I recently watched this film NOVA film called “Secrets of the Forest” . It was so inspiring I watched it again, and then wrote this review. of the film.

There is a tradition among some Zen temples in Japan of reciprocity where monks, when drawing water from a well, are careful to leave some water that they pour back into the well. When June Roshi studied Lau Lapau with Papa Henry in Hawaii, he too taught this principle of reciprocity instructing his students, when gather medicine from plants and flowers in nature, to never take all the medicine from the plant, but to leave some.

Author and member of the Potawatomi tribe, Robin Kimmer says, “In Potawatomi ways of thinking, we’ve always said, ‘Well, how do I give back in return for what I’ve been given? We have a worldview that says that the forests are our relatives, they are our providers, they take care of us, and we have to take care of them.