“The ancient Chinese perceived human beings as a microcosm of the universe that surrounded them, suffused with the same primeval forces that motivated the macrocosm. They imagined themselves as part of one unbroken wholeness, called Tao….Chinese philosophers and physicians have studied nature over thousands of year, divining how to interact with it and cultivate and guide Qi, life’s animating force and substance.” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Farming is simply the cultivation of life force, also known as chi (interchangeably qi), prana, ki, with food and medicine as the intended result –that which we can harvest and consume. Drawing upon the energy centers in the Universe, namely Earth and Sun, but also Moon and other planetary bodies, plants gather energy from earth and air, from fire and water, and from their own inner nature. If humans are nature, simply a fractal of the universe, then we too, come with the same operating instructions as Tao itself, wholeness of nature manifest as conscious Qi.  Chi Farming is the practice of cultivating chi in onself, in the inner garden, while also being a way of farming in recognition of our true crop, energy.

If chi is the energy of nature, the energy of life, then natural farming is in essence the cultivation of chi. The Chinese ideogram for human being pictures a figure rooted like a tree in the Earth with hands outstretched like branches towards the heavens, receiving power from above and below. While chi gung is traditionally known as the cultivation of life force energy through action or movement (though it often includes movement, breath, visualization, and intent) does farming not also include all these – human movement, exchange of breath, visualizing the crop flourishing, and intending abundance for each seed/seedling that gets planted? The Tao of chi farming is simply the way – the way of cultivating chi in the form of food and medicine with energetic awareness and concentration on the nature of the plants.

Chi Cultivation

Just like chi gong, chi farming is practiced by gathering energy from earth and sky (or heaven), mixing it with our own human energy within our energy centers. These three ‘elixirs of life’ can be found at the solar plexus, the heart, and the third eye, representing earth, human, and sky. In chi farming, plants are balanced between the earth chi found in the soil, compost, and mulch, with sky chi coming from sun (fire), air, and water. Recognizing the inherent nature of plants like our own, we support their roots and their shoots. Plant foods/medicines embody certain elements as well, like the earth of roots, the water of stem & leaves, the air that flows from flowers, and the fire of the fruit & seed water of fruit.

The practice therefore becomes absorption and movement of chi, whether it is in the farm or in the body. And while we might store some chi in the soil, or our lower dan tien (lower elixir field/solar plexus), we do not seek retention, for we recognize that energy must flow for health to be maintained and regenerated, so food and medicine are harvested from the landscape while attention, tending, and gratitude flow to the land. As the soil springs forth plants, so we spring forth words and actions.

“When people are like gardens, then doctors are like gardeners. The role of the Chinese doctor is to cultivate life…life force and Qi are one.  The essence of food is also a form of Qi…One Chinese ideogram for Qi is composed of an upper radical representing ‘rising vapor’ and a lower radical denoting ‘grain.’ The steam that spirals from a pot of cooking rice symbolizes distilled essence…” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

In the meso-cosm between the micro- and macro-, humans and plants are mediators of energy, chi, while contributing our own innate chi to the greater system. We emanate chi in the form of a bioelectric field from various centers throughout the body, affecting the landscape around us based on the state of our inner nature. So like the tree we stand between worlds and like the rice we spiral forth our essence into the world.

Yin & Yang

“Eastern philosophy is based on the premise that all life occurs within the circle of nature. Things within this matrix are connected and mutually dependent upon each other. Nature is one unified system, the Tao, with polar and complimentary aspects: Yin and Yang. Nature is in constant motion, following cyclic patterns that describe the process of transformation…” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Plants balance Yin and Yang energy in their bodies as water is drawn up through xylem and sugars are passed down through phloem, maintaining equilibrium in the plant body. The plant is tended and the roots are tended (through the soil): while Yang farming focuses on the plant, the solar part, Yin Farming focuses on the soil, the earthly part. While both are necessary elements in our awareness and practice, healthy soil grows healthy plants and healthy plants grow healthy food (and medicine). While much of our relationship with plants is based in the visible, tangible realm of stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds, it is only when we also attend to the roots and the soil ecosystem that we farm with the Tao. Working within the seasons and allowing the plants to have their full relationship with wild energies also maximizes chi for the plant and the farmer – greenhouses though they extend the season, the prevent plants from living their full potential “between heaven and earth.” Humans, too, dwell in this middle realm and benefit from connection above and below – through our breath and skin as well as through the souls of our feet and hands in the soil…to cut ourselves off in buildings where chi is stagnant constricts our energy and our vitality.

