The NFZC

The No-Sword School

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Course: A Deeper Permaculture: Fukuoka's Koan

Course: A Deeper Permaculture: Fukuoka’s Koan

For those arriving here in search of information concerning the course I will be giving at Mas Franch, 4-9th October, near Olot, Catalonia, Spain, please see this page. Feel free to use the tag list on this page or make a word search to further explore the subject matter of the course found on this blog. For those interested in some detail of the practice of Natural Farming, this blog begins with…

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No. 7 The End of Seedzen

Every end is just another beginning, all beginnings presage their end. And so the world goes. Telling other stories, those that are lithe and light and can adequately respond to the world today, this must now be the work. I repudiate nothing that has been written, just the inadequacy of the effect. New stories can be told and words need not be the only form of expression. All the words that have…

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10,000 Things

Small, now A child of hope Innocent of consequences. There is no change It all changes This moment again. The fall of light The drift of thought Following in the wake. It was then In knowing you I was first ignorant. It was later In understanding I was cast a fool. In this moment A silent glide A jay crosses the clearing. The wind in the trees Gentle susurrus To encompass it all. Butterflies…

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Problems and Answers

The climate crisis is already here – but no one’s telling us http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/03/climate-crisis-media-relegates-greatest-challenge-hurtle-us-collapse-planet?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress I have admired George Monbiot’s clarity of vision for many years. The above article expresses well this clarity, seeing destruction as destruction. Having once been a young…

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What is this?

This little guy arrived the other day, during the spell of hot weather, landed at my feet while I had the phone in my hand and let me take this close-up photo of him. I don’t have a clue as to what it is, I’m hoping someone more expert reading this can help. The blue in the photo is not the sky, it is also unfortunately not a swimming pool! It is a tarpaulin I use to capture rainwater – when it…

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Taking Stock

Pausing to take stock of a new situation, project or opportunity, to consider the pros and cons, weigh up the good and the bad, are important and common sensical strategies in our pragmatic culture. Curiously, however, studies have shown greater success for those who act upon their intuition rather than taking a pause to take stock. So, then, let us all give free rein to our intuition. But,…

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Forest Thoughts

After the rain Mist rising Forest thoughts. This is the story of the forested hills of La Garrotxa and what they say to the world. These hills have been worked for centuries. Even here, on the high ridges, low terracing walls designed to slow the passage of rain are still visible in the dense forest which has grown up over this once rough grazing. It has only been 50 years, but there is a forest…

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This and That

This expression That experience Where do the two meet? Don’t say the One. But the danger is For the one saying it For the other understanding it Thinking comprehension. Settled here now In the lee of the summit Sliding down North slope Into cool beech trees. A woodpecker taps it Swifts wing it Downways a wild boar Wakes into the early evening. It is so vast Swelling here in my chest It will spill…

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Terraces

Wild clematis Scent Spring fresh This spent high Summer. Aching down Weight of sun Shallow breath. Coming here Sometimes Many times before. Grass lit meadow Forest edge Aflame with shadow. Yes, coming here For want And wintry days. For far sights Open spaces Forgotten prospects. Full sun fills South With relief Glad wind in poplars. This speaking breath Seeking less Unconsidering.

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First Sun to Last

New sun Condenses mist From first light. Silvered now It glitters Down valley deep. Soft stirring Wind wakes The air to dance. Rising tide Brims the ridge Flows through trees. This skin sense Morning touch Wonder feels. How heavy Liquid burst From giving sky. And then the earth This earth Dark with must. First sun to last With wandering Empty cloud.

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Natives Versus Aliens

I am working on a large-scale Seedballing project (of which more at another time – however if you happen to have a barren valley, particularly if it is of a single watershed and would like it to be reforested by means of seedballs in any climatically ‘Mediterranean’ region of the world, please let me know: thenfzc at gmail dot com) and have been trying to learn of the experiences of other…

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Distant Thunder

Sharp this light Falls tangent Then carved away. Coarse green hill Shivering Sheltering deep. It rings this air Sounds down Base hollow lingers. Bruised underside Feathered up Clouds moult dark. Ragged in breath Silent pale stealth Easing through trees. This tangled thread Grasped taught fist Violence released. But the storm In breaking Moves on. And into the quiet Of the unfulfilled Is the want…

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Touch Me Again

A soft afternoon cicada Gentles the way Sea breeze of evening. Distant ships White-walled yachts Weigh in westering sun. Small butterfly Shelters the warmth Napped baize of leaves. And it reaches out No, further! Touches in long sweep down. Abrupt obeisance Inexplicable Bow all beings before. But then silence In the passing What want will wake? In this stilled mind This dead hand These empty…

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Philosophy for Fools

The Vienna Circle, neopositivism, was never able to bridge the difference between sign and reality. And those great philosophers of language, Wittgenstein and Heidegger, accept there remains an inaccessible mystery to meaning. But who requires the abstractions of philosophers when, every day of our lives, we ‘do’ meaning in the world? Our ordinary lives display our embodiment of meaning in…

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Language Must Withdraw

Words will This wonder of worlds Waive to waste. The air This breath Opening the moment. The great horizon Vast cosmos In this green leaf. Nothing is left out No fly nor spun thread Lies beyond. Thought would Fiction make In paragraphs and pages. But in this stillness Language must withdraw And give silence presence. It sweeps out Touching totality Returning with the gift. The sudden breeze…

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Wild Boar

The number of wild boar in these hills has grown in recent decades to such an extent that hunting is often extended into the summer months. Fortunately, I have not seen or heard the dogs and guns since the winter and my small clearing and veg garden are now no longer on a route the boar used to take. It is not clear whether this is as a result of my presence – I sometimes chase them away in the…

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Walking the hills

Let me introduce you to where I live. If you can enlarge the photo above, focus on the centre left, you might be able to see a peak with what looks like a section taken out of it; that’s my home. Here is a closer view, although from that distance and only with the camera available in this phone, it is not possible to see the clearing in which I live. For the third time I attempted to find the…

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