My Giving Up will be the World’s Giving Up

Let me share with you my thoughts by reflecting on two Asian wisdom discourses and a story of a revolutionary farmer in Japan. The Asian wisdom and the farmer’s story are expected to help us what stance humanity in general and Christian community in particular should take regarding the relationship between the poor and the rich, and on the ecological challenge we face today.

The first wisdom is the following one:
In Chinese classic, there is a word saying “Be rich, you won’t be humane (人, jen); be humane, you won’t be rich.” If we rephrase this for a spiritual connotation, this word can be said as follows: “Be rich, you won’t be spiritual; be spiritual, you won’t be rich.” This would mean that there would be a fundamental difficulty in connecting the state of being rich and the condition of being authentically humane, or being rich and being truly spiritual.

This is a highly radical statement. This sort of radical affirmation has also been made by Jesus in his famous conversation with a rich young man (Mt. 19:16-24, Mk 10:17-25). A rich young man brought to Jesus a challenging theological issue, that is, the issue of eternal life. Jesus linked this theological and spiritual issue to the rich young man’s perception of wealth. The rich young man was almost perfect at least in his own perception of being spiritual, but when he was challenged by Jesus to practise his spirituality in a concrete way by selling his possessions and by giving the money to the poor, he was faced with a big dilemma or confusion or hesitation. He could not continue his spiritual conversation with Jesus after this.

An interesting point is the post-conversation remark Jesus made for the benefit of his disciples: “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.” He went on saying, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”(Mt. 29:23-24) In fact the possibilities for the rich to have eternal life are many, but it’s so hard for them to practise it. That’s why above-mentioned Asian wisdom phrased the dilemma between being rich and humane, saying “Be rich, you won’t be humane. Be humane, you won’t be rich”.

Today our entire global civilization faces an integral crisis of multiple dimensions. It is a combination of economic crisis, ecological crisis and geo-political crisis and at its base is a spiritual crisis as well. We need to note that this discernment is that of the secular leaders. The analysis is also made by them. For instance, Muguel d’Escoto Brockman, Nicaraguan diplomat, President of UN General Assembly said at a WCC hearing on Reconciliation in February 2009 that there is no doubt that a root cause of all these crises is a moral crisis. The current Dutch prime minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende made the same observation on today’s crisis, saying “The economic crisis is also a moral crisis created by greed, preoccupation with money and egoistical acts. At the threshold of the 21st century, a French political philosopher, Andre Malraux said that the 21st century will be spiritual, otherwise it won’t exist (Le Vingt-et-unieme siecle sera spirituel ou il ne sera pas!).

The point I want to make here is not the question of the importance of being spiritual, but the question as to how one can be spiritual. The challenge we receive from the above-mentioned Asian wisdom and Jesus’ challenge is to know how to be humane or to be spiritual by controlling our wealth.

The ways through which Jesus deals with the rich in relation to the poor are highly challenging and critical. The message is not addressed to the rich and to the poor on an equal basis. The critical message in the Bible is mainly focused on what the rich should do for economic justice. Consider the story of the rich man and the poor, Lazarus is a typical example. (Lk. 16:19-31) No wrongdoing has been done by the rich man against Lazarus. He never committed any crimes against Lazarus. The rich man never deprived Lazarus of anything. He rather provided humanitarian aid to him. He was generous enough to share the trickles with poor Lazarus. But the wrongdoing that the rich man had committed was in fact his failure to do what he was supposed to do for Lazarus. The sin he had committed was a sin of omission, if not a sin of commission. The problem is that God did not agree with the rich man’s neutral position. God expected the rich man to do more for the poor. This is what we might call in ecumenical terminology, “God’s preferential option for the poor”.

Calvin goes further. He said that the rich has a duty to be in solidarity with the poor. I do not fully agree with this perception of his, but Calvin even said that the poor exists for the salvation of the rich. The rich people’s accumulation of wealth, and manipulation of the price of the goods, is a sin against God’s grace towards the poor, said Calvin. Therefore he regarded the economic oppression of the poor by the rich a blasphemy.

