In Place 4

An impromptu kitchen appears

rice with powdered vegetable leaves

sips tea while watching

rain slant into cottonwoods

The old woman cut down and firewooded five cottonwood trees here in 2009 because hawks were using them to rest in while counting chickens. Some thirty young trees sprouted from the stumps and roots, and are now the "woodland" associated with the hut. Their trembling leaves are wonderful teachers. The steamer handles rice, barley, oats, potatoes and leafy vegetables with ease, providing a measure of day-to-day independence from the homestead, which is a couple of hundred feet away.

     Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.

     -- Shitou (tr. Leighton and Tanahashi)

In Place 3

Thoughts pursued, thoughts of 

thoughts pursued, writer's cramp 

alternating with writer's block

one old mouse chases her tail





While writing these books the retired woman began to see the limits of her own vision and to consider how she might, if not actually "escape the circle of discourse," at least resolve some doubts.

All your opinions are still not put to rest. Your mind is still hindered by attachments. Thus, you are as one sitting outside the gate. 

-- Keizan, "Instructions on How to Do Pure Meditation" (tr. Nearman)

 

In Place 2

Retired from public life, she moves in, old

eight books she's written here 

not bad books, yet she must admit

she has failed to save the world





"Failing to save the world" in this instance means having attempted, without much impact, to promote to society at large an agrarian subsistence lifestyle as a response to resource depletion and climate change. Those who speak for corporations proved to have the louder voice, and like many others the old woman has been worn down considerably. She is trying a new approach.

To glorify the Way what should people turn to?
To words and deeds that agree
But oceans of greed never fill up
and sprouts of delusion keep growing

—Shiwu (Stonehouse) (after Red Pine, tr.)

In Place 1

Decades ago, a playhouse for her children

but too much window glass for their play

by the fence it stands now, forlorn, lost;

neighbors' horses seem amused






This image was probably taken about 2010, when the playhouse had been mostly unused for almost two decades. The shade tree, a Douglas fir, is already looking a little stressed, perhaps partly because the playhouse was built so near it when it was a small sapling.

     I move my table to read sutras by moonlight
     I pick wildflowers to fill my altar vase

     -- Shiwu (Stonehouse, tr. Red Pine)

The 500 robes

To conclude this meditation on the Eightfold Way and the Permaculture Principles, here is a story after the Guṇa Jātaka, based on the translation by Piya Tan:

[The elder Ānanda instructed the rajah's queens. They gave him five hundred robes.] They all set aside their robes, and the next day gave them to the elder Ānanda, while they themselves wore the old robes, and went to where the rajah was having his breakfast.

The rajah asked: “I’ve given you robes worth a thousand each. Why are you not wearing them?”

“Your majesty, we have given them to the elder Ānanda.”

“All taken by the elder Ānanda...?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“The fully self-awakened Buddha only allows the three robes. Has the elder Ānanda
become a cloth merchant, to have taken so many robes?”

Angry with the elder Ānanda, the rajah, after breakfast, went to the monastic residence and entered the elder’s cloister. After saluting the elder, he sat down, and asked: “Bhante, do the women in our house learn or listen the Dharma in your presence?”

“Yes, maharajah, they learn whatever they ought to, they hear whatever they ought to.”

“What, do they only listen to you, or do they give you upper robes and undergarments, to you, too?”

“Today, maharajah, they gave five hundred robes worth a thousand each.”

“You took them all, bhante?”

“Yes, maharajah.”

“But, bhante, does not the Teacher allow only the three robes?”

“Yes, maharajah, three robes are allowed for each monk, but there is also an allowance under the category of ‘use’. For, it is not forbidden to receiving what is offered. Therefore, I accepted the robes, from which I gave to those others whose robes are old.”

“But when these monks have received the robes from you, what they do with the old robes?”

“The old upper robes are made into outer robes.”

“What do you do with the old outer robes?”

“They are made into undergarments.”

“What do you do with the old undergarments?”

“They are made into cover-sheets.”

“What do you do with the old cover-sheets?”

“They are made into carpets.” 

“What do you do with the old carpets?”

“We make them into foot-towels.”

“What do you do with the old foot-towels?”

“Maharajah, it is not proper to waste what is given by the faithful. Therefore, we break up the old foot-towels with a sharp knife, mix them with clay, and plaster them over the walls of our lodgings.”

The Rajah was satisfied.

🙇  🙇  🙇  

Creatively use and respond to change

"Creatively use and respond to change."

Four stages. 1. Broadfork 2. Mulch. 3. Drip irrigate. 4. Harvest.

