“For me, soil is a metaphor for the entire natural system. If we take care of the soil, the soil will take care of us. Through the soil, we are all related and interconnected. We depend on it. All living things depend on the soil.”

Satish KUMAR, Indian activist and editor

Our current economic system, which seeks to subjugate nature to human control and exploit it for immediate profit, is in deep crisis today. Nothing illustrates this fact more eloquently than our relationship with land and water, two essential resources on which our very lives depend. According to a recent study by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), if the current pace of industrial chemical agriculture were to continue, all the land on Earth would be gone within sixty years. We are also seeing a similar unsustainable trend in our treatment of water, whose crisis, like the climate crisis, is increasingly disrupting Earth’s ecosystems.

At this year's Mobile University of Nature (MUN) seminar, we want to inspire and encourage you that each of us can contribute to changing this unfortunate trend simply by starting to take care of healthy living soil and water ourselves again. If we focus together on the careful cultivation of healthy food, we can begin to restore the balance of nature and landscape as well as the cohesion of the human community and change the current consumption paradigm. Alena Malíková from the Bioinstitut in Olomouc will introduce us to how we can join forces in this effort within the Community Supported Agriculture (CPA) project, which has been successfully developing in our country for several years. In addition to Alena Malíková, farmer František Matoušek, farmer Miroslav Kouba, mycologist Anna Lepšová, and cultural activist Jiří Zemánek will introduce you to what healthy fertile soil is and how to manage water in the landscape, or rather to the methods and some leading figures of biodynamic and natural farming (Masnaobu Fukuoka, Rudolf Steiner, Vandana Shiva).

The first day will be dedicated to the Earth, the second to soil, the third to organic farming, the fourth to water and the climate crisis, and the fifth to Community Supported Agriculture / KPZ.

The PUP seminar will take place in the charming landscape of Podlesí in the Šumava region – in the villages of Vacov-Miřetice (where most of its program will take place), Lčovice and Kváskovice. In addition to lectures, joint discussions and screenings of interesting documentary films, we will also visit some private gardens and farms and, in direct contact with the landscape, soil and plants, we will demonstrate some principles of natural farming; every afternoon we will take trips to the surrounding countryside and together we will try to discover phenomena that either positively or negatively affect the quality of the soil and the behavior of water in the landscape. We look forward to seeing you!

The Wandering University of Nature (PUP): Nature for us is not just a collection of objects or a reservoir of usable raw materials, but a community of soulful subjects, a meaningful world that nourishes, inspires, and shapes us, and with which we feel deeply connected. We share Gregory Bateson's conviction that nature holds the secret to revitalizing our human systems, to growing the health of human communities, and to healing our relationships. Today, we need to expand our intellectual knowledge "about" nature by learning directly "from" nature itself, by experiences and experiences that allow us to connect intimately with nature and its mysterious processes. 

In this sense, we understand nature as our great teacher. “The right way is to learn directly from nature, which does not require any formal study.”

Masanobu FUKUOKA

PROGRAM

Day 1, Friday, July 22 – Miřetice

Theme: EARTH – From 12 noon, seminar participants will travel to Vacov-Miřetice, where they will stay in the house of Tomáš Hauser and Magda Justová. Getting to know the place.

"Mother Earth is not something outside of us. The Earth is within us, we carry it within us."

Silent Nath HANH

After a shared dinner (from 6 pm), from 7:30 pm we will get acquainted with the seminar program, its lecturers and the philosophy of the Traveling University of Nature. First, we will briefly talk about how our perception of the Earth is changing today, how we are opening up to deeper harmonization with the natural world. We will also screen an interview with the Zen Buddhist teacher and poet Thich Nhat Hanh. Mother Earth is the greatest bodhisattva and video Aerial view effect.

Day 2, Saturday, July 23 – Miřetice

Topic: SOIL After breakfast (8 am) lecture from 9 am Alena MALÍKOVÁ (Bioinstitut) – Soil is Being and we are Being 

"Soil, not Oil, is the future of humanity."

