As One Network

As One Network News August 2022

We hope everyone is doing well these days as falling cicadas descend upon us.
This year, for the first time in several years, summer festivals and fireworks displays were held in various areas filled with families, Once again, the presence of people who are working for the happiness of everyone in their local communities comes to the front of my mind.
The AS ONE Network has also started new and powerful activities overseas. The "As-One Seminar" was held in Switzerland for the first time. Diverse people from all over Europe participated in the seminar, and they were able to free themselves from anger, judgment, and assumptions while becoming aware of their true desires.
This month, we will continue to bring you updates from around the world. Please take a look.

https://mailchi.mp/4cdd17ff86cd/news-aug2022-hp

Two Women from Germany Participated in As One Suzuka Tour

Two women from Germany participated in the As One Suzuka Tour from July 23 (Sat.) to 24 (Sun.).
One is an architect and filmmaker who came to Japan through an introduction by our long-time friend Dr. Hahn, and will stay until early August to make a film about the As One Suzuka community.
The other was a female university student studying Japanese in Germany who came to Kobe University as an exchange student. She was interested in eco-villages and was looking for examples in Japan, and came to Gaia Education's open lecture last Saturday.



After the two days, it seemed to me that the focus had shifted to what is most important in creating ecovillages and communities. In particular, in talking with community members, it seemed that deep relationships between people are important and their interest in the ScienZ Method to make this happen has deepened.

We were invited to give a lecture in Brazil on the 11th, following the 7th.



This time it was at a community space called Casa da Nonna in Sao Paulo.



This time, along with Masashi Ono of the institute, Diego, who lived in Suzuka for 5 years and is now training at As One in Brazil, also gave a talk.



Enzo, the 28-year-old organizer of this place, attended Gaia Education in Brazil in 2016 and is working to build new relationships in the city of São Paulo, where he grew up.



Although it was a small group, it was a dense gathering of young people and an opportunity to experience new possibilities.

On July 7, Masashi Ono of the ScienZ Institute was invited to give a lecture in Brazil.



Location: Montessori Kindergarten Bambu in Sao Carlos



The theme was "Parenting without Pressure or Punishment.



From the site, we received the following report: "It was an enjoyable time to discuss with enthusiastic participants about the ideal environment for a child to grow up and how the adults should create it."



The photo above is one with Diego and others, who have been learning at the ScienZ Academy in Suzuka for 5 years and have been training at the As One Community in Brazil since April.

A " Getting to Know Oneself Course" was held at ScienZ School Brazil.

Here are some comments from the participants of the " Getting to Know Oneself Course" at the ScienZ School Brazil.



Until now, I think that has been entered in me things like responsability, rules, way of thinking, strong defend of my ideas, etc. I though that those things make me feel safe, so I though that they were necessary to me, making me create more and more self confident in my mind.

I think that is possible in the daly life, little by little, to going to know that especially because I don't need to protect my self is why I am in a state of true security and satisfaction living together with other people.

If we live in a society where we don't need to force ours ideas in each others, our minds go naturally becoming more soft and adaptive.(Male, 30s, Brazil)

The First As One Seminar in Switzerland!


Group photo of the As One Seminar in Switzerland

From July 17 to 23, participants aged 22 to 67 gathered from Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. (There were even Brazilians on the living staff)

It was an international seminar with German, Dutch, English, Japanese, and sometimes Portuguese.

It was amazing to see how the diverse group of people became close like a family, free from anger, fixed ideas, and assumptions, and transformed into an "As One" worldview where everything is connected.

I think human beings are wonderful ♫

"I was amazed at how we all came to see our true hearts as we explored together."

"We can start the society we want by ourselves."

・・・Everyone left full of hope.

The second As One Seminar will be held on December 27.

We are looking forward to building a new society in Europe.

Community Saijiki literary calendar

Summer Days Brief sketch

坂井和貴(Kazuki Sakai)

Community Saijiki litterature August Issue [Summer Days Brief sketch】

I woke up to multiple layers of sounds, coming from near and far, folding in on top of each other.
"Jiggidy jiggidy~ jiggidy jiggidy~ ・・・・"
I realize that midsummer has arrived.
As I opened the curtains, a cicada flew into the screen door and began to chirp.
The cicada's chirping was so loud that it vibrated the entire room.

On my way to work, I see clouds rising in the eastern sky.
The rice in the field to my right had grown to chest height, and the ears of rice were swelling.
Outside the full-length glass windows on the south side of the Suzuka Culture Station, a magnificent green curtain has formed, moderately blocking out the sunlight. Many bitter gourd fruits can now be seen.


