WWOOFing Chronicles - Sixth Week Lessons

Five days before moving to Farm #3, here are a few lessons I've learned so far.

• Humility - A 71 year old carrying heavier logs than me, limberly climbing and balancing on trees like a young man. Driving hours, carrying, pushing, pulling, dragging, rubbing, scratching, sawing, climbing, squeezing. 7 days a week, most of the year with very few breaks and for several decades. Wow! A 33 year old mother of two with remarkable endurance doing gruelling work on the fields while dealing with a very busy schedule and an overall exhausting lifestyle. Some incredible life stories. People with practical skills and a very sharp intuition when it comes to designing, building, fixing, timing, driving, etc.

• Physical Condition - a 78 year old farmer working all day long in the vineyards looking like he barely turned 50. Farming develops a strong back, mostly from handling tools in the field, carrying, lifting and putting down. More sleep and food are required.
  

• Farming equates with scratches, cuts and bruises.

• Intellectual surprises - I have rarely met as many intellectually stimulating people in so little time. Both farms I've been staying in have something in common: no TV. In Ardèche, the radio would usually either be tuned in on France Culture or France Musique. Jazz and classical music were the two main genres listened to. Courrier International in farm #2 and Le Monde Diplomatique in farm #1 were usually thorougly read. Both hosts and many farmers met have travelled extensively and possess a lot of knowledge about cultures and a deeper perspective than most about history, politics etc. I did not expect to meet a farmer who read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason!
  

• Company - a dog, a donkey and a three year old. Three unexpected encounters that have become revelations. A dog can be an amazing companion. Taking care of a convalescent donkey daily has made me want to spend more time with animals. An adorable three year old rekindles hope in mankind.

• Adaptation - It takes a week to get used to a new setting, two to finally feel settled, three to feel as comfortable as at home. Spending an extended amount time with other people makes you adjust to their behavioral patterns, especially on their territory. It makes you morph into a buffer state where you balance with your core set of behaviors and the environment's dynamics to come to a state of equilibrium. You then feel sufficiently self-preserved while not creating too much tension in the host's space. You pick up their communication habits, and tune in to speed and energy levels.

• Responsibility - With experience come skill and autonomy. It is wonderful to nuture those skills and to have people trust you with them. When you receive a person's encouragement to complete a task unsupervised that could mean a lot of damage if badly done, there is a boost in self-esteem - as long as you have managed to do it properly.

• Beauty - There are absolutely gorgeous areas in France. Living, working and hiking in such environments feeds the soul. Common things in a grandiose setting makes them meaningful.
  

• Food - I don't know if any pursuit is more noble than striving to eat like a frugal gourmet.
  

Combattre, Fuire ou Inhiber

1ère partie



2ème partie

WWOOFing Chronicles - Picture of Farm #1

'nuff said

White Trash

From WHFoods.com

Question: "It's great that you have listed all the healthiest foods we should eat. Can you also share with us the "unhealthiest foods," those that we should avoid?"

"The "unhealthiest" foods tend to be those that least resemble their original natural ingredients and those that have the most added refined and artificial additives. Prime examples are the so-called "white foods"-white sugar, white flour, and white fat, and the gamut of foods in which they are the principal ingredients. It's not that these foods are white in color-many of them are actually not. It's that these foods have had many of their natural components-including their natural colors-processed away. "White foods" is simply the shorthand label that we are using when we refer to these heavily processed, nutrient-depleted foods.

* "White sugar" includes refined sugar cane or sugar beets having virtually all B vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other essential nutrients removed. Corn syrup is also a "white sugar," made from processed cornstarch and essentially devoid of other nutrients.
* "White flour," analogously, is whole wheat flour minus its nutrient-packed wheat germ and fibrous bran. Nutritionally speaking, white flour is a ghost-like shadow of its original whole grain.
* "White fat" can include rendered animal lard, vegetable oils "hydrogenated" to make them hard at room temperature, and refined fats such as cottonseed oil. Hydrogenation is a chemical process that transforms natural fats into more saturated trans-fatty acids that do not occur naturally and which are strongly associated with cardiovascular disease.