I think we, the ecumenical community, particularly people and churches who are regarded by the poor as rich, should listen to this message very attentively.

Let me now move to the second Asian wisdom which is related to the first.
The second wisdom is the following: “Unite the wealth and you divide the people. Divide the wealth, you unite the people.”

In fact all kinds of human conflicts and confrontations in our community are largely due to economic unfairness or injustice.

You might already be aware that the peace (平和) in Chinese word means economic injustice, literally meaning “to level or equalize the grains to every mouth”.

One of the major goals of ecumenical movement is to promote unity of churches, and unity of humanity. For this the ecumenical movement has heavily been engaged in combating racism, because racism disturbs unity in Christ. Being one church in the context of racial apartheid is a total absurdity. Likewise being one church in the context of economic apartheid today is also a total absurdity. Again the rich who are regarded by the poor as rich should note this challenge seriously as well. There shouldn’t be any hesitation or resistance to the ecumenical call for justice in the economy and the earth if they wish to be humane or spiritual.

If we put these two Asian wisdom words together, the first wisdom can be rephrased in the following way: “Be rich, you won’t be humane, and spiritual. But divide your wealth; you will be humane and spiritual.”This might be what Nikolai Berdyaev meant in his saying, “The bread for me is a material thing, but the bread for my neighbour is a spiritual thing”.

Let me now share with you a joyful story which is the story of a revolutionary Japanese farmer. This is neither philosophical nor spiritual nor Chinese classic wisdom, but a contemporary wisdom coming from a common farmer’s struggle for ten years life-giving farming in tune of the rhythm of God’s creation.

The farmer’s name is Kimura Akinori, based in Aomori county in Japan. He, 60 years old farmer, produces the world’s best and most delicious apple by natural farming. The apple he produces is not spoiled even after it is cut. The taste is fantastic and one cannot see such tasteful apple in any other part of the world. In Japan the apples that are traded on internet are sold out in just three minutes as the selling begins. One has to wait for almost a year to taste a special soup made of this apple.

In his farm, no agricultural chemicals and no fertilizers are used. Human intervention is minimized. The whole farming process except minimal human assistance, is left to nature. He allows the weeds to grow, because they are cooperating with the apple tress for inputting all recourses in the air into the very last part of roots of the apple tree. A cosmic orchestration of life-giving process into the tree is being made throughout the year. His agricultural farming method is called “Natural Artistic Farming” meaning that the process is entirely left to artistic orchestration of the nature’s life-giving process.

Having graduated from high school, Kimura started his apple farming in 1978. He was given a big apple tree farm by his own father, and after his marriage, three more apple tree farms were inherited from his parent-in-law. In the beginning, he followed the conventional way in his farming work. However, his wife was considerably sensitive to agricultural chemicals and therefore, he tried to find alternatives for farming work.

He, then, saw a book by Mr. Fukuoka Masanobu who had put together his experiences of natural farming. Kimura was so impressed by this agricultural methodology that he decided to apply this in his apple farm.

Unfortunately, however, after applying the natural farming method, his apple farms began to be ruined. Nearly all apple trees were about to be blighted up due to vermin and weeds. He tried to exterminate vermin in a manual way without using any chemicals to save the trees but unfortunately it did not work.

His livelihood was endangered and he became so poor that he had to survive by doing some manual work in the city. No matter what difficulties he faced, he could not give up his attempt, saying, “If I gave up, it means that the world gives up.” He regarded his failure as the failure of the whole world in doing natural farming.