The current situation here is drought. More drought now, in August, than we had last year at any stage, which was more than we've ever seen at this site. So the plants are doing as well as they are, I think, because we broadforked the beds and are spot-watering a lot of the plants at their bases. Those that start to wilt get immediate attention.

It is very difficult to garden right now in Pleasant Hill, Oregon.

Yes, I know guilds are supposed to be helpful. For reasons I won't go into, this particular garden must be kept tree free. But we have done what we can around the edges. Also we are trellising in every other bed in the far back, which really seems to help with partially shading the beds in between. The summer squash bed and the winter squash bed I don't worry about -- they have formed a solid canopy.

Change is the basic fact of the universe. Roll with it. 🙏

That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth, and all the teaching of Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self. In fact, the self-nature of each existence is nothing but change itself, the self-nature of all existence.

  -- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginners Mind

(To be continued)

Use edges and value the marginal

About leaves that generally get stripped and tossed away.

1. Go out to where either your greens have made a whole lot of big side foliage you don't use at table, or have gone to seed producing volunteers (volunteer chard shown), and gather about forty leaves.

2. Stuff your Excelsior or Excalibur or solar dehydrator with them, or just lay them out in the sun. 

3. When they're brittle, fish them out and strip dry matter from midribs. Clean up and crumble to desired consistency. 

4. Dry can (bake) in jars and open to use as needed. Good for up to five years in our experience.

Kale, collards, chard, beets, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, dandelions, false dandelions, lamb's quarters, turnip, arugula, garlic, onions, young bean leaves or knotweed leaves, chicory, plantain, nettles, maple and lilac flowers, nasturtiums, kohlrabi, lettuce, and tatsoi, along with herbs to taste can all be included in this. The more variety, the better nutrition, and they all taste about the same in this form.

You could live a long time, comparatively speaking, if shut in by a pandemic, for example, on just five pounds of dried veggie crumbly and a hundred pounds of rice. (Be sure you have also secured a supply of water.)

You could, with a little acquired knowledge and some persistence, do this entirely with foraged weeds even if you have no garden.

Use in breads, soups, frittatas, quiches, on meats, on potatoes, in eggs, power drinks, hot cereals, salads, wilted salads, stir fries, etc. Also can be added to feeds such as poultry feeds.

Caveat: spinach, chard and amaranths contain a lot of oxalic acid and so there are those who should not consume them in quantity.

After twenty years of nights beneath the moon 
and the clouds to find myself old is hard
crows come looking for food at the altar
monks return with empty begging bowls
others work the waves for shrimp and clams
I swing a hoe in the mountains
when Solomon’s seal is gone there is still pine pollen 
and one square inch free of care

  -- Stonehouse (tr. Red Pine)

(To be continued)

Use and value diversity

"Use and value diversity." Everything is an aspect of one thing, the universe, but also everything is itself, so explore your environment and all that is in it, both for utility and wonder.

1. On the land, try everything. Some trees, perennials and annuals will do better, some will not like your climate or soils. For those who work with animals, it's much the same -- one five acre place might do well with a Devon cow and calf, whereas another, with smaller available pasture, might require a Dexter. Do early spring gardens do better here than fall? What greens last through winter freezes? What flint corn or what winter squash seems happier here?

2. Explore the native and non-native field and forest biota and geology for further utility. Are there acorns? Abandoned fruit trees, or wild plums or persimmons? Walnuts? Black walnuts? wild grapes? Edible berries, seeds, annuals, biennials, mushrooms? Which make good medicines, teas, seasonings, dyes, basketry, axe handles, beanpoles, wattles? What animals are there, and which are predators to your plants and animals, which are appropriate to hunt (if you do)? Fish, eels, clams, mussels? What's legal or illegal, abundant or under pressure and needing conservation, and what are the seasons?

3. Experiment and extend your range of skills for your own benefit and pleasure as well as to benefit your family, friends and neighbors. Can you sew, mend, design an interior, clean house, paint, plumb, do carpentry, electric, roofing, assemble hardware, install appliances, cut glass, caulk, set tile, grout, lay bricks, set a stone wall, bed a pathway, maintain tools, cook, preserve foods, bake, dance, sing, play an acoustic instrument, do martial arts, perform a play, chair a meeting, tend to the sick, attend a birth, comfort the dying, meditate, survive, evade, escape, tan leather, shoe a horse, dip candles? Or maybe only a few of these, but are willing to bank them at the community center in exchange for others? Also, when you've learned a skill, how about extending your range, trying new things with new ingredients or materials? Shown is a small loaf of spelt/rye/oatmeal bread with duck eggs, sea salt, veggie crumble, and brewer's yeast, baked in a crock pot. Next, perhaps we'll try in a Dutch oven on a rocket stove.