Foods having "whites" as their primary ingredients are frighteningly ubiquitous! Examples include soft drinks, breads, hamburger and hotdog buns, crackers, pasta, pastries and pastry fillings, pies, cakes, frostings, margarine and bread spreads, jellies, sweets and candies, frozen dinners, pizzas, snack foods, doughnuts, candy bars, and cookies-all of which are common snack and convenience foods. Indeed, many of these combine all three whites together-white sugar, flour, and fat! Furthermore, these foods frequently contain artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, texturizing and processing agents, and other additives that further detract from their nutritional stature and your health. These are among the foods that I would consider to be the unhealthiest and the ones that I would avoid."

--

Beyond white foods, one can add potentially very healthy foods ruined by negative production methods such as meat or milk from unhealthy, intensively raised animals. Also, it is good to remember that certain combinations of healthy food can make the end result unwelcome.

The Essence of PU

This flow chart summarizes it all.

Field tested two days ago. B Target compliance, A2 cleared, receptive to screening, close in sight ~ it's all about kino.

I've felt like writing this in a while, finding it cool that the gibberish actually means something.

WWOOFing Chronicles - Prelude

Contact information of WWOOF hosts is only accessible to WWOOF France members.

Believing it wiser not to reveal the precise location and identity of the hosts, I am only posting a very approximative map of where I will probably be staying from March to October.

Among them :

• Four permaculture farms
• Four AMAP (CSA) farms
• Three market farmers
• One farm for herbs
  
• A Yoga center
  
• A Tibetan center
  

Healthy on a Small Planet

Is there a simple way to evaluate the quality of food in terms of health and sustainability?

In the UK, a traffic light food labeling system was introduced in certain supermarkets to indicate whether levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt where safe, moderately high or very high.

While the label is helpful to those aware of their specific health risks - diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure - it fails to give the average consumer an indication of how much "quality" a product has.

The obvious pitfall is to disqualify food on the basis of a nutritional configuration. This type of selection belongs to the realm of marketing, the food and pharmacological industries. Buying food intelligently is not to follow the industry's "health” claims. No natural food is inherently unhealthy.

All natural foods are healthy as long as they are balancing to the eater's constitution, that they are eaten at an appropriate time and season, that they are combined properly, that they are made digestible (with cooking or spices for example), that they are eaten in proper quantity. As a consequence, no "natural" organic food, should be considered unhealthy and attributed a red light. Organic butter might receive a red light in the aforementioned labeling system for its saturated fat content, while it is almost universally life-giving to those eating it in the proper conditions.

Below is an alternative labeling system (open to modifications) which indicates definite risk for health, for the environment or for unfair population exploitation.


Green Light

The Bottom Line:
Healthy. Respectful of the environment. Respectful of workers. Efficient in space and energy. Sustainable.

All foods in this group must be:

• Organic*
• Local
• In Season
• Fair for workers along the entire chain of production and distribution.
• 100% Natural. Without any additives or synthetic chemicals.

List:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Whole grains and cereal
• Beans
• Nuts and Seeds
• Oils
• Spices and Herbs
• Beverages
• Unrefined sweeteners
• Eggs
• Dairy**
• Sea Vegetables**
• Honey, propolis, royal jelly, pollen**

Have fresh.
Take into account individual needs (pregnant, diabetes...).
Always include in a varied, balanced diet.

*Organic as in replenishes the soil, respects natural cycles, without chemicals, respectful of the welfare and health of animals, 100% natural, not from large monoculture fields.

**Can have a bad ecological impact, but not as much as “yellow light” or “red light” foods.




Yellow Light

The Bottom Line:
Healthy but either:

• Taxing in resources of space or energy.
• Damaging to the environment or species in excess.
• Addictive.
• Excessively stimulating or dulling.
• Unhealthy when not eaten only occasionally.

