IDEAS FOR GOODWe live in an age of intensifying societal and systemic challenges, including climate change, ocean plastic pollution, and food loss. Now more people are taking action than ever, whether as citizens, entrepreneurs, or investors. Not surprisingly, the awareness that these challenges pose dangerous threats to mankind and the planet has given rise to new economic models such as circular economics.
At the same time, it can be difficult to find what the right action is. The complex intertwining of various issues makes it a challenge, even for experts, to see if their actions are actually making a difference.
Ecological Memes (pronounced without the “s”), a cross-disciplinary project, is dedicated to redefining the interrelation between human existence and the planet, based on a strong sense of life and ecological perspectives. What this cutting-edge community of thinkers and leaders is doing may provide some insights into how to address systemic challenges in our day-to-day lives.
The community integrates a plethora of perspectives. They include ecology, biomimicry, complexity science, post-human-centered design, eastern philosophy (such as the Buddhist notion of “engi” or independent co-arising), circular society, somatic intelligence for inner transformation (such as Social Presencing Theater), ancient Japanese culture, and ecosystemic design.
Above all, ecology is the collective’s overarching concern. Ecological Memes defines being “ecological” firstly as an attitude towards an awareness of the invisible connection between the self and the system, and secondly as immersing oneself in a regenerative flow of the inter-connectedness of life.
By taking such a cross-disciplinary approach, Ecological Memes seeks to radically reimagine new ontological ways for individuals and businesses.
This community was founded by Yasuhiro Kobayashi.
After traveling to 26 countries, Kobayashi helped build dynamic communities for empowering social entrepreneurs at Impact HUB Seattle and Impact HUB Tokyo.
Currently, he works at the strategic design firm BIOTOPE, where he supports organizational transformation by unleashing creativity and authentic leadership while co-creating future visions that emerge at a deep level.
IDEAS FOR GOOD interviewed Kobayashi about “Ecological Memes” and his perspectives on how we should be living in this complex society.
Restoring the connection between the “Outer” and the “Inner”
Kobayashi’s activities with Ecological Memes are rooted in his experiences at Impact HUB. At the time, he had been working to empower social entrepreneurs who had visions for positive change. He came to realize something important from his experiences of meeting these people.
“I began working at Impact Hub Seattle with the role of supporting social entrepreneurs. While there, I noticed that everyone I worked with were lively and high-spirited. They talked openly about the change in the world they envisioned. They also actively created the space for people to get involved and to bring the resources necessary to make those visions become a reality. I felt that this spirit was an essential part of “living lively” regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or not.
“On the other hand, I also came across many entrepreneurs who worked tirelessly to contribute to society or organizations, but had unconsciously lost their inner sustainability, and then ended up burning out as a result. Based on these experiences, I came to realize the significance of restoring the connection between outward activity for impact and inner connection within the self, or in other words, the importance of what I consider to be ‘authentic leadership.'”
What we need to reestablish this connection, says Kobayashi, are the “senses” that we all feel in our day-to-day lives. Whether they are vague senses of discomfort towards society or unformulated feelings that we are not doing what we truly value, we must tap into our bodily senses as a starting point for exercising meaningful and authentic leadership.
Social transition ultimately begins with each individual in a system taking the time to reflect on their own way of life thoroughly. This is the premise that led to his work with Ecological Memes.
Ecological Memes: A community to explore the future of human life from an ecological perspective.
Ecological Memes explores how people may live and exist in the future from the perspectives of ecology and the ecosystem. But how Kobayashi arrive at using the concept of “ecology”?
“Part of it has to do with my love of nature and the time I spent traveling the world as a backpacker. But discovering the philosophy of Minakata Kumagusu, a Japanese biologist, ethnologist, and philosopher in the19th and 20th centuries also had a significant influence. Minakata was active against the Shrine Consolidation Policy adopted in 1906 and is widely known for his concerns about ecological crises amidst the rapid modernization during the Meiji Restoration.
