Exploring Aida (“In-between”) of Humans and Nature (Yasuhiro Kobayashi, Founder of Ecological Memes)

Ecological Memes
Oct 1
8 min read

Social change begins within the individual

When I was a child, a forest stood in front of my house—a place where I played, explored, and felt nurtured by nature. When I was ten, the forest was cleared for development. I remember watching from my window as the trees fell one after another, feeling an unexpected and profound sadness. I asked myself, Why does this hurt so much? It is the trees being cut, not me. The only way I could describe it was that “the forest was being cut down in my heart.”

Decades later, I found an answer in Opening Aida: The Horizon of the Lemma by Nobuo Kioka (Kyoto: Sekaishisosha, 2014). The “lemma” is a philosophical framework that recognizes the inseparable aida (“in-between”) of things, in contrast to the logos tradition, which approaches the world through dualistic distinctions. Rooted in the Buddhist concept of interdependence and the doctrine of causality—where all things are mutually connected—the lemma was first articulated by Nagarjuna, the founder of Mahayana Buddhism, in the Madhyamaka-śāstra. In Japan, philosopher Tokuryu Yamauchi further developed these ideas in Logos and Lemma.

In this book, Nobuo Kioka, a scholar of regional studies and the philosophy of life, not only offers a deep reading of Yamauchi’s lemmatic logic but also examines why such thinking is urgently needed today. At its core, Kioka argues for restoring aida as a way of addressing today’s multi-layered crises—climate change, widening socioeconomic disparities, and other systemic imbalances.

Yakushima Japan, Photo by Yasuhiro Kobayashi

***Fudo*: a world inseparable from the self**

The first reason for turning to lemmatic logic is to reconsider the true meaning of “environment.” In modern usage, the environment is typically understood as something external to humans—an objectified backdrop against which human activity unfolds. This conception, however, emerges from the assumptions of the modern dualistic paradigm. By dividing what is inherently interconnected and reducing it to mechanistic components, this worldview reinforces oppositions: between humans and nature, or even among humans themselves.

In contrast, lemmatic logic reframes the environment not as something separate from the self, but as something into which the self extends and with which it coexists. The self and the environment are thus mutually constitutive and inseparable. The philosopher Watsuji Tetsuro described this inseparability of self and environment through the concept of fudo—often loosely compared to the French notion of “terroir.” Yet while terroir generally refers to environmental conditions such as soil and climate, fudo also includes human life as an integral part of this relational field. It is not an object to be controlled, but a dynamic interplay in which humans and their environment co-constitute one another.

The second reason is to address the structural imbalances embedded in modern society. Restoring the relationship between humans and nature necessarily entails restoring the relationships among humans themselves. As the book argues, the root cause of today’s global ecological crisis lies not merely in humanity’s domination over nature.

Since the modern scientific revolution, humanity’s approach to nature as an object to be controlled has been intertwined with multi-layered ruler–subject relationships: to dominate others as one would dominate nature, and to dominate nature as one would dominate others. This reciprocal structure of domination has only deepened the problem, and all of us living within modern civilization remain at risk of falling into this pattern.

This dynamic is closely linked to the issue of decolonization, which is attracting renewed attention worldwide. In industrial civilization, those subjected to domination in external societies are rendered parallel to nature itself—treated as exploitable resources for economic and political ends. Such colonial relationships and forms of violence are not limited to physical colonies; they persist in the unexamined assumptions and unconscious privileges that have become embedded within us.

Of course, these issues have not gone entirely unexamined. Fields such as environmental ethics, which promote a de-anthropocentric perspective, and initiatives advancing diversity and inclusion reflect ongoing attempts to rethink human–nature and human–human relations.

However, as this book argues, no matter how much we rethink our behavior within an ethical community that includes nature, the crises of modern society will remain unresolved as long as we continue to rely on a logos-based logic—one that fails to recognize aida between individuals or between people and nature. Even a shift from “anthropocentrism” to “nature-centrism” or “life-centrism” often results only in an inversion of roles between subject and object, leaving the underlying worldview, relational dynamics, and structural frameworks fundamentally intact.

