of their salary, whereas the civic cost the other person 75%. Superficially, the civic owner may appear more frugal and may be more likely to star in one of those violin laden "documentaries". In reality they are over extended and have over consumed. Greed isn't obvious.

I grew up in a lower middle class situation. 1 bedroom apartment, no AC, no cable tv. I had friends, I had fun, I was a kid. It didn't bother me. I think kids are "people of no rank" by default.

In any case just becausem my parents were poor (or poorer than others) -- poor is relative of course; we had food, shelter, running water, a car etc-- but just because my parents didn't have a lot did not make them happier or more enlightened.

That's just another value judgment. It's another ego trip that sort of fools one into a poor mans superiority complex. I think it's the cult of minimalism.

With "less" stuff you could be happier. It's really up to the individual. I do emphatically agree that stuff does not make you happy... At least in the long term. However I do find exception to the constant badgering of minimalism "I left my 6 figure job. Bla bla bla". That's great, but a specific use case cannot be extended over a large sample group.

If you hate your job no amount of money or title is going to change that. But what if you actually enjoy your job and it happens to pay well?

I enjoy my job. I'm fortunate that I can support my family.

But there's a catch to truly enjoying anything. You can't want it too much. You have to be able to let go of it. It's like a marriage; being too possessive is harmful. Love is freeing not grasping.

So my point is that we can't judge things or people by how much they make or have. It's bullshit to do so.

My other point is that this is deeper to me than just living lightlyb( similar to Daizans point). It is important to be a good steward to the Earth but it's bigger than that.

We need to relax and take a nap. Live lightly with each other. Not be so judgmental to justify our "superiority". Not be so attached to our own story that we can't be there for others. Not be so attached that we can relax. But also not be so eager to help that we do more harm than good.

Look at Vimalakirti. He was a fat cat, wealthy for his time. And even so he is still considered a badass in Buddhism. So to simply say you are going to give up your shit and that will lead to paradise is just another form of greed; you are still grasping at a fantasy. Don't feel guilty if you like things; enjoy them if you are fortunate to have them.

Relax. Take a nap. Enjoy it while you have it. It will pass. It's the way it is.

You have people you love and who love you. Loss sucks. That's the human situation. Relax into that. Don't grasp, don't push. Like Kyonin said, he found peace with the loss. That's incredibly difficult with a resistant, grasping mind.

If we grasp, we never have enough. Its human to desire, but grasping is more than that. It's compounded desire hoping for a result that could never happen, which causes suffering.

Relax, take a nap.

One more thing. To be consumed with having is one extreme, one side of greed. But so is to be consumed with not having. To be proud of not having many things is just the same old greed in new clothing; the same ego trip, just inverted.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[ForestDweller]

I’ve been away for a while. I have been sitting. Returning, I read the long string of conversations about “Living Lightly on the Land.” Who am I to say, but it all sounds very nervous and in some cases full of rationale. Doesn’t “living lightly” come down to “avoid[ing] leaving big scars on the earth” and “avoid[ing] laying waste to lots of life.” In short, being mindful and “intimate with what you consume.” The world did just fine before humanity entered the picture, and it will do just fine when we are gone. We are the ones thrashing in between, tugging between being true to our higher values and hanging on to what we’ve become attached to.
As I read through the posts, I tried to pick up on the threads and patterns that danced among them. The most significant commonality was the number of times being in nature was mentioned in various ways. Why do so many find being in nature so restorative whether it be Willow’s garden of “refuge and beauty,” or KellyRok’s “sleeping under the stars,” or Anshu/Bryson’s need for “space – sky, ocean, forest.” I venture to say that it’s because this is our real home, with or without a grass hut or a mansion. This is where we come from, where we’re born and where we will each lay down our heads and die. There’s nothing artificial that matches nature’s immensity, its ability to heal, and its capacity to show us the “way.” That’s why re-using, donating, and relying on renewable resources feels right; we are taking care of our home, the place where we all belong.
So, why are our priorities confused, Jundo asks. Simply put, it’s because we aren’t at home enough, and because we have mass media ever-ready to distract us (Matt’s point). When we wander around playing with our toys, possessions, our real and imagined needs, we get distracted and forget about our home. Mass media, including social networking in some forms, also obscures our right view with its constant taste for violence and perversion, its comparisons with others, and its advertisements ramming material goods down our souls. The only way to change our minds is to come home (to nature) more often and to refuse to look or listen to very much mass media. The later doesn’t mean turning our backs on the world; it involves discernment in our choice of magazines and newspapers, and a whole lot less television and texting. From what I’m seeing and sensing in our group, this could be the path to reconciliation with our planet, and reunification with our home. But who am I to say? Remember that I live in a remote, northern forest, where I am at home every day.
Gassho, Catherine/ForestDweller
Sat in the Forest Today