“Minakata claimed that environmental crises were very closely related to the ecology of our minds, as in Pierre-Félix Guattari’s theory of the three ecologies — “environmental ecology,” “social ecology,” and “mental ecology.”
He maintained that if consciousness was cut off from the subconscious, reason from emotion, and human from nature, we no longer had any roots to serve as a foundation. As a result, Minakata noticed that destroying “the grove of a village shrine,” or shrines and their guardian forests would lead to the “despiritualization” of man and his life foundations. Looking at “ecology” from this standpoint strongly resonated with what I felt all through my life.
“Instead of seeing perfection in the untouched nature versus the destructive evil of man, we must realize that we are essentially inseparable from nature. What we call the environment exists only in this mutual inter-relationship, which also resonates with Timothy Morton’s ambient ecology. We have to consider that human beings and the planet affect each other, and the world is emerging in this inter-connectedness. I felt hope in looking at ecology from that kind of a standpoint.”
Instead of looking at people as if they are living separately from nature, you should look at the world which emerges from the result of the reciprocal relationship. Kobayashi believes that focusing on this relationship offers a suggestion on how people live in tune with the rhythm of life.
Rebuilding the Relationship Between People and Nature
Kobayashi explains that there is a great surge amidst the global dynamics towards a more relational future.
“In my work, I help people not only formulate and visualize their feelings and visions but also put them in practice. In fact, watching the macro and micro trends closely allowed me to discover a huge “tide” globally to redefine and rebuild the relationship between human beings and the planet. The trends include the macro trends of sustainability and circular society, as well as lifestyle trends that value a symbiosis with nature, a return to physical sensations, and spiritual well-being. A good example of this is in India, where young generations are revitalizing and reconstructing their traditional cultures such as Yoga.
“There are countless regional and local movements that, observed from a distance, underline a common human desire to restore our deep relationship with the environment and the Earth as a living system.”
In his view, both macroscopic topics (like circular economy) and microscopic ones (like personal well-being)ultimately boil down to the question of how to reconstruct the relationship between man and nature. We may call it a healing process, one that heals the long-standing dichotomies of today’s world. We’re seeing people reevaluate what they consider to be the best possible approach to nature and its ecosystems by acknowledging that we are a part of nature.
“This tide is also the manifestation of our discomfort towards man’s dominant mindset. It is a mindset deeply ingrained in our consciousness through the modern scientific revolution and the subsequent mechanistic paradigm that has treated nature as something to be controlled and exploited.”
Kobayashi continues, “At Ecological Memes, we acknowledge the limits of reductionistic paradigms because they use language to mechanically disassemble the world into parts. They also rely on causality to determine what is guaranteed to happen under certain conditions.
“I believe the key to overcoming these limits involves what some Eastern philosophies and ancient cultures have long nurtured: intuitively accepting the complex world as it is, and activating our physical sensations as the foundation of our thinking and behavior. It is a fundamentally different way of looking at the world as opposed to a viewpoint in terms of thoughts and words solely within the logos they understand.
“Words fundamentally function to set things apart, and this inevitably implies putting them into a sequence that requires ordering. In terms of Greek philosophy, this process would fall under “logos.” While human history tended to prioritize logos and modern science, Eastern philosophy built upon “lemma,” which is the intelligence and practice to perceive the world intuitively. When discovering how to live in “a world you cannot fully understand,” the lemma worldview offers several helpful hints.
“This is something that has been cultivated over millions of years of human history. And in Japan, we have traditionally integrated the wisdom of lemma and how to co-exist with nature and life as an essential part of our culture. I consider the revitalization of these pearls of wisdom and practices extremely important.”
Diversity is the Biggest Contributor to Systemic Sustainability
So far, we have discussed the importance of reconstructing our views on the human-nature relations based on relational ontologies. Yet, it is still difficult to imagine how to put this into practice. We asked Kobayashi for some specific examples from past events in his salons (referring to the gathering) that could offer insights.
