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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Impermanence & Permaculture

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  • From: Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Impermanence & Permaculture
  • Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 11:09:07 -0700

Holger, you have my sympathies for what's transpiring around you. Perhaps
the creative response to change is you going somewhere else for some other
important work.

This topic is of interest to me as well. I actually discovered permaculture
while living in Zen monasteries. I also teach a quite large and growing
permaculture program at a university that was originally founded by a
famous (make that infamous) Buddhist monk. The topic of impermanence always
comes up at least once with my classes there. In my reflections I have come
to look at it from a couple angles.

One, Bill and David probably didn't consider the impermanence/permanence
dichotomy when they coined the term. I personally like the term ecological
design better. However, permaculture design is unique so it's good that
there is a different term.

Two, 'Impermaculture' wouldn't be very inspiring. It's actually what we
already have. So if we are trying to make things better we should aim for
something different, while holding in mind everything might come crashing
down on us at any moment. AND, it's a good idea to get comfortable with
that. One of my Zen teachers once gave a very serious talk about the fear
of death/change and how that leads activists to act very ignorantly, but
that's another topic.

I think Abraham Lincoln once said, "if you want to hit the target, aim
high". I look at the principle of Produce No Waste similarly. While it's
true that we can never get to a place of not allowing energy to dissipate
(something will always be wasted), it's a better goal than saying Produce
Less Waste. It's stronger, and leads to deeper action. I think it's the
same with the term permaculture.

It's also worth keeping in mind that all words are faulty at accurately
describing reality. They are fingers pointing at the moon. If we get lost
looking at the finger, we miss the point.

I hope you are staying safe,
Jason

--
PO Box 4355
Boulder, CO 80306
720-496-9744




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