Let difference remain difference

Here, it is worth introducing another key premise in the theory of aida: understanding existence not as opposition but as difference. In the logos-based logic, the relationship between A and non-A defines difference as opposition, leaving no space in between. In contrast, when A and non-A are seen as differences prior to opposition, non-A is not merely “not-A” but can be understood as B—distinct from A yet not opposed to it. The boundary between them becomes fluid, with room for overlap. By allowing difference to remain difference, the two stay connected without being severed. While staying firmly grounded in the existence of the self, it is possible to break free from the constraints of the modern individual and reconnect with a sense of wholeness—one that does not confine the vitality of life solely to the physical body.

When I first encountered the logic of the lemma, long-forgotten memories from my childhood began to resurface. The tree and I could meet in that aida—a place that is neither me nor the tree, yet is both. At last, I had found a way to articulate, in tangible terms, the essence of that feeling: that “there was a forest within me.” For me—someone who had long felt uneasy toward the ecological movements and environmental conservationism of the 1970s and 1980s, rooted in a logos-based logic that separates humans from nature and treats it as an external object—this encounter was a breakthrough. While such perspectives have contributed to remarkable civilizational advances, they have also fostered exploitative and domineering attitudes toward both the natural environment and other people. In contrast, the lemma reveals that we are not fixed entities standing apart from the world (human-being), but fluid beings continually brought forth within its flow, responding to and shaped by it (human-becoming).

From Japan to the world: stories worth telling

Perhaps the most difficult thing to explain through logos alone—which reduces the world to its constituent elements—is life itself: the lived reality of being alive. Yet modern social systems and businesses have been constructed as if they were machines, relying on a flawed logic that cannot account for this dimension. Scholar Minakata Kumagusu, who recognized this limitation early on, warned against the development of industrial civilization and modern academia grounded in a “dividing” intellect. He discerned the truth of the world in the living philosophical image of slime molds, which effortlessly transcend the binary opposition between life and death. Nearly a century later, Japan still holds a story worth sharing with the world.

The issue of aida is closely linked to the practice of equity—the elimination of structural disparities—which has emerged as a new trend in social innovation. True equity goes beyond superficial measures, requiring the dismantling of systemic divisions that separate “supporters” from “supported” and “stakeholders” from “non-stakeholders”—boundaries that often sharpen as social issues are more precisely defined. That equity now lies at the core of John Kania and Mark Kramer’s revised concept of “collective impact” suggests an implicit call for a shared space of encounter, the aida that transcends the modern dualism and structural pattern of domination and subjugation.

The rise of social practices grounded in non-dualistic paradigms extends beyond philosophy into fields such as quantum mechanics, multispecies anthropology, more-than-human studies, and sustainability science. Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar, in Designs for the Pluriverse, critiques Western scientific civilization for imposing a dualistic framework through abstract conceptualization, using universal standards and notions of correctness to dominate nature, other people, and the environment. He calls instead for opening pathways to pluriversal possibilities—worlds shaped by vernacular practices rooted in the specificities of each locality.

Reencountering the world through aida

Several years ago, I founded Ecological Memes, a corporation(& collective) dedicated to exploring and rebuilding the interrelationality between humans and nature in collaboration with researchers and practitioners from diverse transdisciplinary fields. My encounter with the theory of aida was a major catalyst for both the founding and the subsequent growth of the company. More recently, through Aida Lab—our planning and operations arm—we launched an exploratory community program focused on “rebuilding relationships with beings beyond humans through multi-species care.” This initiative seeks to move beyond the binary oppositions of “human–nonhuman” and “caregiver–care recipient,” reimagining our daily behaviors, rituals, and mindsets to cultivate deeper interconnectedness.

Another concrete example based on aida perspectives is a Daisen Ryuiki(Literally "watershed") project.This is a project with a local municipality in a watershed around Mt. Daisen in Tottori prefecture. In this project, we redefined the dynamic connections among all phenomena—including human activity—acrossa continuous landscape extending from deep mountains to satoyama , rivers, and seas. We call this holistic perspective “Ryuiki” (流域, literally “river basin” or “watershed”). The capacity to perceive and respond to these dynamics we name “Ryuiki Awareness” — that is, a capacity to reconnect and activate aida space beyond the culture-nature separation.