Vandana SHIVA

As an eco-advisor, Alena Malíková focuses primarily on the question of how organic farming can contribute to the protection of biodiversity and the development of mutually beneficial relationships between organic farmers and consumers. According to Alena, all the main challenges we face today in industrial and organic agriculture converge on a key topic - "soil": "What is the cause of today's massive soil degradation and loss? How can we restore living and fertile soil? What are the properties and components of such soil? Can soil be considered a commodity? And how can we reconnect with it?" Alena Malikova us ppresents a remarkable anthology of texts Soil – healthy, alive, fertile, compiled by Radomil Hradil (Fabula and Bioinstitut 2015), and the message of the Foundation for Soil, of which she is a member of the board of directors; she will recall some historically significant scientists and pioneers of organic farming who intensively dealt with the issue of soil fertility, but above all she will introduce us to an organic farmer on the spot František MATOUŠEK from Fields in the Vysočina. Mr. Matoušek will join our seminar program on this and the next day and will introduce us to his own method of sustainable soil management. At the end, we will screen a documentary film Killing ground (25 minutes), in which František Matoušek is one of the main actors.

After a light lunch (from 12 noon) at 1 pm we will set off from Miřetice for a joint trip into the surrounding nature. We will travel through to Ptákova Lhota, from where we will set off through the forests below Čistá hora and Vacovický vrch (823 m above sea level) to Vacovice. From there we will continue through Radkovice to the natural monument Chvalšovice pastures with a comprehensive collection of valuable and endangered meadow and peatland plant species (Siberian iris, Hartman's sedge, May marigold, etc.) and then further through forests, meadows and fields back to Miřetice (trip length 10-13 km). During the trips we will observe the management of soil and water in the local landscape, or rather the disruption of the water regime and soil compaction. After dinner (from 6 pm) we will continue the discussion about soil and ecological methods of its management with Alena Malíková and Mr. František Matoušek from 7:30 pm. We will screen an excellent documentary film Symphony of the soil (57 minutes) about the origin and history of soil on Earth; and also a film Clay (55 minutes), which maps current global soil problems. Day 3, Sunday, July 24 – LčoviceTopic: NATURAL AGRICULTURE Natural farming methods by Miroslav KOUBA, František MATOUŠEK and Masanobu FUKUOKA

“The fundamental goal of farming is not the harvesting of crops, but the cultivation and improvement of human beings.” 

Masanobu FUKUOKA

After breakfast (from 8 am), at 8:45 am we will set off together by car to the village of Lčovice u Čkyně, where our friend lives and farms organically. Miroslav Kouba. Míra, who is very sensitive to nature, decided eight years ago to grow healthy food for himself without chemicals. Today he farms three acres of land, and when it comes to vegetables, he has managed to become 100% self-sufficient and also supplies them to his friends and acquaintances. He will take us through his garden and introduce us to his way of organic farming, inspired by permaculture and the natural farming method of the legendary Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. Also an organic farmer, or rather a farmer, Mr. Frantisek Matousek from Polná will introduce us to his way of organic farming. Mr. Matoušek, who farms a larger area of land than Miroslav Kouba, similarly to him, does not plow it or fertilize it with fertilizers of animal origin. His farming method has allowed him to significantly increase the thickness of the topsoil layer and effectively retain water in the landscape. For both farmers, however, organic farming is not just about producing healthy food; everyday coexistence with the soil, landscape and plants has deepened their sensitivity and opened up a specific life path for them.

After a tour of Míra Kouba's farm, we will stop at his home for tea. We will briefly talk about the basic principles of natural farming. Masanobu Fukuoka, one of the patrons of PUP, including Fukuoka's invention of "clay seed balls" (J. Zemánek); and if there is time, we will show a short video about him One-stalk revolutionAfter a light lunch, around 1 p.m. we will set off from Lčovice on a trip to the nearby, wildly overgrown hill Věnec, where the remains of an impressive Celtic hillfort from the 7th to 1st centuries BC are located. From Věnec, we will then follow the blue tourist trail to the village of Hradčany and from there to Čkyně, from where we will return by car to Miřetice (trip length 7-8 km). 

After returning to Miřetice and dinner (from 6 pm), we will continue our debate on natural farming methods from 7:30 pm. We will share our own experiences with growing plants and screen a very inspiring German documentary. The Farmer and His Prince (57 minutes) about a remarkable English farm operating on the principles of Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic agriculture, the creation of which was initiated by the English Prince Charles.

Day 4, Monday, July 25 – Miřetice

Topic: WATER AND CLIMATE CRISIS After breakfast (8 am) lecture from 9 am Jiří ZEMÁNEK (Pilgrim) – Rediscovering the unique nature of water opens the way to the regeneration of our civilization

"With the dawn of the Water Age, we are returning to our animist roots and recognizing the unique soulful nature of every drop of water, and indeed of every matter in the universe."

