Dear Tsukuyomi

Keep the water clean,
Keep the forest alive,
keep the soil healthy

And
for the joy of being
And for the connection of being
–
– for our lives to make sense.

◆ Environmental change, from life.
And it is time to think about “life” from the starting point.

-Continue to ask “what is wealth”

We wonder, think, work, rest, laugh, cry, mourn, and enjoy, and live daily life and spiritual life alone, with someone, with people together.

Whether it’s a common or beautiful thing, it just never ends in self-contained.

As long as we are alive in nature, as long as we live in one world as whole, we are always connected to the lives of each other.

We are still here despite the major theme of having to transform the economic system and the lives that depend on it, which has been to encourage environmental destruction.

The market economy system led society as excellent, and life became richer.

However, due to the over-gravity of the economy, nature, including humans, is about to reach its limits.

“What is affluence… we have not had a clear answer to this question for a long time.
It is also due to the globalization of the world.

There is also a fear that political, economic, and individual lives will have to be let go of by being forced to make major reforms.

Or we may not be available to depict “”affluence”” other than the economy.

However, as it is said that polarization and widening inequality, the richness as a place of happiness seems to have faded.

No, do we have a firm answer to happiness in the first place?

These are all human circumstances.
It is a situation only for human beings, but it has involved a life called the earth.
After all, it is necessary to think.

Half a century has passed while being told that the situation is urgent.

How far and how long will the sick earth forgive us?

Will our precious children and their descendants = hope and future be closed?

It is getting more and more frustrating.

Many seem to be in a similar dilemma.

It is the following sentence entitled “”The paradox of our time in history”” to express it splendidly.”

“●The paradox of our time in history
An American comedian named George Carlin (1937-2008) quoted pastor Bob Moorhead’s sermon when he lost his beloved wife and sent it to a friend.

“The paradox of our time in history””

We have taller buildings but shorter tempers,
wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less,
we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families,
more conveniences, but less time.

“We have more degrees but less sense,
more knowledge, but less judgment, m
ore experts, yet more problems, m
ore medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry,
stay up too late, get up too tired, ”

“read too little, watch TV too much,
and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We’ve added years to life not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We write more, but learn less.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits
and shallow relationships.”

“more leisure and less fun
more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

Remember, to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.
Remember, to say, “”I love you”” to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it.

A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person might not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.”

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.”

“●Experience change of consciousness

Since the 1970s, there has been a movement to re-look at the world from a holistic (whole, connected) and ecological perspective.

In particular, I think that the fact it has occurred from the field of science symbolizes the distortion of modern society.

It was proposed as a global crisis relative to the extinction of all life, but it was a paradigm shift that overturned the worldview and values of the past, similar to the viewpoint of religion and mysticism that were considered contrary to science.

It can be said that there was a big question mark over the way of life so far
.
In Japan, “”affluence”” gradually began to be reconsidered in the 1980s.

As a flow, we can say that we have experienced “”change of consciousness”” and “”change of values””.

“●The habit of converting to money

– Don’t count anything important into money. It is better not to convert it to money.

It is not unusual for the value of the natural environment and the loss of natural disasters to be converted into money, but I feel unconvinced every time.

For example, a few years ago, the Ministry of the Environment announced that estimating the economic value of the natural environment would make the public aware of the value of the natural environment by showing an index of the amount of money.

The wetlands that were drawn to the example are 99.4 billion yen per year for the value of providing recreation sites, 377.9 billion yen per year for the value of water purification, and 180 billion yen per year for providing habitats for flora and fauna.
(See: http://rief-jp.org/ct5/54680)”

” I am not so sure if it is easy to know the value of hundreds of millions of billions yen.

I cannot help but laughing when I think animals and plants can not provide 180 billion yen a year.

There is still a sense of incongruity in converting something that is not substituted (important) into money.

Franly, I think it is better not to pay the important thing with money.

There is also the word war special demand.
We also learned in social studies that Japanese economy got out postwar recession because of Korean War.

There was still a special demand for war in the Vietnam War.
In calculating lost profits, the “”productive”” value of people who have lost their income in accidents is expressed in the amount of income.

There are certainly such aspects of society, and although it is a methodology, in the sense of living people, important things should not be put in the account of money.
It is also a human arrogance to think that nature can be converted into money.

– Happy to have you!

From ‘doing’ and ‘having’ to the total value of ‘being’

There are two types of human consciousness: subconscious (unconscious) and apparent conscious (surface consciousness).
The subconscious is only unconscious, and it is the one that it is not usually conscious.

