Thich Nhat Hanh’s iconic teaching about how we must water the “good” seeds in ourselves and others is exemplified all around us in nature. This is especially true during the height of summer, when gardens are bursting forth, the result of careful planting and tending. This week Ginny explored the work of tending to our own well being and becoming amidst all of the challenges in the world around us, watering the seeds that are inherent in us, but which await our cultivation if they are to flourish.
Readings:
From Tricycle Magazine spring 2022 Dharma Talk
Trusting the Unknown by Kaira Jewel Lingo
Excerpts:
“… when we are clear and sure about what we are doing, we are less open to the many other possibilities available. But when we let ourselves hang out in the space of not-knowing, there is enormous potential and life could unfold in innumerable ways. So rather than avoid and fear this place of uncertainty, we can embrace it and all its gifts.”
“In a sense, our culture, our society is dissolving. We are collectively entering the chrysalis: structures we have come to rely on and identify with are breaking down, and we don’t know what the next phase will be like. We are in the cocoon. Learning to surrender in our own lives is essential to our collective learning to move through this time of faster and faster change, disruption and breakdown.”
From This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
p.161-162
“There are those of us who are such serious people that to be playful feels foolish, and maybe it is. But I think when we give ourselves to play, the scope of our life expands. We become freer in our bodies. We give ourselves to imagination and make-believe. This takes down our defenses and allows us to move and be without expectation of immediate tragedy. After all, it is only in the anticipation of sorrow, that joy seems frivolous. We become so used to bracing for the next devastation, we don’t have time or emotional energy to rejoice.”
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Jack Kornfield 4.25.22 Tending the Garden of the World, Tending the Garden of the Heart
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/70713/
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Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate by Wendy Johnson
(highly recommend ☺)
p. 261
“In Buddhist texts, consciousness is said to be a field, a piece of earth on which every kinds of seed is planted. On this field of consciousness are sown the seeds of hope and suffering, the kernel of happiness and sorrow, anger and joy. The quality of our life depends entirely on which seeds we garden and nourish in our consciousness.”
Closing poem
For Beauty
by John O’Donohue
As stillness in stone to silence is wed,
May solitude foster your truth in word.
As a river flows in ideal sequence,
May your soul reveal where time is presence.
As the moon absolves the dark of distance,
May your style of thought bridge the difference.
As the break of light awakens color,
May the dawn anoint your eyes with wonder.
As spring rain softens the earth with surprise,
May your winter places be kissed by light.
As the ocean dreams to the joy of dance,
May the grace of change bring you elegance.
As clay anchors a tree in light and wind,
May your outer life grow from peace within.
As twilight pervades the belief of night,
May beauty sleep lightly within your heart.
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 