Great Nature: More Than Just A Name
The kanji above is written with two parts -- one of which reads Dai, meaning "great;" and the other reading Shizen, meaning "nature." Etymologically, shizen is traceable to the Chinese word ziran, which points to the spontaneous birth, growth, and transformation of life. Daishizen is the path of life, laid out for our observation, study, and guidance by the natural world. The fundamental qualities of birth, growth, maturation, decline, and death are modeled in the movements of the seasons as the earth revolves around the sun.
Great nature does not only imply a nature that acts great, with a meaning similar to "good" or "helpful," but more specifically references a nature that is to be honored and respected. We owe our lives to the details of the universe in which we live: food grows because the earth happens to be located at just the perfect distance from the sun; our planet is mostly liquid, which allows us to constantly refresh and clean ourselves; raw materials from the earth give us the ability to fashion tools for weapons and for building homes; etc.
The movements of Heaven, Earth, and Great Nature encompass all of the transformations, interchanges, and dancing that is going on in the cosmos, from the largest galactic scale to the smallest atomic level. Daishizen is the vast ocean of life as understood to extend from the beginning of our known universe [and before] right down to this very moment in time. The term represents human beings' ability to live in harmony with nature, and any disconnect from this source will lead to personal, societal, and even global illness.
Nature is our main teacher. It is always self-correcting, evolving, and swinging towards, through, and past a state of equilibrium; and since humans are intimately connected to all of this, we can, and must, adapt and live according to what is called for in each moment. We can learn to do this by paying attention to our diets, practicing meditation, learning to exercise and exert ourselves appropriately based on the time of year, and of course, by receiving acupuncture and taking herbal medicine. Oriental Medicine is specifically designed to fine tune the various functions of our bodies and minds so that they can work in perfect sync with each other. All of the movements and happenings inside our bodies -- the rise and fall of our chest and abdomen with the breath, extracting nutrition from the food we eat, sweating when we are hot, shivering when we are cold, happiness, sadness, etc. -- are exactly the movements of the universe at large.
The Rev. Yukitaka Yamamoto said Daishizen is "the vast cosmic setting into which we are born, where we live, and within which our lives find any meaning." Humans must not lose touch with the roots of life. The spirit of man is most elevated when there is awareness of the flow of life; when there is a deep, felt sensation that one is born OUT OF nature, not into it as a separate entity.
Great Nature, Daishizen, means living an active life -- not in the sense of physical fitness, but in the sense of taking charge of our own well-being by eating a proper diet, maintaining a good attitude, and responding to illness and misfortune appropriately and timely. Many of the lessons to be learned in life deal with spirit, with intention, and with resiliency. Think deeply about the kind of life you want to live. What does it look like? How would your life be if it were awesome? How do you hold yourself when things are not awesome?
All of the above, and more, is in accord with the meaning of Great Nature.
Great nature does not only imply a nature that acts great, with a meaning similar to "good" or "helpful," but more specifically references a nature that is to be honored and respected. We owe our lives to the details of the universe in which we live: food grows because the earth happens to be located at just the perfect distance from the sun; our planet is mostly liquid, which allows us to constantly refresh and clean ourselves; raw materials from the earth give us the ability to fashion tools for weapons and for building homes; etc.
The movements of Heaven, Earth, and Great Nature encompass all of the transformations, interchanges, and dancing that is going on in the cosmos, from the largest galactic scale to the smallest atomic level. Daishizen is the vast ocean of life as understood to extend from the beginning of our known universe [and before] right down to this very moment in time. The term represents human beings' ability to live in harmony with nature, and any disconnect from this source will lead to personal, societal, and even global illness.
Nature is our main teacher. It is always self-correcting, evolving, and swinging towards, through, and past a state of equilibrium; and since humans are intimately connected to all of this, we can, and must, adapt and live according to what is called for in each moment. We can learn to do this by paying attention to our diets, practicing meditation, learning to exercise and exert ourselves appropriately based on the time of year, and of course, by receiving acupuncture and taking herbal medicine. Oriental Medicine is specifically designed to fine tune the various functions of our bodies and minds so that they can work in perfect sync with each other. All of the movements and happenings inside our bodies -- the rise and fall of our chest and abdomen with the breath, extracting nutrition from the food we eat, sweating when we are hot, shivering when we are cold, happiness, sadness, etc. -- are exactly the movements of the universe at large.
The Rev. Yukitaka Yamamoto said Daishizen is "the vast cosmic setting into which we are born, where we live, and within which our lives find any meaning." Humans must not lose touch with the roots of life. The spirit of man is most elevated when there is awareness of the flow of life; when there is a deep, felt sensation that one is born OUT OF nature, not into it as a separate entity.
Great Nature, Daishizen, means living an active life -- not in the sense of physical fitness, but in the sense of taking charge of our own well-being by eating a proper diet, maintaining a good attitude, and responding to illness and misfortune appropriately and timely. Many of the lessons to be learned in life deal with spirit, with intention, and with resiliency. Think deeply about the kind of life you want to live. What does it look like? How would your life be if it were awesome? How do you hold yourself when things are not awesome?
All of the above, and more, is in accord with the meaning of Great Nature.