4. What do you know of your site, its watershed and region, and what they have to offer? Explore (where it is not trespassing) the fields, woods, streams, and bodies of water. Where does the water come from and where does it go; what is its quality? Where are the prevailing winds? Are you prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes? Where are the straight saplings for your stamping shed roof, round heat-safe rocks for your sweat lodge, flat rocks for your path to the compost heap, "trash" fish for your fertilizer? Where is the nearest doctor, dentist, veterinarian, grocer, etc., but also who is the go-to blacksmith, wild foods teacher, seed-saver? What birds and animals live (year-round or seasonally) in which areas -- are there rattler dens and poison oak or ivy to respect? What is the history here? How were things done in the past? How do local, state or province and national jurisdictions impact the site, locality and region? What are the current social and commercial impacts? What is changing, and can the changes be met with adequate adaptation? You cannot, maybe, discover all this, but by seeking may find much, and then you will never suffer boredom.

The view that all things exist is one extreme; the view that nothing exists is the other extreme. Being apart from these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the dharma of the Middle Way: because this exists, that exists; because this arises, that arises. 

 

  -- Agamas qtd. in Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought

 

(To be continued) 

Use small and slow solutions

Holmgren and Mollison began developing the Permaculture Principles in the era of publication of E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful: A Study Economics as if People Mattered. Still recommended, especially the chapter on "Buddhist economics." 

The permaculturist is enjoined to consider edges and diversity partly because foraging is more sustainable than farming, and one place you can forage is in the garden! This year we have an abundance of chard that came up on its own as a result of our having let a plant go to seed. It's doing better than any of our transplanted greens.

One leaf meal: volunteer Fordhook chard.

1. Cut and bring in.

2. Wash and cut up.

3. Steam stem pieces 20 min.

4. Add leafy green pieces and steam 10 min. Salt and butter to taste and serve.

Making a meal from something that "just came up" is even more local than your CSA. Think of the ways that fits into "Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share." Invite the neighbors to have some and you will really be on a roll.

Fordhook dates from the 1920s and was a Burpee developed strain. The stems are to my mind even better than the greens. Transplants well. Does like well composted loose soil and lots of water. Tolerates both sun and shade and lasts through most of our summers and most of our winters. Seeds prolifically and volunteers grow true to form. Seed companies say it grows to 18" high but they are being modest. Many specimens here have gone over three feet not counting those that bolted in heat waves.

From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern — amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results. 

  -- E. F. Schumacher, "Buddhist Economics" in Small is Beautiful

(To be continued)

Integrate rather than segregate

Create efficiencies and resiliences (Yin and Yang, if you will).

1. This is the poultry moat/orchard at Stony Run Farm, an example of function stacking. Outside fence, slowly becoming a hedge that yields blackberries, plums and wild cherries, is a woven wire deer fence for excluding deer, coyotes and stray dogs from poultry area and garden. Inside fence, lower left, is a welded wire poultry fence and keeps poultry out of the garden until wanted. Fruit trees are planted on a north-south axis to shade one another's roots. They also provide shade to poultry as well as protection from glide-path predators. Poultry pick up fallen fruit and predate on slugs, snails and insects headed for the garden, drop some fertilizer. Chickens, ducks and geese have overlapping but not identical dietary interests.

2. Polyculture; species mixing. Different perennials and annuals mix it up in some beds with a range of heights and leaf and root patterns, allowing some plants to look for slightly different nutrients and water profiles than others, varying sunlight and shade, hiding some plants better from their predators. We never got the hang of companion planting charts but sometimes we get lucky!

3. Variation in height; trellised crops alternate with low-growing spreading crops, assisting each other with partial shade, moisture conservation and weed suppression.

4. Graze; instead of gathering a bushel of this here and that there, one can work one's way up a single bed, finding what's ripe and what's appealing and bring in a fresh meal. Potentially what you're bringing in has less predation, less nutrient depletion, less drought shock, was what your body was really hungry for, and will be eaten fresher. Do the same for poultry or stock; they like their lettuce in season as well.

He who sees the nature of a phenomenon
Is said to [see] the nature of everything.
For the emptiness of a phenomenon
Is the emptiness of everything.

  -- Aryadeva (in Mahatthanadull Et al., "Research Report: A Theory of Buddhism  Integration for Sustainable Development of Wisdom and Virtue in the 21 st Century" (Compatibility of Buddhism and Science in support of the UN SDGs)

 

(To be continued)