VOA标准英语2008年-Wendy Johnson Finds Enlightenment through Organ

In a quiet valley at Muir Beach, outside San Francisco, volunteer farmers till the soil, plant seedlings 2, and irrigate 3 crops. They work alongside Zen monks 4 and nuns 5, Western converts to an ancient Asian faith.

This is where organic farmer and gardener Wendy Johnson has spent the past 30 years.

Johnson has gardened all her life. She became interested in Zen while doing graduate studies in comparative religion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The two interests met here, at Green Gulch 6 Farm Zen Center.

Johnson says she is inspired by the simple lifestyle and traditional farming methods, growing crops without synthetic 7 pesticides 8 or fertilizers. "People have been farming this way for generations," she observes, "deriving 9 good food from good land."

Organic gardening has roots in the past

The organic gardening movement flowered in the 1960s and '70s, as people like Johnson took part in a modern revival 10 of traditional farming methods. She has recounted her experiences in a book called Gardening at the Dragon's Gate. The dragon of the title refers to the temple at Green Gulch.

She says the ancient teaching of Zen, with its emphasis on simplicity 11 and appreciation 12 of nature, inspires this farm and meditation 13 center in the green rolling hills north of San Francisco. People come to seek inner peace as they work in the fields, coaxing 14 crops such as leek 15, kale, lettuce 16 and cabbage from the ground.

A different sort of gardening

While Johnson admits that there are those who enjoy gardening slowly, planting a seedling 1, then leaning back and looking at the sky, she says that's not what happens at Green Gulch. "[We are] working rhythmically 17 and full-on, but [have] a sense of well-being 18 and relaxation 19 that comes at the end of the day from doing work you love and doing it well and being in connection with the natural world." She says it's an honor and privilege to be able to do that.

There is also time for Zen meditation at Green Gulch, sitting cross-legged in a traditional Japanese-style meditation hall. And there is time to sit and reflect in the meditation garden, with its bamboo grove 20 and small shrines 21 with Buddhist 22 images, decorated with flowers.

The site is open to visitors who come to learn of the center's philosophy and get in touch with nature. Wendy Johnson has also taken her message around the United States, talking about the ties between gardening and meditation. She says listeners are responsive. "In some deep way, you are restored," she says. "Many people say what a sense of well-being and grounded-ness the garden gives them."

She says the first step to creating a garden is cultivating the ground. The next step is fertilization with traditional means such as compost, creating natural fertilizer from manure 23, shredded 24 leaves and kitchen scraps 25. Johnson says gardeners must also learn how plants propagate, and then master the mechanics of tending to a garden. "That includes pruning 26 and weeding, irrigating 27, keeping records of the garden, managing the pests." Or at the very least — she corrects herself — learning to live with pests and respecting the environment.

Branching out to the community

Food from the Green Gulch farms is served at a trendy San Francisco restaurant called Greens, and sold at a popular farmers' market. It is also given to the poor through a food bank and soup kitchens.

Today, Johnson works with teachers in the nearby city of Berkeley in a program called The Edible 28 Schoolyard. Nine hundred students grow organic crops, and work together to prepare and eat the fruits and vegetables. Johnson says she has a great job as a mentor 29 of the young people who teach gardening in the public schools. "[That] is appropriate when you're 60 years old and you've been gardening as long as they've been alive. And then I also get to work with very lively, disobedient and rambunctious 30 middle school students!"

Wendy Johnson says a garden has a life of its own, and successful gardeners respect and learn from it. "I never say I manage the garden," she confides 31. "The garden really manages me."