Reflecting on Muda (Japanese for waste, futility, purposelessness)

I was reading "Natural Capitalism, and I stopped on the word, "Muda", part of the title of Natural Capitalism, Chapter 7 ("Muda, Service and Flow") which also connects its meaning with the content of Chapter 3 ("Waste Not").

"Muda" was not the first word I pondered and mused. This book "Natural Capitalism" is so engagingly well-written that, paradoxically, I have difficulty through-putting it through my mind. There's hardly a sentence which doesn't ring bells of associatve resonances and I am diverted into listening and savoring those sounds. That is how successful the authors have been in writing this book.

So as I pondered and mused over the word , I wondered if it had been accurately rendered in the Roman script. Do the Japanese really pronounce it to rhyme with "coulda" as in the colloquial "I coulda dunnit"? Then it came to me--an "echo":

There's a word in Sanskrit (and several Indian languages) "Moodha." It connotes stupid, uninformed, irresponsible, slow, unintelligent, wilful, proud, deaf, lacking consciousness / conscience / sympathy, being unresponsive or insensitive etc. etc.

Ghamachchhanna drishti ghamachchhannamarkam,
yathaa nishprabham chaati moodha

For an Indian like me, every time I come across something said with considerable brilliance and apparent originality, my unfortunate focus is to first make a connection with something said in the past--to cock my ear up for a time-skip echo--and then to communicate it in a manner which, at best, is only tangentially relevant and at worst, is tiresome even to me. Still the addiction is so hardwired, few can kick the habit. I only hope some catalyzing good can come out of these imposition.

For instance, a shloka-shubhaashitam in Sanskrit could be of interest to the advocates of resource-productivity and the opponents of Muda / moodha-behaviour, or biomimicry. It goes :

Amantram aksharonaasti, naastimoolam anaushadham
Ayogyah purushonaasti, yojakastatra durlabha

"There's no sound / alphabetical letter which can't become a mantra,
there is no rooted plant which can't become a medicine
and there is no human who is incompetent.
All one needs is appropriate design and organization"

In my frequent moments of quiet frustration with the current situation here (which, in Bucky Fuller's words, "Teach us to assume, as closely as possible, the view point, the patience and competence of God"} I have commented elsewhere,

"Instead of inventing and producing what we need, we get into the habit of inventorying and debating what our ancients left behind them. Since our culture prides itself in being hoary, the inventorying never gets done. Someone, somewhere, appears to always leave something out and count goes back again and always to the Vedas."


-- From a letter Vyom Akhil sent to the authors of Natural Capitalism, Sunday April 9, 2000

Humankind has an IOU: information and a debt to pay

The Bible says, "Love Thy neighbor as thyself," but does not say why. An old book I read decades ago has an Englishman explain that the answer lies in Hindu thought, which says, "Tat tvam asi," (Thou art that). Love thy neighbor because, i.e., you are that neighbor--i.e., in Latin id est, THAT IS.

I.E. I use these letters as an acronym for "Internal Efficiency" as opposed to "External Efficiency (EE)",

IE: INTERNAL efficiency
EE: EXTERNAL efficiency

Evolutionarily most large forms of Life Systems--and human Organizations crudely modeled on them--learn and develop several techniques that require them to manifest as externally efficient. They become efficient at gathering food from the external environment. They become adept at recognizing external friend and foe. And they develop good defense mechanisms to defend themselves against external systems.

However, few have been given the opportunity to thrive in an environment in which they can develop internal efficiencies--of the spirit and their metabolism. (Those that did were poor at defending themselves externally and were annihilated, parasiticed, colonized etc.) Fewer still, could create equilibrium of evolution for themselves in which their internal as well external-interfacing systems could be developed efficiently. The resource-productivity emphasizing "Next Industrial Revolution" is, essentially, for the global industrial metabolism to create internal efficiencies. To really commence these a triquilibrium needs to be aimed at. The English name chosen for this triquilibrium can be summarized in the acronym IOU. The letters stand for: INformation, OUTformation, USEformation.

IOU:
IN-formation
OUT-formation
USE-formation

Besides Inside-Outside-Unity, it is good that the letters IOU also remind and resonate within the minds of the native speakers in such a way that they feel a sense of indebtedness, as in

IOU: I OWE YOU

The Hindus discovered that the best time to enter relevant information into the mind was when you are young and the memory is sharp and behavior can be modified through practice. Therefore, in the traditional, oral ways of instruction, the Hindu teacher would spend less time explaining than in helping create useful group-songs containing relevant information which the children would memorize and never, ever, forget. The attitude was, "Let them carry it inside them. At the appropriate time, they will ruminate, digest, understand and act accordingly." The teaching method was not 3Rs but LRU: Listen, remember and understand.

