First we ascertain that our vision is "worthwhile." Then, whether we mean to create a one-acre food forest or manage a great nation's food system, we must focus on the task at hand and give it our all.
We can see, as we work through these principles, how each of them is a facet of a single principle. It becomes clear to us that right desire and right focus are practically the same. Right focus and right avocation, or livelihood, are also the same. The path is described as having eight parts so that we can absorb the lesson in manageable chunks.
Dogen uses the words "die sitting, die standing" to indicate the
urgency we should bring to taking our path seriously. That doesn't
mean don't have a sense of fun or play. It does mean not frittering
away our minds endlessly on secondary, illusive matters -- a major trap
for us in these times.
Benefit others, which simultaneously gives abundant benefit to the self.
-- Dogen, Tenzo Kyokun, tr. Leighton and Okumura