[Byokan]

Hi again,

Risho, I agree with you. The stereotype that poor people are noble and happy and rich people are greedy and unhappy is a gross oversimplification. And to be clear, as others posted earlier in the thread... I may have whittled my possessions down to very little by American standards, but there’s no reason to feel smugly self-satisfied about it... I had the choice to do so, and I know I still have much more than most people on earth. If you have clean water to drink, you have more than a lot of people. And I also know that the benefits I enjoy as a modern American are available because of the wanton exploitation of people and resources, past and present. The thing is, that in the past people may have actually believed in things like “manifest destiny”, or not known about the costs of exploitation; physical costs, social costs, spiritual costs. But now we do know about these things. Catherine writes:

Doesn’t “living lightly” come down to “avoid[ing] leaving big scars on the earth” and “avoid[ing] laying waste to lots of life.” In short, being mindful and “intimate with what you consume.”

I say yes! I think once we are cognizant of these things, we have a duty to act. Not only a duty, but I think once the cost is truly understood and felt, people naturally want to start to pull back from their complicity in the exploitation. Am I wrong about that? Does anyone who really understands keep raping and pillaging? I think the notion of stewardship is not some hippie-dippy feel-good notion. I think it’s what arises in our hearts and minds naturally when we understand what’s really happening. It’s compassion, for other people, for ourselves, and for the earth.

...this is our real home, with or without a grass hut or a mansion. This is where we come from, where we’re born and where we will each lay down our heads and die. There’s nothing artificial that matches nature’s immensity, its ability to heal, and its capacity to show us the “way.” That’s why re-using, donating, and relying on renewable resources feels right; we are taking care of our home, the place where we all belong.

I really feel this is true, Catherine. Our home is part of us, and we are of it. There is no separation. It’s the notions of separation that enable us to exploit people and the earth. It always comes back to that, doesn’t it, separation is the delusion that causes and enables so much of the trouble in the world.


My prescription for change is always the same. Start where you are. Take baby steps in the right direction. When you get a firm footing, reach back and help the next guy coming up behind you. Helping the next guy means talking about this stuff with friends and family, even if that makes you the weirdo. You don’t have to give away all you own and dedicate your whole life to activism, we can’t all do that. The other way is more insidious. Think deeply and find your own conclusion. Teach your kids. Help a friend or family member to understand. All we can do is our best on any given day.

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Jishin]

Hi,

Before we can sit together and talk about this subject, lets gather a few necessary items. We need the Internet and a few computers. Chatting around the fire wont do because we are too far away from each other. We could chop down a tree, two or three (or a forest) for snail mail paper, but that would be too slow.

We probably need to make sure the Internet service does not go down so we can have a proper discussion. We need some security so that our computers and worldwide Internet does not go kaput too often. I am not sure what it takes to keep hackers from bringing down computers and the Internet but I am sure it’s not cheap.

We probably need some cyber security and also cops to keep thugs from stealing our computers. But if the thug is really big, the military has to step in the keep the cops safe. The big guns aren’t cheap.

Ok. Let me boot up my computer and we are ready to rock and roll! Lets talk about the ecological footprint of…..?

Just saying…

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_