“The original meaning of the Chinese ideogram for ‘yin’ is ‘the shady side of a hill.’ It represents water and earth, woman, and it moves downward and inward. ‘Yang’ means ‘the sunny side of the hill,’ representing fire and sky, masculinity, moving upward and outward. Yin and yang are mutually interdependent, constantly interactive, and potentially interchangeable forces.” (Reid, The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity)

“Water and earth are the symbols of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are the source of power and the beginning of everything in creation. Yang ascends to Heaven; Yin descends to Earth…Nature grants the power to beget and to grow, to harvest and to store, to finish and to begin anew…The Tao is an undifferentiated whole. It is both the unity of all things and the way the universe works. Out of this oneness emerges Yin-Yang…The chicken makes the egg – Yang generates Yin – but the chicken grows out of the egg – Yin produces Yang. They are only mutually generative.” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Chi farming recognizes the polar nature of life, and cultivates both the seed and the plant, the soil and the space between plants, the farm and the community. Seed saving creates balance with seed sowing. Allowing plants to go to seed and live the life according to the Tao of Nature, honors their gifts and their life force.

Gardening Chi

“A garden is a dynamic self-regulating system that transforms sunlight (yang) and water (yin) in to the living tissue of vegetation. Within the cycle of seasons, there is a time for sprouting, maturing, ripening, harvesting, and composting…maximum growth in the garden derives from the proper balance between the heat and light of the sun with the cool moisture of water. The garden is healthy when rich growing conditions prevail and when plants are resilient enough to tolerate adversity….The gardener does not make the garden grow. Nature does. The gardener is an ally who prepares the soil, sows the seeds, waters, removes the weeds, placing plants in proper relation to each other and the sun….The gardener protects the integrity of the garden by promoting growth in some areas, restricting it in others, adding compost to keep soil fertile. [She] observes and nurtures the interaction between garden and environment.” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Both the garden and the human body are microcosms of nature. The processes, cycles, and conditions that exist in a garden can also be observed in the life of a human being. Given the elemental influences of the seasons on plant growth/life cycles, aligning with such forces allows the Tao to do the work, as opposed to forcing imbalanced intentions on plants and the whole garden system. As gardeners of self and plants, we have the opportunity to observe nature’s systems and replicate those relations within the garden, matching and even strengthening the resilience of wild nature.

“Lack of sunlight, depletion of soil, overgrowth of weeds all restrict the bounty of the garden. Similarly deficiency or excess of Qi, inadequate nutrition, or poor circulation of Blood and Moisture weaken health. Too much sun burns the plants, too much wind dries them out, too much water rots their roots. Yet in the absence of light, water, and air, the plants cannot germinate or grow.” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Diagnosis

“The gardener crumbles soil between his fingers; he looks, listens, senses, kneeling among the plants. On the basis of his observations, he judges the garden’s needs. When the plants look lush and full, he assumes conditions are right for proper growth. If the leaves are yellowed and floppy, he may see this as a sign that the soil is too damp, so the roots can’t breathe. He can raise the bed and aerate the soil, permitting better drainage. If the leaves are withered and dry, and spindly, the gardener should water more frequently. When the garden grows but does not produce fruit, more nutriment has been used than has been replenished and the gardener enriches the soil with compost.” (Beinfield, Between Heaven and Earth)

Like the gardener the doctor observes the patient and perceives signs and symptoms to determine the nature of the problem at hand…Both are concerned with the balance of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, and the excess or deficiency of these conditions.

Interbeing

“Within each thing is contained all things. In the seed is the tree; in the tree the forest.” (Frawley, The Yoga of Herbs)

Within each seed is the plant, the seed, the forest, the sun, the clouds…Inter-being. Farming inter-being is the cultivation of awareness, cultivation of connection, dissolving the boundaries of self in the garden, farming Dharma (Truth), growing food in alignment with the nature of reality, and the reality of nature.

