Bodhi is looking for a personal assistant to help with his planned non-profit initiative Perma in Austria
A few years ago, when I moved to Unterfrauenhaid, a small remote village in Austria, suddenly I had a larger garden and was wondering what to do with it. What I was slowly learning: Gardening and natural ways of farming can be a healthy habit, both for oneself and for our environment. It can even become a meditation. To not risk anything, I never stopped practicing active meditations. I share these meditations with everyone who is interested.
As you have probably noticed, the earth’s surface has been changing drastically. There are now hardly any spots that aren’t intensely modified or used by humans. We are constantly tempted to act with good intentions, which easily turn out to do exactly the opposite, like most of these modifications. Looking into it, it raised for me the question of how to keep biodiversity, good soil, and other important resources.
As far as I can see, near-natural gardens could play a key role in a solution to these problems. Such gardens, however, may initially appear unappealing due to our conditioning. When I took over, most of my garden’s surface was covered by only about a dozen plant species – it was what is commonly called a lawn.
This I changed drastically. The surface was made more diverse, allowing more different plant species. This is appreciated by many insects, birds, amphibians, wild bees, who start coming. Initially, only a few insect and snail species appeared in large numbers, but now many different insects and snails appear, albeit in smaller numbers for each species. I am especially proud that a mantis pair had offspring (nymphs). The key point is that hardly anything of this was done by me. I did not create a zoo, I simply allowed it to happen. It is a very fulfilling experience and I now want to start sharing it.
What I also learned is that not only awareness and love make plants grow – there are unforgivable natural laws. This is what makes gardening such a beautiful exercise in awareness, as you receive such honest and direct feedback from the plants. You rarely get such feedback from humans.
To not have to write down where which plant grows, I started developing a Web App, called PermaplanT. PermaplanT slowly starts to get some of the natural laws for about 12000 plants right, reducing the need to consult books for each plant. It instantly tells you which plant (dis)likes which spots, provided you first mark where which environmental conditions are on your map (e.g., sunny, wet and loamy). The software development is on good track, and I am comfortable doing marketing. But it becomes apparent that I cannot process the member applications slowly coming and all the office work alone.
Hence this call to find a personal secretary. You should know your way around being a contact person for interested potential members. The main objective qualification is the ABC of office work, which you may have learned through self-study. This includes elementary accounting (Einnahmen-Ausgaben-Rechnung), organizing files, emails, etc. Most can be done in home-office, but you need to live in Austria, e.g. for post office etc. Initial funding is via private money. What is probably unique is that a few hours of meditation can be done during work time.
Are you interested in participating? If yes, please apply here (in German): cloud.permaplant.net
And if you know anyone else who might be interested, please forward the link.
To get a sustainable structure, the first step will be to found a non-profit (gemeinnütziger und mildtätiger Verein) called Perma. Perma in the sense to permanently allow nature to sustain and nurture us. The statutes have currently been written, but have not yet been accepted by the finance authority. What should set Perma apart from many existing organizations is that it will be fully grounded in sustainability. For example, it should not depend on time-limited research funding.
Instead people join the non-profit and support it with regular payments. For many, the main reason to join for now will probably be to use the PermaplanT Web App. I want to expand this towards Osho’s vast vision. To not get lost in good intentions – which protecting nature and being sustainable certainly are – I see the need to embed awareness and meditation in all its actions. This is a huge undertaking.
Obviously, this is an experiment, and I cannot promise anything. I can only say: PermaplanT works for me, and I am delighted with my garden and the changes that are happening.
As far as I can see, such a non-profit has the potential to bring some balance to the overwhelming power of for-profit companies. For example, for-profit companies currently dominate most aspects of so-called sustainability and free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS), with all its consequences.
If you are interested in learning more about Perma, stay tuned here on Osho News, as I plan to write articles.
Bodhi
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