How does one farm without accumulating attachments?
I say this as I contemplate what it might mean to move on from this farm - this particular coincidence of place and time that I share with the life that finds itself here.
It is not that we are moving on, just that another farming opportunity has presented.
How does one make a decision in the face of opportunity, when that opportunity is an alternative to an existence where all the preconditions for contentment (or even awakening) are already available?
Recently I resolved a direction for my farming activity that accords with my buddhist philosophy and offers the promise of a sufficient layperson's life - that of an adherent but not a monastic. It was an important resolution of a nagging dissatisfaction. And though the resolution is still aimed at some sense of security, itself an illusion, I have moved to satisfaction in an approach rather than satisfaction contingent on achievement of concrete goals and outcomes.
So to opportunity.
The new farming opportunity is different. It is based on cooperation in a community that is being built from the ground up. It is attractive.
One of the weaknesses of our current farm is its 'rugged individualist' basis. 'Our farm is our fortress' is NOT our credo - but we have maintained our independence as a way of letting us pursue our activities in a relatively unconventional way. This has its advantages, but it is also somewhat isolationist. It is easy to pretend the intricate and often subtle strings that bind us in existence are not constantly pulling at us as we strain to defy their influence.
I am not sure if my motivation to consider an alternative is aspiration or dissatisfaction. Am I being pulled or pushed? Am I desiring something better or fleeing the dissatisfactions of now. Perhaps the more pertinent question is how much investment (and attachment) I have in either.
Today I have the full day on the farm - a rather rare occurrence given my other current community commitments. I will harvest onions, milk the goats, move the chickens and make sure the cattle have enough grass and their trough is full of water. Then I will do more work on developing the new permaculture market garden.
Perhaps this decision will make itself one day? Perhaps the notion of decision has no substance anyway?
