Finding purpose in simplicity outdoors

More than the sense of achievement, what I enjoy as part of having bought a piece of land, is the process of questioning ourselves what to do with it. 

Wandering and changing our living space often, cautious about limiting our consumerism and staying somehow minimalist as well as non emotionally attached to material things, we never found it made sense for us to buy a property or a house. I still don't understand how, in our current environment of uncertainty, high real estate market prices, considering the full maintenance cost and time of buying and maintaining a house could have a positive return of investment.

But here for us it's different. We bought a piece of forest to question ourselves.

How to respect the forest, and build a shelter that is as least invasive as possible? How to live in a house that actually gives more than it takes? 

What does actually matter to us in a house?

For us the process started. We dream, we brainstorm, we read, we get inspired. We find purpose. 

When brainstorming for a name for our project, several concepts emerged: continuation, giving nature back, the 5 senses… 

Our project is called Terra Kensho. Kenshō (見性) is a Japanese term from the Zen tradition. Ken means "seeing", shō means "nature, essence". It is usually translated as "seeing one's (true) nature", that is, the Buddha-nature or nature of mind.

We came across Kensho when reading about igikai. Our land is really meant to be a sacred place for self reflection. Spending time in nature to discover our true human nature. 

An experiment to learn more about how a living environment could be built. A place designed and thought around what matters to us.

In a few weeks, we started referring to ‘Kensho’ as an adjective. Kensho is anything that brings a sense of our inner self and helps our living sync to the elements of nature. We feel there are a lot of nature inspirations that can help us live in harmony if we allow them into our lives. We are incorporating Kensho into our life, see a few examples on Kensho Spaces on Instagram. 

What are your ways of integrating nature into your life? How does that bring peace to you?