In order to nurture this Ryuiki perspective and facilitate further dialogue in local community across several administrative units, we designed a visualized map and 13 cards as a common tool based on repeated field researches and dialogues with the local people, as well as developed an experimental program as a new form of regenerative & planetary health tourism together with local team.

Similarly, Regenerative Leadership(Giles Hutchins&Laura Storm, 2019), a book I translated into Japanese pursues this vision across multiple layers, from “individual existence” to “organizational culture” to “social system design,” fostering emergence through life-systems theory. Restoring aida with the world and forging new connections is also a process of deeply reconnecting with one’s own vitality and joy. Even when it entails tension or the harsh winters of experience, these darker seasons of regeneration are what make the vibrant spring possible.

In an era when crises are entangled in complex and multifaceted ways, and humanity’s role on this planet is under unprecedented scrutiny, the regeneration of the self has become essential. To live as part of a dynamic process of “becoming” is to remain open to transformation. The healing of each individual is inseparable from the healing of the world, just as the healing of the world is inseparable from the healing of each individual. Perhaps it is within this shared aida that many today are beginning their journey toward deeper interconnectedness.

What comes next? See you in Awai Global Forum in Europe!

In order to share and deepen this aida/awai perspectives and practices, learn each other, and explore further collaboration towards a regenerative and co-thriving future, we will host an international forum & exhibition in London and Paris in October 2025 in collaboration with local partners.

For more details, follow us and stay tuned.

instagram: @ecological.memes

Ecological Memes International Forum/Exhibition 2025 in Europe

Ambient Agency – dis/entangling force fields with awai

London

date: 9th October 2025, 12:30-21:00 venue: Loughborough University(London Campus)

partner: Becoming Regenerative Lab

details:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ways-of-becoming-regenerative-public-dialogue-event-tickets-1616663075779

Paris

date: 17–19th October, 10:00-20:00

venue: Wilde (4 Rue François Miron 4 6, 75004 Paris)

symposium&workshops

-17th 18:00-22:00

-18th 14:00-20:00

guest speakers&artists:

Emanuele Coccia（Philosopher）, Sasha Engelmann（Artist/Geographer）, Flora Weil（Designer/Artist）, Noriko Matsuda(researcher), Hideki Umezawa＋Koichi Sato（Sound Artists）, Tomoko Souvage(artist) , Saki Hibino （Ecological Memes）, Shuhei Tashiro（Ecological Memes）, Yasuhiro Kobayashi（Ecological Memes）

Berlin

“The Words of Suiten” Dialogic workshop with Philip Horvath (Leadership Specialist) date: 28th OCT 6-8pm at Berlin

venue: TBA

Website is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Author: Yasuhiro Kobayashi

Yasuhiro Kobayashi is the founder of Ecological Memes, a cross-disciplinary collective of researchers and practitioners exploring human–nature interrelationality beyond dualistic, mechanistic, and siloed perspectives. He also works as an eco-systemic catalyst and a regenerative facilitator. After building a mission-driven community for social entrepreneurs, he went on to support new business creation, purpose design, leadership cultivation, and organizational transformation across industries, working toward a co-thriving future.He also operates a community farm practicing regenerative agriculture in urban Tokyo. Specializing in co-creative facilitation, the Art of Hosting, vision design, and authentic leadership approaches that integrate inner and outer living systems, he creates regenerative flow, nurtures conditions for emergence, and catalyzes transformation at individual, organizational, and ecosystemic levels. Yasuhiro is the Japanese translator of Regenerative Leadership (Hutchins & Storm, 2019) and co-founder of Regenerative Leadership Japan. Balaton Group Donnella Meadows Fellow 2025. His motto is “Like drifting clouds and flowing water” (行雲流水). He is also the proud father of one. www.linkedin.com/in/yasuhiro-kobayashi https://www.instagram.com/yasu_em/