All foods in this group must be

• Organic*
• Fair for workers along the entire chain of production and distribution.
• 100% Natural. Without any additives or synthetic chemicals.

List:

• Meat
• Fish
• Poultry
• Coffee, guarana, ...
• Alcohol
• Sweets and candy
• Refined flour, cereal and sweeteners
• All “Green light” foods that are not produced and distributed locally

Red Light

The Bottom Line:
Avoid altogether. Unhealthy, damaging to the environment, damaging to workers, encourages an unethical economy.

• Food grown with chemical pesticides and herbicides
• Genetically engineered food
• Animals fed with food that belongs to this red light list or unsuited for their needs
• Animals not raised in proper conditions for welfare and health
• Fish from polluted water or from intensive fish farms.
• Plants from large monoculture fields
• Endangered species of animals or plants
• Food produced, transformed or distributed in a way that does not respect workers
• Food produced, transformed or distributed in a way that prevents the economic emancipation of poorer countries
  
• Food processed with chemical additives
• Processed oil
• Excessively salty, sweet or fat processed food

Leviathan

WTF!

Maybe

Story about a Chinese farmer

One day, his horse ran away, and all the neighbors gathered in the evening and said ‘that’s too bad.’
He said ‘maybe.’

Next day, the horse came back and brought with it seven wild horses. ‘Wow!’ they said, ‘Aren’t you lucky!’
He said ‘maybe.’

The next day, his son grappled with one of these wild horses and tried to break it in, and he got thrown and broke his leg. And all the neighbors said ‘oh, that’s too bad that your son broke his leg.’
He said, ‘maybe.’

The next day, the conscription officers came around, gathering young men for the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. And the visitors all came around and said ‘Isn’t that great! Your son got out.’
He said, ‘maybe.’

Music for Sun Salutations

Hypnotic drum beats, powerful didgeridoo, infectious percussion overlays.
Sets the pace for shakti-infused sun salutations.

Découvrez James Asher!

Баба-Яга

Baba Yaga.

Old hag found in Slavic lore, flying around on a birch broom with her mortar using the giant pestle as a rudder. She lives deep in the forest in a house resting on giant chicken legs with all kinds of odd and frightful features and occupants.

Baba Yaga is very wise and a precious source of guidance. To seek her out however, is to expose oneself to great risk for she is known to have a wicked streak, eating children and killing visitors.

A story of three young adults visiting Baba Yaga deep in the forest.

"When the first young seeker comes quaking up to the door of her hut, Baba Yaga demands, "Are you on your own errand or are you sent by another?" The young man, encouraged in his quest by his family, answers, "I am sent by my father." Baba Yaga promptly throws him into the pot and cooks him.

The next to attempt this quest, a young woman, sees the smoldering fire and hears the cackle of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga again demands, "Are you on your own errand or are you sent by another?" This young woman has been pulled to the woods alone to seek what she can find there. "I am on my own errand," she replies. Baba Yaga throws her in the pot and cooks her too.

Later a third visitor, again a young woman, deeply confused by the world, comes to Baba Yaga's house far into the forest. She sees the smoke and knows it is dangerous. Baba Yaga confronts her, "Are you on your own errand, or are you sent by another?" This young woman answers truthfully. "In large part I'm on my own errand, but in large part I also come because of others. And in large part I have come because you are here, and because of the forest, and something I have forgotten, and in large part I know not why I come." Baba Yaga regards her for a moment and says, "You'll do," and shows her into the hut."

-As told by Jack Kornfield

I'm a Rhythmic Sucker

I'm posting a song I find fun (although her other songs are a bit repetitive). I always liked the unusual but mellow rhythms - when I was listening to KJAZ at LA, I almost shat my pants when I heard a song with a very interesting (I believe it was 7 or 9 beats per measure) coordination between the guitarist, the bassist and the drummer who were all playing on very different beats sequences. Forgive my pathetic musical liguo, but as long as I understand myself, I never feel it necessary to expand.

