User:Macropneuma/Masanobu Fukuoka's philosophy and language translation

Philosophy and language translation
The

phrase of Tao-philosophy origin, widely recognised in 'the West', translates directly to this Japanese word pronounced unconditioned... (無為). Evidently some loss of some connections of awareness, occurred in use of English translations of his Japanese writing (of mu i (無為) -Wú wéi); Compare for example, in the following footnotes' webpages' wonderful writing, their different awarenesses of connections between his writings and Wú wéi (無為).

Masanobu Fukuoka writes some articulation, philosophically, of his enlightenment experience, in Buddhist, Taoist, Gandhian, Christian and Shinto terms:
 * "non-existent", "non-being", "Pure human awareness, prior to experience or knowledge." (無)
 * "lacking (defiled) thought" (無心)
 * "unconditioned..." (無為)
 * "devoid of discrimination" (無分別)
 * "spontaneously" (自然)
 * unconditioned nature (無為自然)

Parallel identical sentences in both Japanese and English-translation including the words "無", "無心", "無為", "無分別", "自然" and "無為自然", and further sentences clarifying and elaborating on them, became available in 1996 with his privately re-translated and published English very limited edition, The Ultimatum of God–Nature : A Recapitulation of The One–Straw Revolution.

Brief sentences in, Japanese under the heading 「矛盾の誕生」 from page 83, second column and English under the heading "The Birth and Expansion of Contradictions" from page 110, top half respectively, provide parallel-translation quotations juxtaposed below:

「知らぬが仏と、無心・無意・無為の道を歩むしかない. 」

We can only walk the path of not-knowing, of no-mind, no-will, and no-action.

「太古、智恵の木の実を食べた原人の原罪をつぐなう道は唯一つ、無為自然のエデンの花園創りに励むしかない. 」

There is only one path of atonement for the original sin of primitive man, eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. That is to create a Garden of Eden of do-nothing nature.

「すなわち元の自然に還って自然と一体となり、無分別、自他合一（共生）の世界に生きるしかない. 」

In other words, we can only return to original nature, become one with it, and live in a world of non-discrimination and unity (symbiosis).

Hence from this and additional examples written in his 1996 English Recapitulation and re-translation, the English phrases: "do-nothing", "no-action" or "not doing", all refer to the Japanese word unconditioned... (無為). His "do-nothing" does particularly not mean literally do nothing, nor passive, idleness, doing nothing, no work, laziness, no effort, consumerism, complacency, apathy, etc. – he explicitly calls this non-intervention, laissez-faire or abandonment of nature, in English-translations; "He reminded us that his techniques are not literally do-nothing. They are more like do nothing against nature" and come to our small parts of bigger-than-all-of-us god–nature, wherein god–nature coauthors all actions through all of us, each as active small-participants, and credit goes to god–nature, –come to nature–. God–nature refers in other words to: breath of life, the universal life force in all, kami (神) in Japanese, or great spirit in many cultures translated into English words, etc., not–merely to God of Judaism, Christianity, Islam or merely of any one religion. In the 1970s he apparently advised English-translators preparing the 1978 first English edition of The One–Straw Revolution, Chris Pearce, Tsune Kurosawa and Larry Korn, to use the English apparent-mystery-phrase "do-nothing" (including often inside quotation marks) for Wú wéi unconditioned... (無為). Seemingly, he intended "do-nothing" as a mystery phrase in English language, to usher readers to ourselves directly realise the meaning, by having direct, non-verbal, ineffable, experiences, as well understood in "Oriental natural philosophy"; Including as manifested in his practise of, and as experienced in the practise of Nature Farming. If this is as it seems, he took an insightful multi-level-meaning-approach to the English translation.

His subsequent reprise, in his Japanese and his English-translation, quote:

私は西洋人から　“do nothingの男”　と言われるが、ただ時計を捨てただけである.

Westerners call me a "do-nothing man," but I simply threw away my watch.