On the other hand, actual consciousness is conscious in everyday life, and it appears in the from of thought, choice, and will.

We live daily life based on the conscious ,and there are roughly ‘doing’ and ‘having’ as the value of the conscious.

What you can ‘do’ and what you ‘have’ is a big weight in real life.

However, ‘being’= “existence” is the most important thing, which is a value element larger than having or doing.

In another word, just as it is.
It is what give you an absolute value of life based on the whole’being’, rather than on what you have (possession) or what you do (action).

But try to think back.

Since childhood, we have often been praised conditionally; for our hard work (doing) or having entered a good school(having).

It doesn’t change even if you grow up.

We are evaluated by ‘doing’ and ‘having’; to achieve results(doing), to become a manager (having).

If we grow up without being recognized for our absolute value as beings, we misunderstand material affluence as happiness.
Then, when ‘doing’ and ‘having’ go wrong, you don’t know your worth of existence and end up in self-denial.

I’m just glad you are here.

I’m happy you are born. This is ‘being’.

Those who can hear those words many times in their lives are happy.

It’s not being as a means of ‘doing’ and ‘having’. No conditions required.

And thinking about ‘being’ is symbiosis.

I think that is the natural appearance of living things to have it in mind towards not only humans but also the environment as a whole.

I’m happy that you’re there! It is ‘being’.

◆ It is the same root problem.

– How to live. Or what is affluence?

“What is affluence?” It is a question that we still face.

Why does this question mean so much?

First of all, the definition of happiness and the basis of happiness are not yet clear.
For 30 years after the war, the “rich” country has been developing its economy.

People have become “rich.”

If we had lost happiness in exchange for this benefit, what would be “affluence”?

The market economy was liberated from ethics, cultural views, and ideas, and created one sense of value (like a winning or losing team), but is ti ok for people’s lives and lifestyles to follow it?

Even though affluence for nature is diversity, does human affluence destroy the richness of nature…
One question tells how complex and intertwined the world is.

In order to shift away from economic supremacy with many problems, with the environment at the fore, the question approaches us to change the way we view things and to re-see the world from a major perspective of life.

At a time when we are not at the stage where someone will do something, there is a need for a change of consciousness more than before.

●Skepticism of politics

It can feel like public debate is now a private concern by public persons.

The profit of the “individual” have a face of public.

The meaning of the public profit seems to be different from the profit of the fair people.

In addition, in order for modern society to maintain the status quo, there are many contradictions such as the danger of environmental destruction and disparities, and the response is often imposed on individuals.

If the failure of life becomes “Self-responsibility”, what will the society and the nation guarantee?
Is that really what we chose?

◆Proposals as an artist

– We have a figure of wisdom of “Jomon”.

Through the production of Jomon earthenware, I concluded that the Jomon period was peaceful and rich.

Jomon earthenware has a complex pattern and structure and is unique.

It takes a lot of time to produce, and the universe and life are expressed in a tremendous way.

It is opposite from Yayoi-style earthenware, which is practical and efficient.

I realized that people could produce them because they had a plenty of time, playful heart and free imagination.

The background is that firstly there is no fight (war).

And that the environment was diverse.

And they found great life in the blessings of nature and knew that the true way of life was to understand the nature.

“The one that expresses my existence most freely, the one with the richest sense of freedom. That’s an excellent work.”

The reason why Taro Okamoto was strongly attracted to the Jomon period is that he knew it was peace and love that support his freedom and the potential of his art.

Technical capabilities, sensibilities, talents… peace and love that guarantee the “existence” which is the source of them.

Artists create in any environmen because we seek it.

-Live creatively!

But creation is not an artist’s prerogative.

What we should be most creative about is the way of life and the way we live.

Life is what we should create.

Freely, without fear or anxiety, vividly.

In today’s world of anxiety and delusion, it is time for each individual to build something solid in our minds.

Let us think together to a world filled with the joy of ‘Being’ where we can feel just happy to live.

◆ If we think about it together, we will find a way.

There are various activities to think about the future from life, including experimental ones.

People who continue to do ecological activities and their supporters.

People who have changed their way of life after the Lehman shock, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the Covid-19 shock.

The younger generation who did not experience the high economic growth that has made us obsess over things.

Or the ideals in our each mind.
Sympathy.
An honest desire to find hope for the future.
And the stity that we feel in this reality.
Conflict of self-contradiction.
They all became the energy for the change.

So don’t give up. If we all think about it, we should find a way.
We will explore it optimistically rather than pessimistically.

And one more time,

Keep the water clean,
Keep the forest alive,
keep the soil healthy

For the joy of being
And for the connection of being