Also, why did you erase the Deezer links, Daniel? You should leave stuff you're not proud of (although there's really no reason for feeling ashamed of any posts here). Some of mine are (by far) the worst, anyway. Remember, Little Timmy is always behind you!

Discover Abbey Lincoln!

Elephant

Some Hindus have an elephant to show.

No one here has ever seen an elephant. They bring it at night to a dark room.

One by one, we go in the dark and come out saying how we experience the animal.

One of us happens to touch the trunk."A water-pipe kind of creature."
Another, the ear. "A very strong, always moving back and forth, fan-animal."
Another, the leg. "I find it still, like a column on a temple."
Another touches the curved back. "A leathery throne."
Another, the cleverest, feels the tusk. "A rounded sword made of porcelain." He's proud of his description.

Each of us touches one place and understands the whole in that way.

The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark are how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.

If each of us held a candle there, and if we went in together, we could see it.

-As told by Rumi
C. Barks translation


All experience is an elephant in the dark.

Our senses and minds touch reality, are immersed in reality, yet cannot grasp reality within their palms.

In complexity, we reduce into simple parts.
In ignorance, we try to know.
For the sake of control, the process of exploration narrows down to an exploration of the parts.

The whole becomes a finite sum of constituents.

Result?

Dissociation from experience.

Diversity

"Alors que près de 7 000 espèces végétales ont été cultivées depuis le début de l'humanité, 15 variétés de plantes et 8 variétés animales seulement fournissent aujourd’hui 90% des ressources alimentaires de la planète. Cette uniformisation pose le problème de la perte des saveurs et de l’appauvrissement culturel, mais également celui de notre dépendance à quelques variétés alimentaires lorsque celles-ci se trouvent menacées par un agent pathogène, un insecte ravageur ou un aléa climatique.

Variez donc autant que possible votre alimentation et vos achats : ce conseil nutritionnel classique est aussi une bonne façon de soutenir la diversité biologique, qui n’a rien à voir la diversité croissante des produits dans les supermarchés, où les produits soi-disants « nouveaux » sont souvent faits avec les mêmes matières premières – du maïs, du blé, du riz et des pommes de terre."

-MesCoursesPourLaPlanete

The Sought

A good word? "Perfect." Such is our sought. We nurture praise and praise the vanished sins. The flow of soul's feelings and ideas are largely blurred by language yet language provides a means to transfer. I seek a life I do not know and am forgetting my own. I want it all or do I need it all?

I often find myself pondering upon the choices I have made. Always, I come to conclude that I would do naught the other way. I often find myself pondering about my future choices. Always, I am afraid.

All in all, it seems to me, support, finances, surroundings and all other possible influences, should not, and must not budge us off our stubborn ideological stances. Overcome your judgmental, and prejudiced minds to gain free thought - prose the feelings and thoughts.

I cry to myself. I know the emptiness, I know its cause, I blame it all on myself. Would I do anything any other way? Always, I come to conclude that I would do naught the other way. Filling voids with shallow aspirations and pastimes depleted of meaning? I can keep gambling. Injecting myself with a temporary miracle cure.

I solely wish to drift but there is nowhere to go. I want to float on the water, but I find myself impulsively flapping my arms as if I had wings. In my world, if I try hard enough, I will take off. In my world, I make the rules. In my world, even I have to struggle.

Bypass the brain. Free the soul. See it fly. Catch it if it falls down. Heal it's wings, don't let it cozy up. Make it fly again. Keep at it. Eventually, you'll free it and yourself as well.

A day in the monotonous life of a Taxi driver

So. Previous post sucked. But I'm not going to erase it nonetheless. This one doesn't seem promising either but we'll see where it goes. My posts, conversations and many thoughts, in general, seem to be momentarily-biased impulses anyway ("you're extroverted", Daniel would say). As a matter of fact, if I had the chance to relive my life from another point of view, I would chose to only feel and hear my thoughts and nothing else. Based on that, I would entertain myself by trying to guess the immediate situations and expand the thoughts evermore (as a matter of fact that could be an interesting concept for a book). Didn't make sense? Too bad - I'm writing this for me.