“At the 3rd event, held under the theme of Complexity Science and Group Dynamics, we invited Professor Hiroki Sayama from Binghamton University. What I found interesting in our dialogue was that having all members of a system agree on a single course is detrimental to a complex system as a whole. Diversity is the most important element for keeping the system sustainable. In other words, it’s best for the whole if each person acts on their unique, personal intuitions. According to Professor Sayama, this, in effect, is the most important factor in a system’s longevity.”
Evidently, it is difficult to deductively determine “a specific course of individual action” designed for overall optimization in a complex system. Instead, acting autonomously based on your personal intuition eventually contributes to the sustainability of the overall system. This is a radically important standpoint when we look for a truly sustainable lifestyle.
That being said, how are we to “act autonomously”? Kobayashi offered his answer.
“We live in an age where all kinds of things are connected through social media, and most people are sheltered in bubbles of people who share similar interests. Just as no one from the liberal left was able to anticipate Donald Trump’s victory, the reality of our information networks is, in reality, quite fragmented. So, I would suggest trying to reach out to subjects or groups that may feel foreign or unfamiliar to you. For example, try following someone on social media that you wouldn’t normally think of following.”
“We do discuss diversity in Japan, but the parameters of the discourse are often limited to gender or nationality. It’s critical that we engage in our unique interests. To accomplish this, we need to make choices based on our intuitive sense of what’s important to ourselves personally. In turn, this ends up building up a sense of diversity and resilience within the whole population.”
Even within the same setting, everyone walks through a different experience. By not closing the shutters on your sensory perception and developing these sensations daily, every person becomes a unique and original being. This is the essence of diversity.
Additionally, by stepping out of your “value bubbles,” you can establish connections with fresh and new information and people, and your relationships become diverse. In turn, you can develop intra-personal diversity, and the entire population becomes more diverse as a result. It is an encouraging message for people who doubt whether their actions are truly making a difference in society.
Beginning with the premise that “There Is a World We Cannot Understand”
Alongside diversity, Kobayashi values “the ability to embrace the unknown and the invisible.”
“The one common thread that always comes up in our differently-themed salons is the idea of ‘the world you do not understand.’ For example, at the 6th salon, on the theme of “Life and Japanese Culture,” we invited Fumiya Yamamoto, a practitioner of “ikebana” (Japanese flower arrangement) and CEO of Deracine Inc.
“During the event, we looked at flowers as a starting point for thinking about symbiosis with nature. In “ikebana,” there are two arrangements – “tateru” (putting flowers upright in the vase) and “ireru” (tossing flowers into the vase). “Tateru” flowers are considered spiritual and arranged in a space called “yorishiro.” This is closely linked to the traditional flower practice that involves placing flowers in the “tokonoma” (a recessed space or alcove found in a Japanese-reception room) to offer gods a physical sign and space to be summoned. Since the “tokonoma” is a recessed space, these flowers are typically only seen from the front.
“The view of the rear is only seen by the arranger or by the gods, which is a non-understandable realm where human knowledge cannot reach. The creation of this space that reminds us of the unseen world lies at the heart of ikebana.“On the other hand, nowadays, flowers are placed on a table with a 360-degree viewing angle so that they can be seen from every direction. This presents our modern psyche that presumes the entire world is within the grasp of human understanding.”
“Following that, Toshiyuki Kawashima — vice-chief priest at Koyasan Shingon Sect Fukuin Temple whom we invited to the 5th salon, “Eastern Philosophy of Engi” — mentioned how he found the same concepts in Buddhism. He talked about how Buddhism starts with the premise that the world is something that cannot be understood. Yet many who are attracted to modern Buddhist practice because they desire to understand everything about the world.”
“I believe things go wrong because of our assumption that human beings can completely comprehend the entire world we live in.”
