**Life Without Subtraction

— The Essence of Natural Farming**

📸 Photos: Sunset, River, Wild-grown Daikon & Greens

The evening light turned the river into gold,
while the pampas grass swayed gently with nothing but the direction of the wind.

For a moment,
the whole world seemed to pause.

Nature was complete
simply by being there.

That day, the field showed me exactly that.

⸻

The Blessings of Natural Emergence

Lined up on the soil were today’s gifts—
daikon, napa cabbage, spring chrysanthemum, leeks, carrots.
All naturally sprouted.
Different sizes, different shapes, yet strong in their own way.

I didn’t sow them.
I didn’t fertilize them.
I didn’t till the soil.

I simply entrusted them
to light, rain, soil, and time.

Freshly harvested leeks released that sharp, sweet scent
that slips through your nose and wakes your mind—
a quiet reminder:

“I am alive today.”

Drop the harvest into a simple pot,
and the aroma of that day’s field fills the steam.

⸻

🌱 What Is “Life Without Subtraction”?

(A core idea hidden in natural farming)

This single phrase expresses everything:

**Nothing added.

Nothing taken away.
Life is complete from the beginning.**

To interfere is to weaken it.
To “trim” is to remove something that was whole.
To pull weeds, to fertilize, to till—

These are actions that cut away life
for human convenience.

Natural farming goes the opposite way.

We do not subtract.
We do not steal.
We leave the original vitality as it is.

⸻

🌿 1. Do Not Weaken Life

Tilling, fertilizing, removing weeds—
these acts may “order” the field
but they also disturb it.

Natural farming trusts the original balance.

We don’t carve away life’s flow.
We let it remain intact.

⸻

🌤 2. Life Is Complete From the Beginning

Sunlight.
Rain.
Soil.
Wind.
Time.

With just that,
this world overflows with life.

The more humans “add,”
the more life is sometimes “subtracted.”

Natural farming trusts the completeness of life.

⸻

🌾 3. Respect Shapes as They Are

Crooked daikon.
Small napa cabbage.
Thin carrots.

Each one carries its own individuality.

Natural farming doesn’t reshape them
to match human ideals.

⸻

🌊 4. Do Not Disrupt Life’s Flow

Seeds that fell last year
survive the winter,
sprout at the perfect moment,
and grow while conversing
with wind, rain, and sunlight.

This rhythm belongs to life itself.

Natural farming does not shorten it,
rush it,
or interfere.

⸻

🌎 Natural Farming as Gratitude to Earth and Universe

To practice “life without subtraction”
is to honor life,
trust life,
and stand beside life
without taking or forcing.

This becomes, naturally,
a quiet prayer to the Earth
and a deep thankfulness
to the Universe.

When we trust nature’s timing
and surrender to it,
the field begins to shine.

In that gentle light,
the life in Takaki’s field
grows exactly as it wishes.

⸻

🌟 In Closing

Nothing added.
Nothing taken away.

A field that grows alongside nature
also cultivates
the field of the human heart.

Today’s scenery
gave me that unmistakable lesson.