Charles EISEINSTEIN

Water represents the beginning and irreplaceable source of life; it is the primordial, unique force that creates, revives, transforms and regenerates. As Peter H. Gleick says in the documentary film Current – love of water, which we will project: "Without water there is nothing, no life, no culture, no society. Without water, the Earth would not be what it is." It seems that most of the current ecological and civilizational problems, and not only those discussed in this film, are related to the fact that we have stopped understanding the nature of water. In order to regenerate our civilization, we must start working with water again, start learning from it. For example, that everything in nature is interdependent and that everything in it happens in cycles and not as a constant growth; that every part of the universe is unique and soulful, etc. Understanding the nature of water, as well as the climate crisis, opens up the possibility for us new story, new civilizations. Mycologist and ecologist Anna LEPSOVA, who likes to sleep among flowers and farms organically at home in Trhové Svine, will talk about the causes of the reduced ability of today's landscape to retain water (application of inappropriate water management measures, planting of inappropriate field crops) and how to improve this situation and how to protect the damaged ecosystems in the original spring river landscape. She will introduce us to the story of the Svinenský stream, the largest tributary of the Stropnica River, which originates in the Novohradské Mountains.

After lunch (from 12 noon) at 1 pm we will go on a trip along the stream that leads from Vacov past a pond with the so-called ""refinery for a non-functional treatment plant" and will lead us to Vítovce to the Spůlka river; from there we will walk along the winding course of the Spůlka to the settlement of Spůle. Above Spůlí we will walk through a belt of beautiful forests towards Vnarovy and then return to Spůle from where we will travel by car to Miřetice (trip length 10 km). After dinner (from 6 pm) we will screen a documentary film from 7:30 pm Naomi Klein about the climate crisis This changes everything.. We will remind ourselves of the risks the world is facing today with the climate crisis and especially the threat of water shortages and crop failures that Europe will face by the end of this century. We will introduce the remarkable visionary art project of the couple of Helena and Newton Harrison Peninsula Europe, which responds to this challenge and tries to solve it.

Day 5 Tuesday, July 26 – Miřetice

Topic: COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE / KPZ

After breakfast (8 am) lecture from 9 amAlena MALÍKOVÁ (Bioinstitut) – Community Supported Agriculture / KPZ in times of climate crisis

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, determined people cannot change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."

Margaret MEAD

Alena Malíková, together with Jan Valeška, is one of the main promoters and disseminators of the Community Supported Agriculture (CPA) concept in our country, in which direct cooperative relations develop between producers of healthy food and their consumers. Growers and consumers provide each other with support and share both the risks and benefits of this model, and consumers become active participants in the food system from passive recipients of food. The main purpose and motto of CPA is not primarily yield and profit, but the provision of healthy local food, long-term ecological care for healthy nature and landscape, and the formation of new cooperative and community social relationships between people. A change in the way food is grown here therefore generates a change in society and an overall change in our values. Alena will introduce us to the history of CPA to date and how it has been spreading in our country for several years. We will screen a documentary film about CPA Return to the roots, which was initiated and financed by OS Dobromysl Pacov, and together we will reflect on the possibilities of applying the KPZ concept within Šumava. We will try to find out whether we could find suitable producers of healthy food and the necessary network of consumers here; and based on our experience so far, we will consider which KPZ model would be most suitable in our environment.   

After lunch (from 12:00) at 1:00 p.m. we will go on a trip to the village of Dobrš, where we will visit the Romanesque chapel of St. John and Paul, the originally Gothic church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary with the remains of Gothic paintings and a Gothic fortress and a Baroque chateau, which today houses the Co co Gallery, where we will see the current painting exhibition (A. Kutas, M. Janatková, J. Kořán and D. Cajthaml). From Dobrš, we will then return to Vacov via either Chvalšovice or America and from there to Miřetice. — After dinner (from 6:00 p.m.) from 7:30 p.m. we will continue our discussion about the KPZ and at the end we will screen a documentary film about a cyberneticist, anthropologist and systems theorist Gregory Bateson Ecology of the mind, which shows that it is crucial for us today to learn to think within the relationships and contexts that are the essence of the living world.

Day 6, Wednesday, July 27 – Miřetice

After breakfast (from 8 am), from 9 am there will be a joint meeting, reflection on the seminar and departure home.

A/ ACCOMMODATION

Address: Miřetice 13, 38486 Vacov – the stone house of Tomáš Hauser and Magda Justová by the road. If you drive from Vacov, turn off at the village square at the COOP supermarket towards Čkyně; Miřetice is directly connected to Vacov and you will find the house after about 1 kilometer on the right as the very last in the row (If you drive through Čkyně, turn off in Čkyně to Vacov and drive through Dolany, Žár and Nespicice to Miřetice – it is the first house on the left.) Parking is possible either directly at the house (max. 2 cars) or at the bus stop 50 m away.