The Hindu also raise their children so that they go through life feeling indebtedness--to be given the human form, to have been granted intelligence, to live upon the work of their elders such as gods, saints, and ancestors. Amongst the Rites of Passage--both for boys and girls--was the conferment of the sacred, three-stranded Thread of (this) Indebtedness, which was worn diagonally across the torso, from the right shoulder. This helped the Hindu acquire an attitude of reverence, humility and non-violence and to regard the planet earth as Mother. Devout Hindus still beg Mother Earth's forgiveness every morning before getting out of bed and stepping upon her. In the same way, the woodsman humbly prays and begs forgiveness before cutting the tree with his axe.

So this IOU triquilibrium thing keeps coming back to bug me: InformationOutformationUseformation. It's my way of saying what Bucky Fuller said, humankind knows so much, but does so little.


- adapted from an email to rmi.org, 18 July, 2000

Echoes of Natural Capitalism in Hindu Philosophy

I have recently been attempting to "echo," or report on the "echoes" of Amory Lovins' in ancient Hindu thinking.

I wish I were more competent than I am, in explaining the echo in English. Perhaps, like most people in the "west" you were not given an adequate opportunity to learn a culturally different language as I had. In my more frustrating moments I have called this the 'traumatizing monolingualism of the Anglo-Saxon'; this has two unfortunate and obvious consequences:
(a) Having to learn first a language-system which is explained ad nauseum as wholly illogical, reflexively repulses a person to learn any other language{In the experience-based belief that all languages will make you go through the same horrid routine - a non -phonetic script. A grammar which has more exceptions than rules, a given -etymology which is more often suspect than not, etc. Amy Uyematsu, a third generation Californian poet, once said, "English is a language whose words have no memory." and (b) the expectation then is that Universe must render itself in that language in a comprehensible manner; otherwise it would be presumed to be wild / weird / chaotic / savage / pagan / barbaric / frightening / untrustworthy. etc.

To me, English is one of the several languages I speak - I'm fairly fluent in at least half a dozen, all others from this subcontinent. In comparison, I find English good for a few things, unsatisfactory for many more. I am quite sure I shall be dissatisfied by my own efforts at rendering the 'echo' to you. Why then am I expending time and energy on this? I like you and I like the work all of you are doing there. If it's allowed, call it a labor of love, if you will.

Literally translated in Sanskrit / Hindi / Oriya / Bengali / Gujarati / Maraathi, etc., Natural Capitalism will be "Praakritik Poonjivaad." But the word used for a financial system in 'Artha-Tantra' (I have never liked the idea of tagging 'tantra' to most bureaucratese translation; Democracy is, for instance, Loka-tantra, A Republc is Ganatrantra and so on. Even Mahatma Gandhi did not like this official stupidity which is a mouthful anyway but could not, in this matter, prevail).

In previous writings I hinted that the English word for this planet sounds no different from the Sanskrit word for money. However, that word, usually spelt in English as , is also a tad more popularly used for conveying the meaning of the English word . Unlike the English word for this planet, the Sanskrit word takes on the prefix to become . It then gets used to convey what we try to convey when we use the English words such as . Thus one can say, for instance, "Hitler's brand of Aryanism did a lot of anartha." Artha has many derivatives like arthavaan, aarthik, artha-neeti and the two latter words relate to the sense of English words Arthaabhaav conveys lack of money or low-cash -flow. Samartha means 'capable' while asamartha' means 'helpless'. So in the new light of the associatively resonating 'echo' Arthavaad can convey not only Natural Capitalism but an 'ism' which is pro-Earth. In fact, some wise Sanskrit heads (who will allow that in the past when the word Artha might also have stood for this planet, might have traveled abroad with its meaning which was later attenuated and restricted back home) would approve of Natural Capitalism, provided that it was indeed pro-Mother(earth).

I shall offer two extra words that fascinate me. The words for business and industry used here are vyaapaar and udyog without realization that vyaap inherently means expansion and encompassment. (Those who do call themselves businessmen or vyaapaari do not focus on this essential requirement of their activities and are confined to what in the U.S. used to be called hole-in-the-wall Mom & Pop stores.)

I suspect 'industry' still carries the memory of its origin (did the industrial activity really take off on the banks of the Indus river in the so-called Iron age? The 'tri' used in the word is quite profound in Sanskrit and I may come to it some other time.) The second word, though seldom understood via the meaning of its obvious components, 'Ud + yog' is actually quite a terrific word for 'ud' means and 'yog' is the same word commonly spelt in English as . Udyog thus can be shown to stand for 'enhanced connectivity' which is what the information-age is all about, right? So, in a way, can help bring back to the people here the meanings of the words they use without understanding (antar+sthaan!) what profound and, if understood, behavior changing, meanings they carry.

