JINEN – Philosophy of Ecological LIFE in JAPAN

On this occasion we want to give you a green ecological touch if you have felt that call to be a little more environmentalist, ecologist, we can probably help you to have more ideas, or even to go a little further than what is normally known. And it is that what we want to talk about is the Jinen.

Jinen is a Japanese concept that refers to living like nature, that is, living as part of nature. They have probably realized that they are currently emphasizing that we live with nature, in short, that we are superior to nature, we can make and unmake it as we want, we have to dominate nature to continue growing.

Undoubtedly in recent years, society’s concept of our position in nature and how we use it has improved a little, going from “it must be mastered, it must be changed, it must be transformed”, to now saying “we must live with nature, you have to learn to live with nature”. And it’s not bad, it’s an improvement between destroying it, dominating it, living with nature, but I think it should go further.

This is the idea that the jinen has, to live as nature that we already are, to forget about a type of dominion over nature or a type of coexistence with nature, as if it were something possible. For example, when you go to the forest and you find a hive of bees, those perfect shapes of the same size and that they all work, all producing honey, a perfect organization. When you see this, it goes through your mind, “how beautiful nature is”, but you don’t think that it is a work of art or engineering. But when we see a building, a bridge, a dam, built by human beings, we no longer consider it a work of nature, but an artificer, a totally independent concept. But why don’t we consider what we humans do as a product of nature, when we are part of nature?

Perhaps now we ask ourselves, how can we reach the Jinen, or what is the ideal, because it is not just about deciding that today I am already part of nature. In Japan there is talk of a whole process that is simple in concept, but complicated in implementation. It all starts with something similar to traditional environmentalism or ecology, how can we take care of nature, how can we restore nature, what if global warming, and all these issues that we have become accustomed to in modern society, but unfortunately present to us distanced from nature. We talk about these issues as if they do not involve us, as if we are in a great position of power, outside, superior, from which we can repair or break the system.

“Repairing” the damage caused, limiting the specific abuse, only relatively delays the next catastrophe. Today it is global warming, but are our way of life, the changes that we propose, really aimed at avoiding damage in other points that at this moment do not seem urgent to us? Our mentality of domination prevents us from seeing from our real position, within nature. We help the balance, we do not impose new balances.

The concept of Jinen, living as nature, is an idea that exists in ancient Japanese culture, where society likes to admire flowers, birds, walk in the mountains, even dedicating a day as a national holiday to nature. The temples, the towns, even the first cities, were built within the limits imposed by the natural balance with other living beings, creating that unique image that we now enjoy of “lost” temples within the forests in the mountains. Nature did not “invade” the space dedicated to the forest, nature was not destroyed to build and then nature reconquered its space, but from the beginning the construction was conceived as a bird’s nest, a squirrel’s burrow, or the cave of a bear, that is, as part of nature.

Unfortunately, even the Japanese society that so carefully kept its traditions, has lost much of this awareness of belonging to nature, we have become obsessed with transforming it just because “we can do it”, as something external, as if It won’t affect us.

Big changes need to start with small steps, and this is no exception. For this we have a phrase that encompasses the basic concept known as Chisoku, “Ware Tada Taru wo Shiru” (吾唯知足), literally “I know satisfaction” This refers to knowing the limit, “I have enough to feel satisfied “, “I have what I need to live”, without excesses, without greed, without breaking the natural balance with other living beings. Just as lions don’t hunt for “fun,” if their food needs are met, they don’t go hunting gazelles just because they can.

The concept talks about how we human beings can alter part of what surrounds us, nature. We are not saying that civilization should remain stagnant or something like that, but that we have to know the limits of satisfaction. There are colonies of birds that make gigantic nests in trees and obviously alter nature, often even damaging parts of the tree. Not to mention a beaver, it cuts back trees to collect branches to retain some of the force of a river. All animals have an impact around us, in nature, but the problem with human beings is that their posture of feeling superior makes them feel unsatisfied and excess begins. You no longer know if you are planting more grain because you need it to be satisfied or because you want it to have an excess. This leads to a surplus born of fear, which begins to grow more and more, and this has been taken advantage of by the mass media. They tell you you need this makeup to look prettier, you need these clothes to look slimmer, or you need these shoes to be fashionable, and they create this fear in people for wanting to enter society and not be left out.

That is part of growing as a civilization, we are not satisfied with what we have, so we look for a little more, and a little more, etc., but we are not doing it in an equitable or progressive way. We are taking gigantic leaps to try to satisfy a few who are very harassed, while the rest of the population is not even receiving part of those surplus satisfaction, they are not even managing to satisfy their basic needs.

Now, what can I personally do to help social change. For this we have the Naikan, the practice of meditating, seeing within yourself what your needs are, what you need, how you can feel satisfied, why you feel dissatisfied. This is an exercise that we must do constantly, because although there are clear signals that our body gives us to satisfy our needs (sleep, hunger, etc.), others are not so clear or obvious. When should we stop working, how much money is enough to enjoy my life, etc.

This is a slow change, an exercise that must be done with patience so that these small steps or changes are lasting and consistent. It is not convenient to make abrupt changes to return to the starting point a few days later. The purpose is to find excesses that we can avoid in our lives, it is not about not consuming, not enjoying, not transforming, not wanting, but about doing things without excess. Learn to satisfy ourselves correctly.

At this point, a circle is completed. This process takes us back to the Jinen, which in turn helps us to complete the Chisoku, so in a way, we recycle, reuse and reduce the surplus from within, affecting us as nature. And by saving ourselves from excess, we are saving nature, because we are nature.