As One Network

As One Network News October 2022

The typhoons have passed. While many people are still working hard to recover from the massive disasters, our sympathies are with those who affected by the disaster. At the same time, we suddenly realize that we are now in the midst of autumn, the season of harvest. The buzzing cicadas had been replaced by the cool singing of bellbirds, and red dragonflies are playing over the fields after rice was harvested.
Indeed, the mother earth has given us free present of its infinite abundance. Having received such a gift, how can we make the most of it and pass it on to the next generation?
The earth continues to nurture living beings by giving them abundance without asking for anything in return.
We humans were born from the same planet, originally "one".
But people and people have been repeatedly fighting and opposing each other for a long time.
Why is this? Human beings are not like this, we think.
Again, this month's As One Network News will be a report on the activities of people in various regions, who believes in the possibility of human beings and wishes for their happiness.
https://mailchi.mp/f8b62e373731/news-oct2022-hp

Creating the Next Society - Part 8-2
Toward a society where people can live gently and without conflict
Masashi Ono, ScienZ Institute, Inc.

Chapter 3.　2. An Experiment in an Economy without Money Intervention（Part 2）

Possession is a human idea that the owners do not allow others to use his or her things freely. It is a social system, in which one can use a thing with the owner's permission, but is punished for using it without the owner's approval. In other words, once one person owns an object, the rest of the world cannot freely use that object without that person's permission. In today's society, people all over the world are trying to expand their ownership, so no matter how abundant things become, there are few things that can be used freely except for the things one owns.
In such a society, the only way to use things freely is to own them in a self-protective manner. In such a negative cycle, we seem to be strangling each other and suffering. If we leave the idea and social system of ownership alone, trying to achieve more freedom and affluence, it will be no different from trying to do so in a prison of bondage.
In the As One Suzuka community, an innovative economy has been operating; that has escaped from the fiction created by human. In other words, an economy is being operated according to the human nature, i.e., without exchange, without possession, without reward, and without money.

It is important to make things rich, of course, but it is also important to have a system and operation that everyone can obtain freely. At present, I think there is a strong economic concept that each individual has to earn and live separately. However, we do not have to work hard individually. We can all enrich society and live in peace with its blessings, so that we can live a unique life, fulfilled both physically and mentally.
The Suzuka community members live in an ordinary town, each building or renting a house, flat or condominium, so it looks like the lives of separate families, but the community has become like a 'home' and there are more than 70 people who live in 'one household' with no separation. It is an economy where goods, services and money (wages, household income and property) are freely utilised by each other.　　　
　
Because they are a very tight-knit family, free from fiction, it is very natural that there is no money involved and that money can be freely and flexibly shared with each other. If you are in a close family relationship, it is normal not only for family members not to transact money within the family, but also for money to freely and flexibly flow between them, isn't it?　It means that many people have such close family relationships.

To ensure the smooth flow of 'one family budget', there is a system of community HUBs. It is a place where people can openly and freely discuss all aspects of their lives, including work, housing, education, health, family, taxes, health, money and even psychological matters.
They professionally help each family to understand their financial situation and take care of procedural paperwork and administrative tasks, so that each person can focus on their own area of work without the hassle of worrying about the family finances.
I also live in the As One Suzuka community, but I don't usually carry a wallet.

The act of giving is not limited to goods, but extends to wisdom, skills and abilities.
People's acts do not require a favor or reward in return. There is no need to exchange a person's act for money. All the work comes from the person's willingness to do it. It is an act or gift from the person's heart.
People who have skills, such as hairdressers, repair and maintenance of cars and bicycles, repair of household appliances and installation of air-conditioners, give the best of what they have.
In addition, people who are good at what they do can easily take on tasks that are too much for amateurs or people who are not good at them, such as buying and supporting computers, houses, land, appliances and cars, and arranging travel and moving.
It is a joyful chain of satisfaction for both the person who does it and the person who gives it.
In a close, friendly relationship, there is no need to worry about money. One after another, a system is created in which necessary goods, whether cars, home appliances, books or clothes, flow to the necessary people.
In a rural city like Suzuka, many households have two or three cars per house. However, In the As One community, the number of cars is very low.
For people are closer than family members, and lots of such people live in neighborhoods. Their workplaces are close by and they rarely need to go shopping because of the community space Joy and the family dining system. Some cars are used exclusively by the person and some are used by people from different members as car shares.
I don't have a car in my name either, but I have a car that suits my needs; a car for when I go far away, a car that suits my needs when I carry luggage, or a larger, clean car when I pick up people, etc. I live in a lifestyle where I am provided with and allowed to use a car that suits my needs. When a close relationship is achieved, a good ecological and economical lifestyle is achieved with ease and simplicity.
Many people say, "I love it! I want to bring JOY back home!" I want to create JOY in my community too." when they visit As One Community, But it doesn't work if you try to imitate the form. The key is familiarity before form.
To achieve that, it is necessary to be aware of and release the fixed fictions of possessions of households, exchanges and rewards; that disturb the closeness, isn't it?
If you try to imitate the form, you may find that you are bound in the opposite direction, as you should not own anything, and this can be crippling.
A world free from fixed fictions is an inherently free world. It also means a relationship where people can talk to each other about anything.
It means that once you have really close relationships and can talk about anything, a world that does not need money is easy to create.
More proof than argument!　Come and see our attempt at an economy without money!

