When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, emphasizing that harming the environment ultimately harms ourselves.
Masanobu Fukuoka's quote reflects the profound connection between humanity and the natural world. It suggests that as we harm nature, we not only endanger the ecosystems that sustain us but also diminish our own existence and spiritual essence, which many perceive as divine or sacred. The quote serves as a powerful reminder of our responsibility to protect the environment for the sake of our survival and that of future generations.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about environmental conservation to highlight the importance of protecting nature.
More from Masanobu Fukuoka
All quotes βThe ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.
Life on a small farm might seem primitive, but by living such a life we become able to discover the Great Path. I believe that one who deeply respects his neighborhood and everyday world in which he lives will be shown the greatest of all worlds.
The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.
Similar quotes
So many times I've photographed stories that show the degradation of the planet. I had one idea to go and photograph the factories that were polluting, and to see all the deposits of garbage. But, in the end, I thought the only way to give us an incentive, to bring hope, is to show the pictures of the pristine planet - to see the innocence.
Now this circumscribed power, which we have scarcely examined, scarcely studied, this power to whose actions we nearly always attribute an intention and a goal, this power, finally, that always does necessarily the same things in the same circumstances and nevertheless does so many and such admirable ones, is what we call 'nature' .
If people persist in trespassing upon the grizzlies' territory, we must accept the fact that the grizzlies, from time to time, will harvest a few trespassers.
Every day I walk out into the world / to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to.
I see a lot of damage to Mother Earth. I see water being taken from creeks where water belongs to animals, not to oil companies.