I have never dreamed of being conferred such a prestigious award as yours, and it is indeed the greatest honor for me to be here today. While overwhelmed with joy, I am bracing in anticipation for the heavy responsibilities of the days to come.
If, as an expression of my deep gratitude, I may take this opportunity to share my long-cherished thoughts with you, I should be deeply honored.
One day, while still a youth, a certain chain of events set me out on the path to farming. I started walking my road to natural farming. Being born dull-witted, however, I regret that I have failed to advance along this road as far as I should have.
On the other hand, the kind of natural farming I advocate has only just begun and will never be perfected. I have never doubted the basic idea underlying natural farming?the green philosophy. Nor have I ever encountered any evidence to contradict it.
Natural farming may be said to have its roots in the biblical insight: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" I do not know much about Christianity, but I take myself to be Christian. Nor do I know much about Buddhism, but I take myself to be Buddhist.
I accept Gautama Buddha's idea that "all is nothing." Human knowledge that deviates from the wisdom of God is useless. There is no value whatsoever created by human desires, although modernization may make it seem otherwise. Based on the conviction that genuine truth, beauty, and pleasure can be found only in nature, I have pursued a "do-nothing," natural way of farming -- with no tilling, no fertilizer, and no chemicals.
Fundamentally, I believe farming exists to serve and to approach God. Natural farming is the way. For God is nature, and nature is God.
However, since modern agriculture is based upon the flawed concepts of Western philosophy, which put man in conflict with his environment, we now selfishly exploit and destroy nature for our own ends. Agriculture has degenerated into an industrial and commercial process driven by human desires, making us slaves to money and to oil. During the past few centuries, monoculture has created a bogus blanket of green that exists only for man.
It took only two hundred years for the fertile soil of North America to become dead soil; 80 percent of Ethiopia was covered with forests only eighty years ago, but now only 3 percent of Ethiopia is green. Somalia has become a semidesert. India lost its green during the past forty-five years, Nepal during the past seventeen; these in turn caused the Ganges to flood and led to a food crisis in India. Observing this, I could not help but realize that modernized agriculture and the life of each individual are both linked ultimately to the destiny of the earth itself.
The scientists of the world are now in agreement that "while it took 4.6 billion years to make this earth -- the only green and beautiful planet in the universe -- it is now on the brink of destruction because of modern civilization, which has developed in just 100 years." Is there any way to put a stop to this?
The only way is for man to return to his proper position within nature as one member among all living things. Then, he can recover his soul and resurrect the green.
Why did man go astray? He has been deluded by a distorted Western view of the world based on concepts of relativity and dialectical materialism. Religion and science have kept pace. Sooner or later, however, these bankrupt ideas are destined to scatter away and vanish, leaving confusion and chaos behind.
What we need in their place is a view of the world that embodies the Buddhist truth that ?our existence is nothingness? and that is in accord with the Christian teaching that the world and all that is in it are one.
The Philippines was once a Garden of Eden. Trees of all kinds flourished, yielding hundreds of different kinds of fruit. To make it into a paradise again should not be just a dream. Imagine a paradise of vegetables and flowers, rich grain crops, trees laden heavily with fruit, and of beautiful green hills and plains. If by our effort the Philippines can once again become a Garden of Eden, you will be the pivot of Asia and a light to the world shining throughout the twenty-first century.
In these increasingly chaotic modern times, we must show that will to walk the other way, to serve God by restoring nature. If your country will do this, scattering seeds on its semidesertized earth and showing the world a determination to turn it into a green paradise again, then people will become aware of the true wellspring of human joy. And they too will turn around and strive for peace and happiness.
Tomorrow will be too late. I beg you to join me in my ardent and earnest prayer and start to take new action today.