Community Saijiki literary calendar

【 Cute in Anyway, Anytime 】

坂井和貴(Kazuki Sakai)

“Mr. Sakai~, I'm home!”
Ah-chan arrived from Korea for the first time in two and a half years.

Yeomin, now four years old, looks up at us as we are talking.
"Yeomin, you've grown up," I said to her and she quickly hid behind Ah-chan.
Soon after, one-year-old Yeojung came up to us, moving her body from side to side.
"This is Yeojung,"



Ah-chan said.
This is Yeojung's first visit to Japan, of course. A smile is on her face.

Before the pandemic, when Ah-chan was saying goodbye to me on her way back to Korea,
"I will definitely come back again, Mr. Sakai," she said, running up to me and giving me a hug.

The next moment, Yeomin, who was two years old at the time, walked up to me and hugged me in the exact same way her mother had done, imitating what she had seen.
As I kneeled down and embraced Yeomin's tiny body, I couldn't help but feel a rush of love for the little girl, which eventually spilled out of me.
And now, Yeomin, who hides behind her mother, is also adorable.



In September, the Corona's waterfront measures have loosened up, and the back-and-forth with foreign countries is becoming more and more active.
・9/7 Kim Sayri from Korea for a 2-month practice program.
・9/8 Ms. Iwata returned from Brazil.
・9/10 Alex and Antje from Switzerland came to Japan for a 3-month practice program.
・9/11 Three students from Korea, Dong-Ha, Geum-Sang, and Jung-Ah, enrolled as associate Academy students .
(Yeomin, Yeojung, and Seomgyeol, along with their three children)
・9/13 Hiroko Katayama participated in the Ecoversities Alliance Gathering in Thailand.
・9/19 Leo, Mr. and Mrs. Tsukioka went to Brazil

Dinner at the community "Family Dining Zero" was very lively. Japanese, Korean, English, German, and Portuguese were spoken here and there. Such a scene is becoming more and more common.
Nowadays, the centerpiece of the family dining room, where everyone from infants to seniors can relax, is the freshly harvested "new rice".

Seed rice prepared during the winter is sown in nurseries, and the seedlings are planted in rice paddies at the end of April or beginning of May. During early summer, the rainy season, and midsummer, the seedlings grow roots to feed on the fertilizer stored in the soil, rooting firmly and growing thicker stalks, which eventually produce ears and fertile crops. Then, from late August to September, the harvest season arrives.
The first appearance of freshly harvested rice in the dining room was on September 3rd.
The menu that day was very simple: RICE BALLS made with the new rice.
The next rice ball was being tucked into one after the other, with exclamations of "this is so tasty!" being heard here and there, and before long, more than twice the usual amount of rice had been consumed by everyone.



"Sometimes, it's nice to eat a lot of rice like today."
We could hear Tamaki, a student at the Academy, muttering.
It was a day that made us think, "Rice is the best for those of us who live in Japan.
It reminded me of a distant autumn day in my mother's countryside, when I was a little kid playing around the rice field with many of my cousins. The smiling parents watching over us, a sky so blue I could almost be sucked into it, the fragrance of the harvest filling my heart, the birds singing echoing in the mountains, the firmness and brittleness of the rice plants when I stepped on them, the sweetness and astringency of the persimmons I ate, the tranquility and absolute peace of mind of the original landscape.