Bitter melon curtains, a summer tradition at Suzuka Culture Station

(Brief sketch, Part 1)
Valerie Madoka and Karla participated in this tour of the Suzuka community (an opportunity to see the community and get in touch with its life and people over the course of two days and one night). Coincidentally, they both came from Germany. During the tour, we met Heungmi from Korea, who has been living here for 6 years, and Tacky, who is currently studying at the ScienZ Academy...


Karla and Valerie from Germany visiting the Suzuka community

Heungmi.
Living these days, I think...
I started to feel that I would like to have a child and raise it, and I started going to the hospital to do so -...I wonder how I came to think that way, and I think it might not have come up if I were on my own. I heard from my mother, "I really enjoyed having you and raising you, and I want you to experience it too," and my partner said, "I would like to live with our children in our home," and I heard from a number of other people in the community that they would like to do so, and that's how I felt. I guess I started to feel that way!
When we were discussing the next appointment date and time, the doctor would not just say when and when, but he would say, "I think it would be better to see Heung-mi a little earlier, so how about this day? " The doctor will think of something and say, "How about this day? That's both Dr. ○○ and Dr. XX. It's like it's not about me, even though it's about my body. It struck me as wonderful.

I don't know if I will actually be able to have children or not, but it's fun to see how these people are thinking and moving about me as if it were their own thing, and how such feelings are popping out of me.

Tacky.
Last night, there was a farewell party for those who are leaving after a year in the Academy, which reminded me that it's already July...
Exactly one year ago, I was in the middle of a big quarrel with a student at the Academy, and we had a very awkward relationship, and I didn't want to see her, so I was shut up in my room.
However staying in my room was just agony. I felt like I wanted everyone to listen to me, so I sent a message to the group line of the Academy students, and they all gathered in the living room.
Then I started to express my feelings, "Why do you always complain about others, prickly, prickly?" and that person started to say, "I don't want to do that either," As we all exchanged our thoughts, something inside me moved, and I realized that there was something in that person that compelled her to do so, and that she was now showing her feelings in that way. Until then, I could only see my own feelings of "I don't like it," but I noticed that she had her own world, and she was doing it that way...

Valerie Madoka
After listening to your stories...
In Germany, I am a project leader for a community development project, and sometimes I feel as if I am talking to a stone, not to a person.
Nothing comes from that kind of talk.
I feel now that what I want to do is also an exchange of "people to people"....

Karla
There are many eco-villages in Germany, and I have visited and experienced some of them.
Every eco-village has many events and festivals. People gather there from all over the place. It is fun at the time, but gradually everyone seems to get tired of it.
So it is not the events and festivals that are the focus of Heungmi and Tacky's enjoyment, but your daily lives.


Time to interact with "Tacky" and "Heungmi" who live in the Suzuka community.

( Brief sketch, part 2)
I was eating in the dining room with five-year-old Sakuto when I spoke to him because he was using children's chopsticks with two pieces connected to each other.

Sakuto said,
"I can't use adult chopsticks yet.
But Sara can.
And Haru can use chopsticks, too.
Akari can't use them yet."
Sakuto talks about each of the children in the community he is growing up with.
What are they like to each other?
It seems that there is no such thing as "that child is usable but I' m not, I'm useless", which is interesting, but I wonder if that is really the nature of human-beings.
The cicadas that keep chirping, the clouds that rise, and the ears of rice that grow, if they were to compare them to the cicadas, clouds, and ears of rice next to them, it would make me laugh out loud.

When Sakuto was playing in a nearby park, a construction man was building a prefabricated warehouse. Sakuto stayed beside him for a while and watched.
He started handing screws one by one to the construction worker.
When he finished one screw, Sakuto said at the perfect moment,
"Hi!"
and handed the screws to the man.
The construction worker responded,
"Hi!"
And then one by one, one screw after another was inserted.
The exchange between the two continued until the warehouse was finally completed.
Sakuto and the construction worker had never met before.
And what is it that they were communicating with each other?


" growing up in the community. Imitating his dads? Making mini rice paddies to grow rice

(Brief sketch, part 3)
Another scene. At the weekly [family meeting] of our community.

Junna.
(Opening) Ah, now that everyone is finally here, I can talk - I've been itching to tell you guys something, and I've been waiting for it since a while now...
Nanako.
(In the middle of the meeting) Oh, what should I do? I still had something to tell you. Can I go on and talk about it? I've been waiting for the meeting since last night ...