Accommodation is provided in a separately accessible part of the house on the 1st floor in a 3-bed and 4-bed room with bedding. There is a shared separate toilet, shower, hot water, equipped kitchenette with a 2-burner stove, small refrigerator, electric kettle. Another 3 people (max.) can camp in the garden by the house, which is free to use.

The price for accommodation in a 3-bed room is 200 CZK per night; in a 4-bed room, where most of the lectures and film screenings will take place in the morning and evening (storage space is provided for this purpose), it is 150 CZK. Accommodation for 5 nights in a 3-bed room costs a total of 1000 CZK, in a 4-bed room 750 CZK.Camping in the garden is free. There is also wifi available in the house. In your free afternoon, you can take a workshop on making natural soap and cosmetics with Magda Justová.

B/ MEALS

We will provide you with a vegan gluten-free lunch with soup (through Zemědar catering, www.zemedar.org) and a vegetarian dinner for a total price of 180 CZK per person per day. The price of food for the entire seminar for one person is 780 CZK, including the fee for its transportation. You will provide your own breakfast; in nearby Vacov there are several supermarkets open 7 days a week, including a bakery.

C/ SEMINAR AND HOW TO REGISTER FOR IT

The fee for a five-day seminar with four lecturers is 1,500 CZK per person (300 CZK per day); the total sum for the seminar + accommodation + meals is then either 3280,-CZK or 3030,-CZK or 2280,-CZK (depending on the type of accommodation, see point A/). If you are interested in attending the seminar, please let us know first by email or by phone (J. Zemánek, A Malíková – see CONTACTS below). and then, when we confirm your participation, please pay us a deposit of 1000,-CZK by July 1, 2016 to the account: 2901013262/2010.
Instead of the variable symbol, write in the message for the recipient Půda + your name and surname. You will pay the rest of the payment on site. You can also participate in individual parts of the seminar - morning lectures, evening lectures and film screenings, or possibly trips. In that case, the payment will be proportional, or possibly according to your capabilities.

"When we learn 'about' nature, nature becomes the object of study, which leads to its exploitation. . . But when we learn 'from' nature, we establish a close relationship with it, which presupposes humility and respect for the mystery of natural processes." 

Satish Kumar

TRANSPORT TO VACOV

The village of Vacov is located in the Šumava foothills at the foot of the Javornická mountains - from here the Klostermann path leads to the famous Javorník hill (1065 m above sea level) with a lookout tower, below which there is a monument to the writer and poet of Šumava, Karel Klostermann. If you are going by public transport, the best way to get to Vacov is by bus from Prague Smíchov with a change in Strakonice or Čkyně.

On Friday, July 22, the following bus connections are from Prague to Vacov:: AND/ Prague Smíchov–Na Knížecí, departure 12:45 (4th stop) Strakonice, bus station, arrival 14:15 / departure 14:35 (7th stop) Vacov, bus station, arrival 15:14 B/ Prague Smíchov–Na Knížecí, departure 13:45 (5th line) Čkyně, bus station, arrival 15:43 / departure 15:57 (5th line) Vacov, bus station, arrival 16:10 C/ Prague Smíchov–Na Knížecí, departure 15:00 (5th stop) Strakonice, bus station, arrival 16:30 / departure 16:40 (7th stop) Vacov, bus station, arrival 17:23

On Wednesday, July 27th, departure by bus from Vacov to Prague: A/ Vacov, bus station, departure 8:40 (5th day) Vimperk, bus station, arrival 9:15 / departure 9:30 (2nd day) Prague–Na Knížecí, arrival 11:50 B/ Vacov, bus station, departure 10:50 (2nd day) Strakonice, bus station, arrival 11:25 / departure 11:30 (1st day) Prague–Na Knížecí, arrival 13:00

CONTACTS for further information

Jiří Zemánek, sarvanga@centrum.cz, 777 117 466Alena Malíková, alena.malikova@bioinstitut.cz, 604 905 611

Tomas Hruza, tomashruza@gmail.com, 775 052 607

Organized by the civic association PILGRIM in cooperation with the Bioinstitute in Olomouc

Bells of Vigilance

Thich Nhat Hanh

The wake-up bells are calling us, trying to wake us up and reminding us to take a deep look at how we are affecting the planet.