Last year, for the first time, we were able to grow of the rice used in our community and in our mother's lunch box company from our own rice fields. This means that we have achieved 100% self-sufficiency in rice production.
SUZUKA FARM Co., Ltd. was established in 2010, and even before that, Mr. Inagaki had been growing rice for years so that community members could eat rice feeling at ease.
In the beginning, he rented fields from aging local farmers, but old men and women who could not stand to see how poorly he was doing helped him out a lot. Sometimes, they even provided him with a combine harvester and other farming equipment.
Known as "Inachan Farm," Inagaki started his own farm, then started a company with a few young people in their 20s and 30s, and started working enthusiastically 12 years ago. However, they quickly came to a standstill. Both in terms of management and their relationship with each other. Some young people gave up and left.
However, that was the real beginning of the new SUZUKA FARM, which was started by one or two people who wanted to put down roots there. We have spent more than 10 years slowly and deliberately nurturing the farm to become a veritable family business for our community, by returning to the true purpose of what we grow rice and vegetables for, why we do this business, and what kind of company and society we are trying to create.
And all of our rice is now homegrown.
Of course, we're still on our way, but its been cheerful along the way!



Alex and Antje have been here from Switzerland for almost 3 weeks now.
Alex was born in Switzerland, but Antje was originally born and raised in East Germany and has lived in Switzerland since German reunification. In one of our meetings, they said something like this.
"In Switzerland and Germany, I sometimes feel that the social atmosphere we grew up in is very rigorous. Parents, teachers, and superiors always tell us what is right or what we must do, and they always warn, point out, and force us to do things. Even when we grow up, we continue to have that kind of relationship with each other. We keep an eye on each other skeptically."
As I listened, I did not hear that this was a Swiss or German thing, and I felt that I, being in Japan, had gone through a similar path. Discipline, education, correcting others...
Growing up, becoming a parent, I have unknowingly pushed that path to the next generation.
We don't know a human being, we don't know life, and we don't know or try to know any other way than that. The people in Switzerland and Germany who are trying to correct people in a harsh way overlap with me, I don't feel like a stranger.
I now wonder why I took such a stupid thing so seriously, but it is hard to realize one's own stupidity and shallowness when one is doing it unconsciously and for the right reasons.
Alex and Antje seem to be sensing a calm atmosphere in the Suzuka community today. It's like they're embraced, so they don't have to worry about what others think, and they're willing to be open about what they're thinking...



I am looking back over the past 10 years of my life and thinking about how I have lived in such an environment and soil.
It is thanks to the soil of this community that I have finally begun to live a more humane life at my age. It is not just that there is a warm environment and atmosphere, but also that there is always a guidepost and an opportunity to return to one's starting point and to live life in one's own way. The existence of parents who embody the kind of swerveless strictness that comes from such deep love.
And it is the subject of each individual, himself/herself, who moves forward there.

Well, Yeomin.
The last time she lived in Japan, she was with "Umi," who was born right around the same time as her.
After two years without seeing each other at all, we wonder if they remember each other.
What would it be like to see each other again?
Somehow, we were all thinking about that.
Here's what they looked like "then".



Umi and Yeomin
Glancing at each other?
They were playing in the water at a distance from each other.
But before they knew it, they were getting closer and closer.
Yeomin follows behind Umi with the same movement.
Umi follows behind Yeomin again, doing the same movement
And so on and so forth.
As they move in the same way, they become partners
It's interesting that they seem to be communicating with each other even though they don't speak to each other.



I heard that the emperor penguins in Antarctica, who couple with the same partner every year, synchronize and make the same movements when they meet each other for the first time in a year. I guess Umi and Yeomin are the same.
That day, Yeomin also told her mother, Ah-chan
"I played with Umi today!"
Ah-chan was surprised to hear the word "Umi" come out of Yeomin's head.
Not only Yeomin, but also Yeojung and Seomgyeol are already at home with the children in the community. They blend in so quickly. Seeing them like this, the adult relationships that have always been so distant seem unnatural.



Just as the harvesting of rice cannot be done overnight, the fact that people from Korea and Switzerland, including their children, are able to come here and live together as if they were at "home" is due to the existence of parents who have been listening, visiting, and caring for them for years and years, in order to make this happen.
"No matter what they do, they are always cute."
I am sure that everyone has glimpsed this state of being in his or her own mind.

No matter what they do, no matter what they cannot do, no matter what they are, no matter what happens to them, we just adore them.
The parent who wishes for the true happiness of their child, watches over them, and walks ahead of them.
Parental hearts and parental love nurture such happy people and lead to a gentle society.
The children who live in such a society. Each one of those days becomes the original landscape and starting point for each one of them.

