Pulling Water Chestnut

This morning i joined 6 other volunteers to pull water chestnut out of the Connecticut River.  We were instructed by a staff person from the Connecticut River Watershed Council and 2 interns.

Kayaking on the river was a lovely way to spend a beautiful morning. We found and pulled about 2 dozen plants in 3 hours, down from 10 dozen last year, and 50 dozen two years ago.

We purify our own minds by recognizing our own bad habits, and, if we can, pulling them out by the roots. Even if we don't get our bad habit out by the roots, we can delay its growth and delay its "going to seed" with the simple mindfulness of recognizing an unskillful mind state.

And like this patch of water chestnut, over time, we find our unskillful mind states arising less and less frequently.