Kobayashi continued, “Amidst the competition in the modern digital society that encourages fighting over how much time and attention one gets, I feel that society as a whole has become far less resilient in dealing with “uncertainty.” If a person lives exclusively in a realm of what they can understand, they end up closing themselves off into a world dictated by the mind. This is exactly why taking the time to face and embrace uncertainty has the potential to open up new frontiers.
“I believe modernization can be expressed as a two-step process of determination and methodization where A results in B in a replicable manner. The problem with this model is that it oversimplifies the actual nature of reality.
“In Eastern philosophy, there is a central way of looking at the world as a mystery that cannot be unraveled by causality, and this world emerges as a result of human connections and a reciprocal relationship with nature. It is a crucial aspect of what it means to live ecologically.”
This world is too complex to be understood solely by the mind. As Kobayashi argued, we need to perceive the world along with its “incomprehensibility” and then take action according to our sensations and intuition.
“This is not to abandon thinking altogether. It simply means ‘to not stay in the bubble of comprehensibility.’ We need to let go of the notion that we ‘cannot move forward unless we can understand the path ahead.'”
Being Aware that You Are a Part of the System
The world is something that cannot be understood in the first place. This premise might sound discomforting to people who see society in terms of “problems” and “solutions” because it is difficult to formulate the problems accurately in the first place. That being the case, how do we live and make choices as a member of society?
“It goes beyond our limits to try to perceive the entire system objectively. Even in terms of circular economics, it won’t be easy to take any action if we try to determine how everything should turn out beforehand. There is no unanimous agreement on the best possible course of action for the whole system.
“Joanna Macy, a Buddhist philosopher and environmentalist, writes in her book “Active Hope” about “how to reconnect.” The term “Active Hope” refers to the approach to any situation with a positive mindset. For example, looking at the disaster caused by a typhoon may make us feel distressed. But when we discover what really causes us to feel upset, we find that this pain is an expression of love and gratitude.
“She explains the importance of becoming aware of ourselves in pain as a part of the system first. By doing so, we should then be able to see how that pain is transpiring in a relationship that exists between us, others, and the surrounding environment so that we can take action accordingly.”
“On the other hand, pursuing social impact without this connection between the inner and the outer is exhausting, so you may end up playing ‘whack-a-mole.’ I do see that there is a social virtue in doing this. But as far as each individual is concerned, the important paradigm is that of letting go of our thoughts in mind and opening up our physical experience and sensation to the world to restore somatic and emotional intelligence to life. You do not need to immediately take any drastic action, as long as you take care of your inner-self, and to give it some shape, starting small in your immediate surroundings.”
The first step, it seems, is to become aware of the pain and other sensations we feel in our daily life, and after that, to start taking small action within your local environment. The mutual reactions will then create a ripple effect that transmits into a larger system of organizations and society. Ultimately, it results in the emergence of greater, holistic change.
Perhaps we can think about this with plastic pollution as an example. The plastic issue poses a highly complex problem for which there is no immediate solution.
But imagine that you feel slightly guilty after seeing all the plastic in the ocean on TV, and decide to say “no” to plastic bags at your local convenience store. If ten people like you did the same, the shop clerk would notice a shift in their customers’ actions. If more and more staff members see this change, their feedback will be sent to the manager, then to the headquarters, and potentially results in a ban on plastic bags at the company as a whole. Other companies that follow suit could then change the industry altogether, thus creating a nationwide movement. This is the power of individual action in bringing about social reform.
Going Beyond Circular: A Regenerative Leadership That Leads to Thriving
Kobayashi’s notion of “restoring our connections” is also linked to the underlying ideas behind many new economic models, such as that of the circular economy.
“The circular model has received a lot of attention lately in the sustainability movement. Sustainability is the notion of “from minus state to zero,” where people are still regarded as separated from nature. We need a transition to regeneration instead. The regenerative mindset, currently gaining support in Europe, is the practice of co-existing with the planet as the living system in a reciprocal relationship.