The alarm bells are ringing. We are experiencing floods, droughts and massive fires all over the world. Glaciers are melting in the Arctic, hurricanes are raging, and heat waves are killing thousands of people. Forests are disappearing rapidly, deserts are expanding, and new species of animals and plants are becoming extinct every day, and yet we continue to consume and ignore the alarm bells.

We all know that our beautiful green planet is in danger. The way we walk on Earth has a huge impact on other animals and plants. Yet we act as if our daily lives have nothing to do with the state of the world. We are like blind pedestrians – we do not know what we are doing or where we are going. Whether we will be able to wake up or not depends on whether we can walk our Mother Earth with vigilance. The future of all life, including our own, depends on our attentive steps. We must listen to the bells of vigilance that are ringing all over our planet. We must begin to learn how to live so that a future is possible for our children and grandchildren.

I sat with the Buddha for a long time, consulting with him on the problem of global warming, and his lesson is very clear. If we live as we have been living, if we continue to consume the future without thinking, to destroy our forests, and to emit dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide, then devastating change is inevitable. So many of our ecosystems will collapse. Sea levels will rise and coastal cities will be flooded, forcing hundreds of millions of people from their homes and causing wars and epidemics of infectious diseases.

We need a collective awakening. There are men and women among us who are awake, but not enough; and most people are still asleep. We have created a system that we cannot control. It overwhelms us and we become its slaves and victims. Most of us who want to have a car, a refrigerator, a television, etc., have to sacrifice our time and our lives in exchange for it. We are constantly under pressure for time. In the past, we could spend three hours drinking a cup of tea and enjoying the company of friends in a peaceful, spiritual atmosphere. We could throw parties and celebrate the blooming of an orchid in our garden. But today we cannot afford these things. We say that time is money. We have created a society in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and in which we are so preoccupied with our own immediate problems that we fail to realize what is happening to the rest of our human family or to our planet Earth. In my mind's eye, I see a flock of chickens in a cage, fighting among themselves over a few grains of grain, unaware that they will be killed in a few hours.

People in China, India, Vietnam, and other developing countries are constantly dreaming of the “American Dream,” as if this dream were the ultimate goal of humanity—everyone must have their own car, bank account, cell phone, and television. In twenty-five years, China will have 1.5 billion people, and if every Chinese person wants to drive their own car, China will need 99 million barrels of oil every day. However, world oil production today is 84 million barrels of oil per day. So the American Dream is not possible for people in China, India, or Vietnam. The American Dream is not possible for Americans anymore. We can’t continue to live this way. It’s not a sustainable economy.

But we have a different dream: a dream of brotherhood and sisterhood, of loving-kindness and compassion. This dream is possible right here and now. We have the dharma, we have the means, and we have enough wisdom to be able to live this dream. Mindfulness is the core of awakening, the core of enlightenment. When we practice breathing, we are able to be here in the present moment, so we can recognize what is happening within us and around us. If what is happening within us is hopelessness, we must recognize it and take action immediately. We may not want to confront this mental formation immediately, but it is a reality, and we must recognize it in order to transform it.

We don't have to drown in hopelessness about global warming – We can act. Simply signing a petition and not thinking about it anymore will not help much. Urgent action must be taken on a personal and collective level. We all have a great desire to be able to live in peace and in ecological sustainability. What most of us still have not mastered are concrete ways to make our commitments to sustainable living a reality in our daily lives. We have not yet been able to organize ourselves. We cannot just blame our governments and societies for the chemicals they use to pollute our drinking water, for the violence they inflict on our neighbors, for the wars that destroy so many lives. It is time for each of us to wake up and take action in our own lives.

We witness violence, corruption and destruction all around us. We all know that the laws we have are not strong enough to control the superstition, cruelty and abuse of power that we witness every day. Only faith and determination can save us from falling into deep despair.

Buddhism is the most powerful form of humanism we have. It can help teach us to live with responsibility, compassion, and loving-kindness. Every practicing Buddhist should be a protector of the environment. We have the power to decide the fate of our planet. If we wake up to our true situation, it will mean a shift in the collective consciousness. We must do something to wake people up. We must help Buddha wake up people who are living in a dream.

Translation: Jiří Zemánek

Translated from the English original:Thich Nath Hanh, “The Bells of Mindfulness”. In: Spiritual Ecology / The Cry of the Earth (ed. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee). The Golden Sufi Center, Point Rees (CA) 2013, p. 25-28.