So, I took up the job of driving people from one place to another for money - I became a cabby. An interesting experience - that turned out to be. I met a few successful businessmen that supported me in my business efforts (emotionally). Met a great many maladjusted women (brought out some theories I may mention later). Even met a girl, that in any other lifetime (and possibly a little in this one) would have been a dream and a love (- turned out to be engaged and 27).

Overall, this job provided me with a temporary purpose, financial independence, an abundance of optional social interaction and so much free time to think (in the car) that a normal person would go mad. As I said before, when most of the humanly-necessary criteria are filled, we feel happy. - sorta,

---

Women. Fragile, subtle and bonded to society, they are. Place it in her head that she is neither fragile nor subtle; take away her longing for beauty and break away her loving bond - she will fall and futilely live a life of sought out desperation.

"They dance with ghosts" (to completely misquote Sting).

Unfortunately, America has no culture. At the very least, none that is strong enough to bond a people together. Enough to produce controllable mob-like behavior but not enough to provide three hundred million people with a purpose. As a species (and this is particularly true for women), must feel a purpose and a belonging, which, for the most part, is provided for us during our childhood; by our surroundings; by our culture. A culture is a mass-psychology engendered by strong engrained ideals and morals (something sociology ineffectively attempts to quantify). It is something that can only be generated through thousands of years of search and fruitless wars, not a few (admittedly efficient and revolutionary) centuries.

Well, anyway, my point is that, being the keepers of the culture, women are, seemingly, more affected by this void than men. But that which is characteristically American is vastly a due to a cultural void.

...fuck...

I haven't written here in a while. Perhaps it's because there was nothing to write about.
Life seemed almost too easy. Simple. But easy.

Much like our muscles, or anything else in life for that matter, if we do not strain, our intellects wither and lose that determination and concentration. We lose that which gives us the right to brand ourselves "intelligent" and "conscious", that which some of us struggle so greatly to acquire, that which, in my opinion, gave us the right to brand ourselves "human".

I have, for some time now, taken the path that such a great many people our age and generation advocate. I went for simplicity - perhaps in a different understanding than that of Mr. Substance or Mr. Alex, but I simply stopped caring about my possessions and started reevaluating my ideals. I packed my things, threw them in a trailer and moved in with my friend; thinking to myself, as I earn a little cash, I'll give him some sort of honorary rent.
Slowly, but surely, I began to not only accept, but live those morals which I had now, for some time, preached to myself. Materialism disappeared. Hate left. Prejudice was gone. And with prejudice went my egotism. I became simple. All that was left was a happy go-lucky person. The one that enjoys his life at the very moment he lives it - not the one that thinks it.

So, I went to parties, had fun. Enjoyed the superficial and flirtatious interactions of everyday life. Dropped the current idea of creating a business and found a simple little job to keep myself from worrying about finances. At the job, I enjoyed the company of simpler people. Did not strive to meet those who stimulate me intellectually - there was no prejudice pushing me - there were no expectations. I settled. I lived my daily routine, and found interest in the moment being. Even my parents seemed to stop bothering me - or maybe I just stopped noticing.

I became that which I respected in others, but that which I never thought I would become. I became blissfully simple.

Even now, as I am writing this, words don’t flow. Thoughts don’t lineup and organize – they vanish instants after they surface. I feel dumber. I feel stupid.

Maybe I lost at this game which I undertook. I came to conquer, but I was slain somewhere along the way.

Maybe not. I am noticing this for a reason. It’s my intellect putting up a fight – and I’m not going to let it die. I am not that kind of person. I will not awaken in 10 years only to cry for help. I will take myself by what is left of my most basic instincts and start hating. Start judging. I will start loathing that which stands in my way. I will detest that which my crisp and blazing thoughts brand as arid and useless. I will live again.