Where does this feeling of wanting to talk to [family members] of our community and have them listen to me even when they' re 40 or 50 years old come from?
"Hey, Mom, listen to me. listen to me."
I guess it's only natural, since that's how we all grew up....

( Brief sketch, part 4)
Valerie Madoka is an architect and filmmaker. She was born to a Japanese father and a German mother. She grew up in Germany all her life and speaks very little Japanese. In Germany, her father did not speak Japanese at all, and he never taught her.
She is currently trying to create a short artistic piece about the Suzuka community.
When we were eating together, I said to her,
"You are good with chopsticks.
"My father didn't teach me Japanese, but he taught me how to use chopsticks.”
She laughed.
"Oh yeah, do you want some natto?"
I asked her.
"My father used to eat natto, and I tried it once, but I couldn't."
She said.
I remember a TV program on a foreigner who had eaten all kinds of delicacies from all over the world, and he tried his hand at natto. He was very confident, but he gave up immediately after smelling it.
Madoka looked at me curiously while I was eating natto, saying it was delicious.
I think "likes" and "dislikes" are not very meaningful things at all.
It is simply created by the environment, and can be changed in any way depending on the environment.
It is a relative thing, but we make it into an absolute value in our mind, which is a very stupid thing to do.
Is "good/bad" and "superiority/inferiority" the same thing? It's all in our mind.
They have nothing to do with "the thing, the person, itself"


Valerie is an architect and filmmaker. "I want to tell the story of the community through images."

Madoka, Nanako, and Naoe
It was the first time the three of them met and had dinner in the dining room.
Madoka, who can speak German, French, and English fluently but understands almost no Japanese, Naoe, who has stayed in Australia for two years but cannot speak English at all, and Nanako, who has lived in Brazil for over 20 years and admits to being halfway through Japanese, Portuguese, and English, were all worried before dinner, wondering if they would be able to communicate with each other. After dinner, the three of them, all in the same age bracket, were like old friends or even sisters in girl talk. I thought I was the most fluent English speaker among the three, but I was left behind, unable to keep up with their fast-paced conversation.
Until just an hour ago, these three had never met or talked to each other.
Without this chance, they might never have gotten to know each other in their entire lives.
It's so amazing how "people to people" are...what is it about?

Summer days Brief sketch in the Suzuka community, one corner of the earth.
Each of these sketches may seem to be a common scene that could be found anywhere in the world.
But why is it that they do not feel separate from each other, even though the scenes and people are different from each other?
The visible appearances are all different from each other, but I wonder if they are somehow connected to the source from which they emerge.


Summer sky seen from Suzuka Shirako Port


The summer clouds that spring up day by day, changing their appearance.
Where and how do they come from?
We "people" and "people to people" change our expressions day by day.
What is the origin of the emergence?
And then,
Any appearance that comes to the surface
Every figure
Any expression
I adore...

Academy students studying at Suzuka Community 【Everyday life watching the sky together】

Creating the Next Society - Part 7
Toward a society where people can live gently and without conflict
Masashi Ono, ScienZ Institute, Inc.



Chapter 3
1. Organizational management of the next society - How is your decision-making?

A lot of people have come to visit the As One Suzuka community from around Japan and abroad. Many of them are surprised to learn about the corporate management without orders, hierarchy, rules, and responsibilities, as well as a challenge of economy without the need for money. And there is one question that always comes up.
"How is your decision-making?"
"Is there really no leader?"
These are not only our core themes of community building, but also interesting topics for those seeking new organizational management, such as teal or holacracy ones. Also, in various activities, families, couples, and other relationships,it may be a major theme "how do we decide what to do?".

There is a UNESCO certified educational program called Ecovillage Design Education for people who are interested in community building. It is held in 45 locations around the world. In Japan, GEN-Japan (Global Ecovillage Network Japan) has been organizing and hosting the program since 2017, and the As One Suzuka community has kept cooperating with the program as its main venue. In its text, the first thing to do in community building is "to decide the way of decision-making".

How is it in the As One Suzuka community?
In a nutshell, our management method is "to bring whatever members have in mind, consider study them carefully, and try them out freely".
When I explain like this way, many people misunderstand and say, "So you get together and decide together!" But this is not the case at all. We have never had a meeting with all members for twenty years.
People, who spontaneously want to come together and do things, start holding conversations here and there freely.