Natural Farming
“Natural farming, the true and original form of agriculture, is the methodless method of nature, the unmoving way of Bodhidharma…it is a Buddhist way of farming that unboundless and yielding, and leaves the soil, the plants, and the insects to themselves…Natural farming is a Buddhist way of farming that originates in the philosophy of ‘Mu,’ or nothingness, and returns to a ‘do-nothing’ nature. Mahayana Natural Farming: When the human spirit and human life blend with the natural order and man devotes himself entirely to the service of nature, he lives freely as an integral part of the natural world, subsisting on its bounty without having to resort to purposeful effort. This type of farming, which I shall call Mahayana natural farming, is realized when man becomes one with nature, for it is a way of farming that transcends time and space and reaches the zenith of understanding and enlightenment.” (Fukuoka, The Natural Way of Farming)

The four principles of natural farming: No cultivation, No fertilizer, No weeding, No pesticides.

If chi is the energy of nature, the energy of life, then natural farming is in essence the cultivation of chi. The four principles of natural farming are aimed at maximizing chi in the farm: no cultivation to hold earth chi in the soil instead of releasing it to the sky; no fertilizer because synthetic fertilizers kill the life and therefore the chi in the soil while not being needed in a natural ecosystem; no weeding because it exposes and disrupts Earth chi, while also wasting human chi in doing so; no pesticides again in honor of the life on the plants and in the soil and the precious web of life that grows in the garden.

Farming with the Tao

“Taoism is concerned primarily with life on earth. It unequivocally equates physical and mental health and insists that only a strong, healthy body can house a strong, healthy spirit…Tao provides the seeds of wisdom we need to cultivate health and longevity in the fertile garden of life…Taoism regards the physical and spiritual as indivisible yet distinctly different aspects of the same reality, with the body serving as the root for the blossoming of the mind. A plant can live without its blossoms but not without its roots, and so it is with people. The essential Taoist approach to life is captured in the phrase ching jing wu-wei, literally ‘sitting still doing nothing..doing only those things that really need to be done and doing them in a way that does nor run counter to the natural order of Tao and the patterned flow of cosmic forces.” (Reid, The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity)

While chi farming cultivates the seeds of Tao, it is also the natural expression. When in alignment with nature, we need only “sit still and do nothing,” recognizing that everything gardens and that nature’s forces are the ones making plants grow, not farmers or gardeners. We need only to support the flow of chi to and through plants.

Chi Farming

“Organic gardening and ecological farming is rooted in and encourages local stewardship and protection of land and water resources; it works in harmony with natural ecosystems to sustain diversity, complexity, and real health in the garden and in the wider community….In Chinese there is an old word for landscape, composed of two root characters: shan (mountains) and shui (water).” (Johnson, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate)

Chi farming cultivates not only the soil in which we plant seeds, but also the larger landscape: protecting mountain and water through preventing erosion, cleaning water, bio-remediation where necessary, enhancing biodiversity, and infusing each place with the human energy of care and taking-care.

“The word ‘cultivate’ comes from the Latin colere, to culture, to worship, to respect, to till, and to take care of, from the still older root kwel, which means to revolve around a center.” (Johnson, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate)

The cultivation of chi in the body or the farm is the practice of honoring the energy of life, tending it, and recognizing the center from which chi flows.

Beyond Chi Farming

One question worth exploring is the potential of healing of lands using chi gong. Tian gong, or universal gong, suggests that our energy (the energy of earth and sky, channeled through us) can heal nature and culture when directed towards people and place. Medical chi gong seeks to heal and maintain health of organs and tissues of the body, what about health of systems and elements of the farm system? Natural (chi) farming is both a way of healing and stewarding land, as well as a practice of cultivating our own life force energy. In The Secret Life of Plants, scientific studies show that humans can increase the bioelectric field of a plant simply by sending their energy to it with intention. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, as a branch of Taoism, it is said, “Yi dao, chi dao” meaning ‘where consciousness goes, energy goes.’ Can we then direct our human chi towards plants and support its health and vitality just as much as adding humus to the soil? Can the same healing energy that is used in Medical Chi Gong for healing organs be used for healing sudden oak death? What is our role as stewards of nature? And is there more energy available to us than we previously thought? What if seeds were planted with an energetic infusion before being placed into the soil? And what energy do we exchange with plants when we harvest from it? It’s fruits? It’s roots?

“The earth is an organically interwoven community of plants, animals, and micro-organisms…there are food chains and cycles of matter; there is an endless transformation without birth or death…Natural farming is more than just a revolution in agricultural techniques. It is the practical foundation of a spiritual movement, of a revolution to change the way man lives.” (Fukuoka, The Natural Way of Farming)

Spencer Nielsen Dec 2011