“Thriving presents the possibility to flourish together as a system by treating people as constituent parts, allowing us to overcome the paradigm of trying to resolve problems from the outside. I often use the phrase ‘circular to regenerative,’ and we are seeing some regenerative business models emerging in the world.
“For example, in Europe, the manufacturer DYCLE is making biodegradable diapers. While the current circular strategy is based on a’ closed loop’ model mainly via the 3Rs of reducing, reusing, and recycling, DYCLE’s biodegradable diapers are designed to be compostable and returned to the soil to fertilize plants. These plants are then consumed as nutrients by children, who then use these diapers again to continue the cycle. This model embodies the collaborative thriving that integrates people into their surrounding non-human environment.
“Although this cycle is also as a kind of circular economy, I want to emphasize that it is not only the economy that circulates but also society and the planet, all as part of a larger, living, interrelating cycle. Regeneration is a worldview, not of trying to reduce the strain on the environment, but of building a way for people to cooperatively thrive with the Earth. Regenerative leadership refers primarily to individuals implementing this mindset through business.”
Kobayashi met with Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm, co-authors of a book “Regenerative Leadership,” in Copenhagen. He then decided to build a community back in Japan for deepening and embodying the practice.
He believes it is all about opening up our senses and awareness as part of a living system, that is, reconnecting life. It involves activating and integrating Eastern ancient culture and philosophy, especially Buddhism and Shinto in Japan, as he is sure these thought traditions embrace deep wisdom of how to look at this interweaving world with a sense of connection, beyond dichotomies and reductionism.
The Self, Environment and Society are all the same
The concept of “thriving,” with its focus on the co-prosperity of people, organisms, and nature as a whole, seems to offer a more inclusive vision compared to sustainable growth and degrowth. What can we do as individuals to build a society that embodies this concept of thriving? We posed Kobayashi this as a final question.
“Readers of media outlets like IDEAS FOR GOOD probably already have a strong concern for social challenges. It is especially important to identify what makes you interested in these problems, what drives you to know and act, and what causes you pain inside.
“You cannot find them by thinking about them, but rather by paying attention to your somatic and visceral sensations. To make room for that, you need to dedicate three things: time, space, and heart. The easiest to start with is time. No matter how busy you may be, it is critically important to slow down and relax your sympathetic nerves, which allow you to notice your physical perceptions. I would suggest taking just 15 minutes a day to reflect on what you feel as being a part of the bigger system.
“What is happening inside ourselves is what is also happening in organizations, society and the planet. Just as we see in the concept of “mandala” in Esoteric Buddhism, there is always a fractal structure.
“For example, symbiosis with nature is not a new concept, but it is in our very essence as living things. There are billions of microscopic organisms living inside of us, without which we would not be alive. What do you feel when you recognize that our existence is already in a deep relation with many other forms of life? I believe that the path to a sustainable society starts with these little realizations.”
What is happening in society is no different from what is happening in our own bodies. Our inner changes, through a large cycle, become the changes in society. This sense of interconnectedness can deeply affirm that our actions are making a difference in society. In the end, nurturing our own feelings may be the best possible approach that we as members of society can take.
Kobayashi hopes to not only integrate the ancient wisdom of Japan and the East into future programs, but also connect Ecological Memes with a global context. He is also planning “journey” programs in different regions worldwide to reconnect people with nature and life.
We live in an ever so complex world today. Whether as an individual or as an organization, each of us is searching for ways to address existing issues in this world. The interview with Kobayashi is a great resource to provide insights on what steps we might take to address them in our own lives.
If you are interested in Ecological Memes, make sure to stay tuned for their upcoming events and programs. Your small steps out of your everyday communities and groups will not only refine your senses and originality, but also add a small but meaningful part to the diversity of our magnificent world.
If you are interested in knowing more about or collaborating with Ecological Memes, feel free to contact info[at]ecologicalmemes.me
This article was originally posted on IDEAS FOR GOOD in Japanese.
