Weeding the Garden

A friend who is a garden expert and landscape architect once explained to me why there is a constant need for attention to keeping a garden weeded. He said that in any given square meter of ground, there will be many, many seeds. If you take a square meeter of pavement and vacuum it, you will see many --some are only specks or the size ground pepper bits, but lots of seeds. And seeds can sometimes remain ready to germinate up to 5 or 7 years with more seeds adding to the area each season. So in any garden, you can't prevent weeds from growing. A finely landscaped garden must be weeded regularly or it will soon become over grown with wild plants and even trees. Even one season of inattention can spell the end of what was well planned and crafted.

Seeds then have a way of drifting in and some stick around for years--just like life's issues that can create stress.

Recently I got a Friday off of work and a long weekend. but some of my relatives were visiting and it was just a point where I briefly got away from my daily morning and evening and through out the day ritual of settling. On one night I intended to train late after everyone turned in for the night, but instead spent time with the friends and then I fell asleep. At any rate the bottom line was that I neglected my settling and mediation and regular posture work for about 4 days in a row.

Life happens our SGL always says. But here's the ting. Without realizing it, I was experiencing a great deal of anxiety over having to begin a new work week on Monday. I was easliy angered and a little depressed as I dwelled on what problems were occurring there. These thoughts were dominating my evening. And of course I started thinking about what I hate about my job, wishing it were different. It was in a moment when I noticed that I spewed out a string of negative comments about my career, that I realized in a moment that I was headed down the same pathe that I had went so many times before. I realized I hadn't taken the time to at least do some quitet sitting--even for brief periods. In short, the wild horse mind was returning.

How important settling now seemed. It is the foundation of the training. It was the settling that leads to focusing your attention on your training. Settling makes you receptive. And then after this period of time, I recall sitting for just a few moments seemed like a nice warm bath. I realized in a way it was like taking time for myself. It was like respecting myself enough to take a moment of calming for its own sake--and do a sort of mental grooming to try to get myself back on to a more healthy route. You have to have your own house in order first before you can give. You help others better when you are calm and have a clear uncluttered mind.

For what it's worth, left to itself, anger, negativity and stress can take over your thinking. And the bottom line though is that settling and calming is a practice, as well as a learned skill, and must constantly be weeded and maintained to avoid that "wild horse mind."