On Saturday 29th at 6:00 p.m. we are waiting for you on the occasion of the presentation of “Alrededor”, a book of poetry and painting with which Edicions Sa Llavor is premiered. Come and enjoy an inspiring evening in the garden with live music, poetry reading, and an exhibition of the works created for the book.
“The leaves danced green, twinkling. I felt that this was the true paradise on earth. Everything that had possessed me, all agonies, disappeared as dreams and illusions and something that could be called true nature was revealed to me.” Masanobu Fukuoka, promoter of natural agriculture. If we were asked about time we would say that it goes too fast, that we often feel the stress of seeing how it escapes us, as, at the end of the day, we have not managed to do everything we had planned. This has not always been like that. In ancient societies, basically agricultural, they conceived time as a constant repetition, as the circular return of what had already happened before. The past was returning and the future, to some extent, was known. Hence the importance of knowledge of grandmothers and grandparents to advise in decision making. They were societies that had a strong connection with nature. The succession of natural cycles, which are repeated incessantly, marked an unchanging rhythm. There was no possibility of speeding up time, or squeezing it, or saving it. Women and men, like nature, were at the service of atmospheric conditions, seasons and lunar cycles. There was a time of hard and constant work and a time of rest and social life. When working the land, planting a garden, growing a forest, we flee from linear, synchronized and also scarce time from everyday life to experiment with cycles, understand the patterns of repetition and immerse ourselves in another temporal conception. The forest invites us to dance to the rhythm of nature, which is a patient and hypnotic rhythm, like that of rotating dervishes. This allows us to relax and live more in the present. Learn, but also unlearn. Do, but also undo. Dilute and expand, understand that we are no longer a part, but a coherent and organic whole with the environment. And that we are not actually sowing seeds to grow plants but to grow ourselves.
Masanobu Fukukoa is a Japanese peasant, poet, intellectual, philosopher, revolutionary and, above all, wise. He has been close to nature for seventy years, asking who we are and who we should be in the future. He is the creator of natural agriculture and the "nendo dago", the clay balls we learned to make in the seed workshop during the Almond Tree Festival, with which he wants to turn deserts into forests. The idea that Masanobu follows is simple: there is nothing that exists in this world, therefore it follows the philosophy of NADA MU; doing nothing. According to him not even knowledge is useful. "If you use thought to separate red from black, you have learned to separate red from black, but nothing about red or black." So the only thing you have to do with yourself to "flourish" is simple: seeds and clay. And the same can be done with the earth. Actually, human beings, to obtain food and water, try to control the earth and in this control is when destruction occurs. The human being believes that he knows nature but all he has done is divide it. The problem is solved by looking at everything as a whole. When vegetation is destroyed, oxygen is reduced and oxygen is what allows us to sing and be happy. The best way to regain joy is to throw clay balls. When making a clay ball, according to Masanobu, what you put inside is not only a seed but your soul, and when you throw it, it is not only your hand but the hand of a God. So last Friday, in the forest, we not only dressed up as Gods. We were real Gods.
Volunteer groups have already enjoyed two Fridays working in the forest doing different tasks to renovate the space. At the Foundation we still need more hands that want to collaborate, not only with the forest, but also with the other volunteer groups. You can check all the information here>
"Stories to be told" contest As one writer said, we all want to have a voice like Scherezade's close to us by telling us a bedtime story and every time we feel alone. In Sa Llavor Edicions we want to pay homage to orality, to the living word, to that intimate moment of sharing a story, a journey through the imagination. Therefore, we encourage you to participate in the first Story Contest to be told. We are looking forward to your proposals from now until April 1st. Storytellers, tell us stories. We will close our eyes. We will open the senses. Contest rules here> Collection of second-hand books From the 15th of the current month you can take to the Hivernacle the books you wish to donate for the exchange market that we will celebrate during the day of Sant Jordi. We will collect books of literature, essay, poetry, theater and children's literature that are in good condition. Many thanks!