However, the situation was getting worse and worse. After four years since he started, he could no longer continue this way, because it would end in the destruction of all his apple trees and the life of his family was at stake. One evening, he prepared a long bar and climbed up a high mountain with the intention of killing himself. Upon his arrival there he found a tree that was big enough to hang himself on. He threw the bar over the tree, but, unfortunately or fortunately, he lost the other end of the bar. While he was trying to find the lost bar, he was shocked to find an extremely well grown apple tree deep in the mountain. In fact it was not an apple tree, but an acorn tree. However, it appeared to Mr. Akinori as an apple tree. The issue is not a matter of confusion, but he noticed the fact that the tree was producing a lot of lovely acorns, even though no one takes care of it. It grew up deep in the mountain without human intervention and produced perfect fruits.

Kimura dug out some earth from near the root and was astonished to discover that the earth was so soft, while the earth in his apple farm was so stony. He also discovered that all weeds around the tree played an important role transporting nitrogen from the air into the earth. This is the mysterious method, the natural process, in which all trees in the mountain regions grow without human intervention.

He applied this method of making fresh earth for his apple farming, leaving all other process as to be in tune with the rhythm of nature, permitting all sorts of weeds to grow. He had only two things to do; one physical and the other spiritual. The physical job was to take away some major harmful insects in a manual way until the trees became strong enough to cope with them. The spiritual one was to have a conversation with trees, saying “Please try to survive for just one or two years, and then we will win.”

After 8 years’ long struggle, seven flowers came out and two of them got lovely fruits and one year later all trees in all four farms blossomed flowers and got fruits. Finally all his apple trees began to produce a miraculous variety of apple that one can never find in any other place in the world except in Kimura’s farm.

What struck me in this story was Akinori’s perception that his failure might be the failure of the world. In the conclusion of his book, the story of Noah is mentioned. When Noah built a ship high on the mountain, nobody understood his intention, but it saved the world, for he did not follow the logic of this world, but he followed God’s logic. To me, there is no other way than going into radical alternatives if we intend to transform the current life-killing civilization into life-giving civilization.

(Asian-Pacific AGAPE Consultation On Poverty, Wealth and Ecology, Chiangmai, 2-5 November 2009)