In the As One Community in Brazil, a camp for young people is held on a regular basis. Many young people participate.



This month, we had a meeting with the members who are staffing the "Brazilian As One Community Youth Camp".
LEO, who is studying as a "ScienZ Academy Student" at the As One Community in Japan, also returned to Brazil for the first time in a while and participated in the meeting.


LEO, a student of ScienZ Academy. Attending a meeting in Brazil from Japan.

"What are we trying to accomplish at the youth camp?"
"What are our goals, what do we want to achieve?"

First of all, it is important for the staff members to get along well with each other and be able to talk about anything and everything, so that the young people who will participate in the camp can understand what we are trying to achieve.

"The staff members this time ranged from 17 to 39 years old. I felt that the young people were very motivated to create something together for the next generation", said LEO.



It seems that there are many young people in Brazil who would like to visit the As One Community in Japan and are also interested in the ScienZ Academy.
We are sure that exchanges with Brazil will become more and more active in the future.


Diego" (rightmost photo),is studying in the As One Community in Japan.
Diego is also creating the next society in Brazil by studying between Brazil and Japan.

In September, we have a number of people coming from overseas to study at the Suzuka Community.

Alex and Antje from Switzerland (front left) ↓



From Korea, Say-ri, Geum-sang & Dong-ha with their son Seomg-yeol, Jung-ah and their two children Yeo-jung and Yeo-min (from left to right in the photo) ↓



Alex, Antje and Say-ri are "As One Style Practice Program" students

Gum-sang, Dong-ha and Jung-ah are coming to Japan to study as ScienZ Academy students.

The children have started living at Cherish, a voluntary daycare center during the day, with other children from the community, under the watchful eyes of the grandparents, brothers and sisters.





In this issue, we asked these two from Switzerland to report on what it was like for them to come to Suzuka and what kind of time they are spending there.

Alex

After attending the As One Seminar, I felt lifted up in the world and fulfilled in myself. When I travelled from Suzuka to Switzerland last June after just 10 days of stay in Suzuka, I felt like I was leaving home. Then I knew I wanted to come back, for a longer time.

In August I went to the course to get to know the society. Since then I wonder how can we create a society where no one has to do anything, where everyone acts freely and which is harmonious at the same time. A society in which people enjoy giving each other a fulfilled life. I want to learn here to become a person who can do that.

For me, many things are new and interesting here like the food, the weather, the language, it's a different kind of sleeping here, the art of living together etc. I enjoy doing things together with the other people here, eating together, learning Japanese, working, sitting together in the living room and of course the meetings where you can say anything and hear anything.

I try to investigate, observe, while working and everywhere. It's interesting to see where it succeeds and where it doesn't. And why not? And to look at that together in the meetings. I don't want to hold anything back, to say everything that is inside me and look at it together. I hope that in this way I will come closer and closer to reality, get to know reality. I feel good, I feel more and more at home, even if my inner self is not yet calm.

I often think about the harmonious society, the future society. And how do you realise it? I see the academy students every day and sometimes I wonder if I can become an academy student too. I have a return ticket to Switzerland in three months, but I have the feeling that I actually want to stay here, learn Japanese well and realise paradise for all people by doing research together with these people here. Because I have no doubt that together it is possible.




Antje

I have been in Suzuka for about 3 weeks now and am taking part in the practice program. In Switzerland, I have been living in a eco-village for a long time. I want to find out what human life means and participate in a society where everyone can live happily. 3 years ago Ono-San came to Switzerland and I started attending the As One courses. I enjoyed it very much to look from zero again. It feels so gentle and I realised that I want to explore more in this way. The desire became stronger to go to Suzuka one day and see how people live together there. What does the As One style look like? When I arrived with Alex, I was surprised that we were participating in the practice program. I think I rather wanted to look from the outside. Now I am in the middle of getting to know myself. I realised that I can't enjoy it if I don't know and understand anything. With my thinking that I have to understand...it becomes difficult. Then I tried to get to know everything and to familiarise myself with things. I quickly realised that I can do that every day. And now? How is it now? It doesn't matter how much I know or understand. Am I now looking, asking, listening? Forming relationships with different people is very exciting. As soon as I fix an idea or thought in my head, e.g. I can't do that or I don't understand anything, something in the connection from me falters. I feel disconnected. I have the opportunity here to look at all the everyday things. Why do I want to do this work? What is behind the joy of having achieved something? I have a picture of myself, but what am I really like? I am looking forward to looking and examining in the meetings and trying things out again and again.