“Living things feed on food, and food feeds on rain, rain is likewise the water of life, which comes from worship and selfless service.” - Bhagavad Gita In Sanskrit language there is a word that means serving others in a selfless way: it’s called Seva. Service to others is a very important concept in Hindu philosophy. It is an act of love, compassion and caring for others and oneself. The sacred text Bhagavad Gita encourages the service of others as a way of developing spiritually, since in Hinduism, when you are serving others, you are actually serving God. “O son of Prtha, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I need to obtain anything—and yet I am engaged in work. For, if I did not engage in work, O Partha, certainly all men would follow My path. If I should cease to work, then all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would also be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all sentient beings. As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, similarly the learned may also act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.” Performing Seva is a task that poses a lot of challenges. Certain aspects of service to others can bring up difficulties or brakes and, in working them, become a powerful tool for people to learn more about themselves and, from here, interconnect with the community, creating a constantly evolving network, based on the culture of kindness and cooperation. That is why the Community Service is one of the four pillars of the Sa Llavor Foundation. In this way, children learn the value of service to others and understand education as a way for social transformation.
“The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give a man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-centredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence” - Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. E. F. Schumacher In the Foundation we have already started the Volunteer Groups, a project developed together with the team of delegates with the aim of creating a channel and a space for collaboration between the Foundation and families. Each group will be self-managed, will have a coordinator by the school and one by the families and will be dedicated to a specific task: cleaning, restoration, library, garden and forest, maintenance, creative processes and events. Many of these groups are already active and functioning and others need more volunteer hands. From the Foundation we firmly believe in a circular economy project where the whole community can benefit from the project, donating their time, but also receiving workshops, training, knowledge and a space of connection with themselves and with others.
Sa Llavor Edicions was born as a result of the exchange of books between two people who knew each other through their love for reading. Books accompany us on the road through life; they are a fundamental part of the integral development of the human being. Books make us laugh and cry, they calm us, they make us love and put us in harmony with the world. Reading, as a tool to know the other, to understand the strangers, to be able to put ourselves in their place and to love them. Now Sa Llavor Edicions opens up to the entire community and invites us to participate in the project in the best possible way: reading and sharing the love for books! "Stories to be told" contest Sa Llavor Edicions presents the first edition of this oral narrative contest with the objective of promoting literary creation and boost the art of story telling in the community. The contest will be held on Thursday, April 23rd, the day of Sant Jordi. During this day, the stories selected by the jury will be presented in public, accompanied, if necessary, by instruments. We encourage everyone to participate! You have until April 1st to submit your proposals. Contest rules in catalan, spanish and english here> Collection of second-hand books Also during the day of Sant Jordi, and inspired by the circular economy, Sa Llavor Edicions is going to organize a free second-hand book exchange market in the school garden. If you have books to give to the market about literature, essay, poetry and theater, as well as children's stories that are in good condition, you can leave them in the Foundation's Hivernacle from March 15th. Thank you!
I often went alone. Sometimes, lost in amazement, I went deep into the woods, and I imagined that I was Mowgli, the character of Rudyard Kipling, the child raised by the wolves, so I took off almost all the clothes for the climb. If I climbed to a sufficient height, the branches grew thinner to the point that, if the wind blew, the world would lean down and then up. It was scary and it was wonderful to surrender to the power of the wind. My senses were filled with the sensation of falling, of climbing, of swinging; Around me the leaves split like fingers and the wind came in sighs and hoarse whispers. The wind also brought scents, and the tree itself certainly released its perfumes faster when the gusts blew. Finally, there was only the wind that moved between all things. Now, when the days of climbing trees have long passed, I often think of the lasting value of those first days of sweet laziness. I have come to appreciate the wide view offered by the tops of those trees. Nature calmed me, focused and at the same time excited my senses. Last Child in the Woods. Richard Louv
We present a selection of texts that inspire the team of Sa Llavor and share in the weekly meetings as part of their pedagogical path. Fragment extracted from the book “A new Earth” by Eckhart Tolle. Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only had a scent that was delicate and pleasing to humans, but also brought a fragrance from the realm of spirit. Using the word "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants. Any life-form in any realm—mineral, vegetable, animal, or human—can be said to undergo "enlightenment." It is, however, an extremely rare occurrence since it is more than an evolutionary progression: It also implies a discontinuity in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most importantly, a lessening of materiality. What could be heavier and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure, turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones. Most crawling reptilians, the most earthbound of all creatures, have remained unchanged for millions of years. Some, however, grew feathers and wings and turned into birds, thus defying the force of gravity that had held them for so long. They didn't become better at crawling or walking, but transcended crawling and walking entirely. Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness.