Home Park Seong-won Biography Ecumenical Journey Ecumenical Vision News Update In the press Resources Articles Photos Video Links Contact Contact Form	My Giving Up will be the World’s Giving Up Let me share with you my thoughts by reflecting on two Asian wisdom discourses and a story of a revolutionary farmer in Japan. The Asian wisdom and the farmer’s story are expected to help us what stance humanity in general and Christian community in particular should take regarding the relationship between the poor and the rich, and on the ecological challenge we face today. The first wisdom is the following one: In Chinese classic, there is a word saying “Be rich, you won’t be humane (人, jen); be humane, you won’t be rich.” If we rephrase this for a spiritual connotation, this word can be said as follows: “Be rich, you won’t be spiritual; be spiritual, you won’t be rich.” This would mean that there would be a fundamental difficulty in connecting the state of being rich and the condition of being authentically humane, or being rich and being truly spiritual. This is a highly radical statement. This sort of radical affirmation has also been made by Jesus in his famous conversation with a rich young man (Mt. 19:16-24, Mk 10:17-25). A rich young man brought to Jesus a challenging theological issue, that is, the issue of eternal life. Jesus linked this theological and spiritual issue to the rich young man’s perception of wealth. The rich young man was almost perfect at least in his own perception of being spiritual, but when he was challenged by Jesus to practise his spirituality in a concrete way by selling his possessions and by giving the money to the poor, he was faced with a big dilemma or confusion or hesitation. He could not continue his spiritual conversation with Jesus after this. An interesting point is the post-conversation remark Jesus made for the benefit of his disciples: “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.” He went on saying, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”(Mt. 29:23-24) In fact the possibilities for the rich to have eternal life are many, but it’s so hard for them to practise it. That’s why above-mentioned Asian wisdom phrased the dilemma between being rich and humane, saying “Be rich, you won’t be humane. Be humane, you won’t be rich”. Today our entire global civilization faces an integral crisis of multiple dimensions. It is a combination of economic crisis, ecological crisis and geo-political crisis and at its base is a spiritual crisis as well. We need to note that this discernment is that of the secular leaders. The analysis is also made by them. For instance, Muguel d’Escoto Brockman, Nicaraguan diplomat, President of UN General Assembly said at a WCC hearing on Reconciliation in February 2009 that there is no doubt that a root cause of all these crises is a moral crisis. The current Dutch prime minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende made the same observation on today’s crisis, saying “The economic crisis is also a moral crisis created by greed, preoccupation with money and egoistical acts. At the threshold of the 21st century, a French political philosopher, Andre Malraux said that the 21st century will be spiritual, otherwise it won’t exist (Le Vingt-et-unieme siecle sera spirituel ou il ne sera pas!). The point I want to make here is not the question of the importance of being spiritual, but the question as to how one can be spiritual. The challenge we receive from the above-mentioned Asian wisdom and Jesus’ challenge is to know how to be humane or to be spiritual by controlling our wealth. The ways through which Jesus deals with the rich in relation to the poor are highly challenging and critical. The message is not addressed to the rich and to the poor on an equal basis. The critical message in the Bible is mainly focused on what the rich should do for economic justice. Consider the story of the rich man and the poor, Lazarus is a typical example. (Lk. 16:19-31) No wrongdoing has been done by the rich man against Lazarus. He never committed any crimes against Lazarus. The rich man never deprived Lazarus of anything. He rather provided humanitarian aid to him. He was generous enough to share the trickles with poor Lazarus. But the wrongdoing that the rich man had committed was in fact his failure to do what he was supposed to do for Lazarus. The sin he had committed was a sin of omission, if not a sin of commission. The problem is that God did not agree with the rich man’s neutral position. God expected the rich man to do more for the poor. This is what we might call in ecumenical terminology, “God’s preferential option for the poor”. Calvin goes further. He said that the rich has a duty to be in solidarity with the poor. I do not fully agree with this perception of his, but Calvin even said that the poor exists for the salvation of the rich. The rich people’s accumulation of wealth, and manipulation of the price of the goods, is a sin against God’s grace towards the poor, said Calvin. Therefore he regarded the economic oppression of the poor by the rich a blasphemy. I think we, the ecumenical community, particularly people and churches who are regarded by the poor as rich, should listen to this message very attentively. Let me now move to the second Asian wisdom which is related to the first. The second wisdom is the following: “Unite the wealth and you divide the people. Divide the wealth, you unite the people.” In fact all kinds of human conflicts and confrontations in our community are largely due to economic unfairness or injustice. You might already be aware that the peace (平和) in Chinese word means economic injustice, literally meaning “to level or equalize the grains to every mouth”. One of the major goals of ecumenical movement is to promote unity of churches, and unity of humanity. For this the ecumenical movement has heavily been engaged in combating racism, because racism disturbs unity in Christ. Being one church in the context of racial apartheid is a total absurdity. Likewise being one church in the context of economic apartheid today is also a total