Oliver Sparrow, of Chatham House, London, says all of the world production in 1898 is now done in two months; by 2005 he trends it at one week; all of the business conducted in 1949, he says, is now conducted in a day; all of the Science in 1960, in a day today, all of the 1990 e-mail in a day and, in 2020, in an hour. That, if not subverted by all manner of vested interests who are little more than false-security seeking fear-mongers, is, indeed 'Udyog' .That RMI and your book are able to persuade mutlinationals that there's profit (another word probably derived from the Sanskrit 'Praapti' which also begot 'property' in English and 'paripati'-meaning routine in Hindi} in interconnecting human activity with the real capital wealth (W=I+2E) of this planet is 'udyog' in the true sense of the word.

Raymond W. Baker & Jennifer Nordin corrected, at the Brooking Institute in 1998, the Global Disparity Ratio from 74:l to l35:l. A major correction, what? (Meanwhile last year's UNDP Report carries the earlier calculation.) They say such disparity is unsustainable. One can agree that as methods improve and are fine-tuned wealth-creation will cease to be a major problem (At 10,000,000,000 metric tons per person at 6.5 billion pop. the planet has enough not only for Man but for all life if we stop being destructive, spending as we currently do, a trillion USD a year on our weaponry capers whereas commitment only of a fourth of this, per the World Games Institute for about 10-30 years will take care of most major problems.) Where the advocates of can start focusing is, in showing multi-nationals that there is even greater profit in rapidly and comprehensively distributing the wealth. (Didn't someone say "Money is like manure. If you stack it up it stinks. If you spread it around it'll help things grow.")

Currently the elite structures of the advanced nations where most of the multinationals still feel psychologically rooted, are slow in retiring their own bureaucracies, which, in turn, have spawned even more macabre Gorgon-heads in the developing nations; we still have votaries of the 'trickle-down' and to the multiplying poor, it trickles down more like a leaky faucet, slow maddening drop, then a long, maybe five-year pause, then another maddening drop. Such developmental approaches simply magnify disparity. I sometimes say popular aspirations are growing even faster than population and the disparity - at 135:1 - guarantees violence, terrorism crime and all the rest which comes around to where the gun-runners are rubbing their hands. This vicious circle has to be broken by a quantum change in the methods of distribution.

There is Sanskrit-sutra which translates: Gather with a hundred hands. Distribute with a thousand One. Thare's natural capitalism for you - a grain of rice, when appropriately broadcast (distributed!) produces ten more. Instead of a pile of skulls, we need to see a pile to which all the begging bowls have been consigned. Orissa State is economically perceived as divided as east and west. People in western part of Orissa feel they have been exploited and parasited upon by the coastal/eastern people; today's paper says area of land under irrigation in W. Orissa in 1947 was 21% of total; fifty years later they find 26%. The question asked is, where did all the agricultural development money go? And if that is all one has to show for it, why was the money spent in the first place? People below the poverty-line constitute 48.6% of the population. A lot of land is barren and there is some afoot to encourage people to plant bamboo. (There was plenty of bamboo here in the past; then a paper mill came in, made its packet and now is shut and there are several thousands unemployed in that area.) About 90% of the population here is rural.

John Scully (Pepsi to Reagan to Apple} said somewhere in his book "Odyssey" apropos the US economy during the 60s, that the planning was OK and thorough; it was the perspective which was defective. And I think it still is true. This 1998 newspaper item I have says "Looking ahead to the year 2000, the World Bank expects poverty in Asia - people on one USD or less to double." (Note the word 'expect'. I thought they used 'fear' in such cases.) I belong to that "dollar a day" tribe - one breakfast and one dinner a day, that's about 25 cents total - one pair of clothes, a 35 year old bicycle which was stolen last year, no known or unknown sustainable source of sustenance - who by some quirk of randomness is able to communicate with you. (Anger. I find bad-luck isn't a big deal in these parts when I look at what is around me. It is nothing if not Nature's miraculous Will which allows me contact with you via a medium and a language convenient to you.)

I had once the need to create a one-page primer of modern world history. At the end of the hundred-hour sweat I was able to point out "Prosper(ity) wasn't derived from a Shakespearean character's name and neither does 'Government' have Greek etymological roots. In Sanskrit, 'Paraspar' means 'mutual' and 'Guru + mantra' suggests an advisory and not a regulatory function. For advice to act sustainably in the desired direction, demonstrations of technological prowess etc. are unnecessary; all one needs is the moral force of the equation which keeps the so-called self at the bottom of the heap; after all that is what the Sanskrit word Sarva (all) + Sva (self) = Sarvasva, from which the English word 'Service' is derived means.

- Excerpt from an email from Vyom Akhil to Amory Lovins, author of Natural Capitalism. Jan 20, 2000.