PS: Ha! – granted this isn’t my greatest work or the most intelligent thing I wrote, but I have to say that the change in my thinking and writing style was not deliberate and “just happened”. I think this is why the concept of blogs and journals is so successful.

Pss: As a matter of fact, I think my best bet for strengthening myself is to just avoid useless conversation and stay as close as possible to my natural hateful and/or judgmental thoughts as possible. What I think I mean by this post is that seeking what the Buddha and so many others refer to as enlightenment is wrong as it takes us away from our natural identities – or maybe it’s just wrong for those of us who wish to think.

To Be and to Become

Learn what you are and be such - Pindar (BC522-BC443).

The Greek poet gave this redundant advice.

How can you learn to be what you are? Is it about finding our dharma - our calling? Aren't you you simply by being alive? Why become something we already are? Is it a koan-like aphorism, setting the wheels of inquiry in motion without giving practical information?

However mystical or poetic it seems, I will interpret Pindar's line as if it veridically was a concrete set of instructions to bring about progress in our self-development.

River VS Sphere

In Philosophy, it can be useful to divide ontology - What is to be? - in two main traditions:
The River and the Sphere.

Heraclites (The River) and Parmenides (The Sphere) were two "pre-Socratic" philosophers holding two different conceptions of reality represented by two different allegories.

~~~~~~ The River ~~~~~~

Heraclites's River implies an ever changing reality. The water you see in the riverbed at one instant is not the same as the water you are seeing a split second later. The river is in constant motion. Reality is flowing, never exactly twice the same - it is impermanent as a Buddhist might say. The river is slower one day, warmer, darker, fuller others. In the same way, all reality is motion. Transcendence does not exist. It is physical energy, natural science which govern a world of infinite complexity, filled with matter and energy.
The River represents materialism

ooooooo The Sphere ooooooo

Parmenides's Sphere on the other hand implies transcendence. What we experience in our lives is the imperfect manifestation of eternal, perfect designs. There is a world of perfection where pure Ideas exist: Love, Circle, Tree... The tree we see is a physical occurence of a pre-created, perfect model. In the same way, it is the transcendental notion of Love which is ultimately is real whereas love we experience is a happening of something pre-existent.
The Sphere represents Idealism.

The River, the Sphere, and becoming who you are

If we look at things from the Sphere perspective, you cannot become who you are, because who you are already an imperfect manifestation of your own perfect design.

From the River perspective however, you are your body and you are caught in the natural chain of events. You have physical needs, pleasures, aversions, sufferings. You also have an infinity of elements interacting with you from your environment. You cannot change that predicament. You must learn to accept it; and to accept it you must first be conscious of it. Therefore, Pindar's aphorism makes a lot of sense under Heraclites's light.

As the River, you are always changing, yet obeying some physical laws. Learn what you are by methodically examining your physical reality, your transient desires, fears and pleasures. Acknowledge them and do not reject them. You do not have control over their occurring, since you obey laws of nature and the interaction with the natural world, through the channel of your body.

A practical sample of ways of "learning what you are" looks like this.

• Examine your position in the natural world. For example like all living objects you have drives to sustain yourself. You do so with the means of eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping. You probably also have the need to replicate yourself and your species. You also are sensitive to reward with pleasure, and punishment with pain.


• Bring your awareness empirically events as they occur. Look at your ways of handling situations, your physiology, your behavioral patterns, your cultural background.
  
• Practice mindfulness. Observe the natural world to see how it is changing, how it is working. By being mindful of all that arises you learn about your environment, your responses and ultimately about human nature and your own nature.

After all this objective examination, you will have greater notion of what you cannot control and what you intrinsically are. The second is step is to become who you are.

From the knowledge of what you are, all it takes is acceptance.

To become what you are you must ultimately learn to accept what you have witnessed about yourself and live in this physical body and this physical mind without resistance.

MY House! Um, well...ok, YOUR house anyway.