absurdity. Again the rich who are regarded by the poor as rich should note this challenge seriously as well. There shouldn’t be any hesitation or resistance to the ecumenical call for justice in the economy and the earth if they wish to be humane or spiritual. If we put these two Asian wisdom words together, the first wisdom can be rephrased in the following way: “Be rich, you won’t be humane, and spiritual. But divide your wealth; you will be humane and spiritual.”This might be what Nikolai Berdyaev meant in his saying, “The bread for me is a material thing, but the bread for my neighbour is a spiritual thing”. Let me now share with you a joyful story which is the story of a revolutionary Japanese farmer. This is neither philosophical nor spiritual nor Chinese classic wisdom, but a contemporary wisdom coming from a common farmer’s struggle for ten years life-giving farming in tune of the rhythm of God’s creation. The farmer’s name is Kimura Akinori, based in Aomori county in Japan. He, 60 years old farmer, produces the world’s best and most delicious apple by natural farming. The apple he produces is not spoiled even after it is cut. The taste is fantastic and one cannot see such tasteful apple in any other part of the world. In Japan the apples that are traded on internet are sold out in just three minutes as the selling begins. One has to wait for almost a year to taste a special soup made of this apple. In his farm, no agricultural chemicals and no fertilizers are used. Human intervention is minimized. The whole farming process except minimal human assistance, is left to nature. He allows the weeds to grow, because they are cooperating with the apple tress for inputting all recourses in the air into the very last part of roots of the apple tree. A cosmic orchestration of life-giving process into the tree is being made throughout the year. His agricultural farming method is called “Natural Artistic Farming” meaning that the process is entirely left to artistic orchestration of the nature’s life-giving process. Having graduated from high school, Kimura started his apple farming in 1978. He was given a big apple tree farm by his own father, and after his marriage, three more apple tree farms were inherited from his parent-in-law. In the beginning, he followed the conventional way in his farming work. However, his wife was considerably sensitive to agricultural chemicals and therefore, he tried to find alternatives for farming work. He, then, saw a book by Mr. Fukuoka Masanobu who had put together his experiences of natural farming. Kimura was so impressed by this agricultural methodology that he decided to apply this in his apple farm. Unfortunately, however, after applying the natural farming method, his apple farms began to be ruined. Nearly all apple trees were about to be blighted up due to vermin and weeds. He tried to exterminate vermin in a manual way without using any chemicals to save the trees but unfortunately it did not work. His livelihood was endangered and he became so poor that he had to survive by doing some manual work in the city. No matter what difficulties he faced, he could not give up his attempt, saying, “If I gave up, it means that the world gives up.” He regarded his failure as the failure of the whole world in doing natural farming. However, the situation was getting worse and worse. After four years since he started, he could no longer continue this way, because it would end in the destruction of all his apple trees and the life of his family was at stake. One evening, he prepared a long bar and climbed up a high mountain with the intention of killing himself. Upon his arrival there he found a tree that was big enough to hang himself on. He threw the bar over the tree, but, unfortunately or fortunately, he lost the other end of the bar. While he was trying to find the lost bar, he was shocked to find an extremely well grown apple tree deep in the mountain. In fact it was not an apple tree, but an acorn tree. However, it appeared to Mr. Akinori as an apple tree. The issue is not a matter of confusion, but he noticed the fact that the tree was producing a lot of lovely acorns, even though no one takes care of it. It grew up deep in the mountain without human intervention and produced perfect fruits. Kimura dug out some earth from near the root and was astonished to discover that the earth was so soft, while the earth in his apple farm was so stony. He also discovered that all weeds around the tree played an important role transporting nitrogen from the air into the earth. This is the mysterious method, the natural process, in which all trees in the mountain regions grow without human intervention. He applied this method of making fresh earth for his apple farming, leaving all other process as to be in tune with the rhythm of nature, permitting all sorts of weeds to grow. He had only two things to do; one physical and the other spiritual. The physical job was to take away some major harmful insects in a manual way until the trees became strong enough to cope with them. The spiritual one was to have a conversation with trees, saying “Please try to survive for just one or two years, and then we will win.” After 8 years’ long struggle, seven flowers came out and two of them got lovely fruits and one year later all trees in all four farms blossomed flowers and got fruits. Finally all his apple trees began to produce a miraculous variety of apple that one can never find in any other place in the world except in Kimura’s farm. What struck me in this story was Akinori’s perception that his failure might be the failure of the world. In the conclusion of his book, the story of Noah is mentioned. When Noah built a ship high on the mountain, nobody understood his intention, but it saved the world, for he did not follow the logic of this world, but he followed God’s logic. To me, there is no other way than going into radical alternatives if we intend to transform the current life-killing civilization into life-giving civilization. (Asian-Pacific AGAPE Consultation On Poverty, Wealth and Ecology, Chiangmai, 2-5 November 2009)
2009 Parkwave.net