And sometimes, opinions may be formed like "Let's do this!". But even if such agreement is reached at that point, the decisions to do or not to do it are left to the independent will of each person.
In other words, the "decision-making" is done by each individual. If you do not agree with it, you do not have to do it. And even if once a decision is made, circumstances, feelings, and opinions can be changing. And so you can choose not to do, reconsider, or discuss it again.
Everything in nature is constantly changing, and there is no center or leader anywhere. I think it makes sense for the operation of human societies to change constantly as the natural world is.
I also think that human society can exist in harmony, without a center or a leader.

"Wow, that's how you build a community?"
"Your company makes 1000 boxed luches every day, doesn't it? How can you operate with that?"
I am sure some of you may be asking yourself those questions.

We have been educated in democratic societies, and subconsciously we have developed a pattern of thinking that we must gather together, make a decision together, and follow what is decided ; "these are the rules of democracy."
However, those are some of the ideas created by humans, fictions. In addition, they have become fixed ideas among people. As the result, when we meet those who do not follow the rules, we may come to see such persons as "selfish" or "self-indulgent". Such fictions become the norm and lead people to obey what are decided, even if they don't agree; willing obedience"

"Willing obedience" means that "a person is convinced of his or her own autonomy, however objectively, the one obeys others and the social systems unconciously". It is a state in which the person "teaches himself or herself" that "I must do this here" or "I must not do this here" without being told by anyone.
Because of repeated taught "what they must do" and "what they must not do" through punishment and rewards since childhood, an attitude has been developed; "actively try to do what is praised rather than what is scolded"

As the result, people are in a fixed state of thinking as if there are certain things they "must" or "must not" do. If you are alone in this condition, you may have a chance to reconsider. But if most people in society are in the similar state, it will be easy to say,"I knew it." or "Everyone is like that". It also often happens that people exclude, blame, or deny others out of the norm as "weird" or "strange". But also when they see others being blamed or denied, they will try to avoid being blamed or denied themselves. In this way, they will fall into a cycle of making their own obedience stronger.

If we take "must do" for granted,a truly free society will not come.
We have interacted with various communities and organizations, but few of them are reviewing their operations from a zero-point perspective. That is why people bind each other and create hierarchies.
In today's society, we often feel fear of "having to follow the decision". And so when a decision is made in a place that you are not involved in, the fear makes you uneasy, doesn't it? Some people get angry, "Where was it decided!" I think such people are actually in a very anxious state of mind.

In the As One Suzuka community, it is all rich and joyful to have someone somewhere to think about. Many things are decided by ideas that I don't have. We are tempted to try it, first of all, riding on the results of someone else's idea like that, because it sounds like fun.
That kind of cheerful and lighthearted relationship is a big part of it.

And, even if it is something we don't want to do or be involved in, then, of course, we don't have to do it. Also, once something is decided, if there is a different opinion in mind, we can always say as much as we want, and we can always review or change it.

However, I don't think it is possible to just try to do the way the Suzuka community operates in a form. It is necessary to free ourselves from those fixed ideas such as "It must be done what has been decided", "We must take responsibility for what we say,", and "We must decide together,"; they are considered natural in today's societies. If we can not get free from them, we will not be able to act freely, nor will we be able to accept people who do act freely.

Also, you need to know how to "really talk things over" and the basics essential to discussion, such as "listening to people". I don't think As One's management method will work smoothly without them.

For example, when several people come by and something is decided in the place where you are not invited, you may feel like a victim, feeling "left out","ignored". Or you may complain or get angry;"Why didn't you call me!" or "Where did you get this decision?". In such cercumstances it is certainly that a frlexible management is not possible.
Also, if people are concerned that "I really want to have a discussion with these people, but if I don't invite that person, he/she will be in a bad mood, so I should invite him/her" or "I feel sorry for him/her, so I should invite him/her", we will never have a truly free society.
The first thing we need to do is to free ourselves from the fixed ideas such as "we should all talk it over", "it's wrong to refuse", and some others!

If you want to manage an organization of "the next society," the first step to realize is to become a person who is free and independent, free from the restraints that bind you and others. If our thoughts are still old-fashioned, we cannot run the next new societies.
The next societies will be able to be managed in harmony by people doing things on their own free will. We call such a management system an "Independent-will Harmonious Society," or a "Dynamic Harmonious Society".

Even if we can explain it in words,we think that it is difficult to understand such operation. Seeing is believing. Please take the time to actually see and feel it for yourself.