The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.
Interpretation
Human efforts to achieve progress have led to environmental degradation and a decline in human well-being.
Masanobu Fukuoka highlights the paradox that while humanity strives for progress and achievement, these pursuits have resulted in significant harm to nature and the human spirit. The quote suggests that our relentless quest for accomplishment has come at a high cost, leading to resource depletion and a disconnection from the natural world.
In practice
During a presentation on environmental conservation, one could use this quote to emphasize the negative impact of human progress on nature.
When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.
Life on a small farm might seem primitive, but by living such a life we become able to discover the Great Path. I believe that one who deeply respects his neighborhood and everyday world in which he lives will be shown the greatest of all worlds.
There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature...yes, that's it: just thinking about trees and their indifferent majesty and our love for them teaches us how ridiculous we are - vile parasites squirming on the surface of the earth - and at the same time how deserving of life we can be, when we can honor this beauty that owes us nothing.
We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
The preciousness of life and the changes of weather and the beauty of seasons - all those things have always sort of dazzled me.
In the world of globalization, the fossil fuel masters of the universe who are digging up our boreal forest and our muskeg and scraping out the bitumen would rather have Canadians take all the risks - and then the oceans take the risks to ship it to refineries that they've already built in other countries rather than create jobs for Canadians here.
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