The Finger of Death

Just in time for Halloween, orange fingers of the stinkhorn fungus are poking out of the ground as if some rotten body is trying to escape its grave.

Since we ourselves know that we are walking toward our own graves, where do we find escape?

Some religions have beautiful stories about spending eternity with your loved ones. Or perhaps we might imagine sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, and strumming "for ten thousand years," as the beautiful song Amazing Grace suggests.

Those of us with a more materialistic view may lift an eyebrow when we hear these happy-ever-after "stories".

Pema Chodron has a book entitled The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness. If we recognize that we have no escape from the ups and downs of life, and no escape from the grave, then our only recourse is the Golden Rule: Being as kind to others as we want them to be to us.

The orange finger fungus poking out of the ground points upward.

Relax into the space that is all around you.

Self and Not-so-other

A new friend took me out her back door last evening to show me her backyard garden in town. Her lot is surprisingly deep, going back 1/3 acre to a hill. She told me the story about buying her house in a snowstorm, moving in on April Fool's day, and slowly discovering what a "park" she has behind her house.

She planted her first-ever vegetable garden. A while later she left for a couple of weeks. Returning home, she walked out to her garden and was astounded by the growth that had taken place in her absence. She said she practically leapt backwards out of her garden because she saw Life.

In that moment, that split second when she felt Life all around her, she saw that the plants are not different than her. Or, to say it another way, she is the same as the plants.

This sort of deep seeing, this "insight" can happen when the mind is content and calm. Deep seeing such as this requires a momentary stillness of mind.

We may not have directly experienced the sudden awakening of "I am that." ("And that. And that. And that too.") Most of us take a more gradual path, perhaps relying on "back-door" insights that arise from our contemplations, such as The Meditative Gardener is full of.

We already have an intuitive sense that self and other are not different. This is why the Golden Rule makes so much sense:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Or as the Buddha said:

As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I.
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

Our own desire to be treated well by others is why we plant seeds of kindness toward others--in our backyard gardens and in our life.

Perennial Vegetables

We choose perennial flowers for our gardens because they come back year after year. How about perennial vegetables? Nature provides many of these green "provisions."

The spring begins with dandelion greens that can be dug out of your front yard (assuming you don't "chem" your lawn.) Wild leeks live in the woods, so require foraging in the forest. Egyptian or walking onions are poking their pointy tips up in the herb garden. Now that last year's onion supply is gone, use fresh green onion leaves from your garden in all your cooking, whenever a recipe calls for onion.

Now sorrel is showing up. I have French sorrel and buckler's sorrel in my herb garden to make a delightful lemony green soup. Acidic soil around here grows sheep's sorrel in profusion--tiny, tart leaves that can be added to a salad for zest.

Nettles are next. Wear your nitrile gloves and cut the top few inches of green, which are mostly not stinging--yet. It is said that the 12th century Tibetan saint, Milarepa, lived on nettle soup for decades. Nettles are rich in Vitamin C, iron, and also contain protein.

Fiddlehead ferns are beginning to uncurl, so go harvest them now. (The ostrich ferns with the brown papery covering. Not the fuzzy-heads.)

Perennial philosophy--wisdom that cuts across all religious traditions--also sustains us. For instance, the Golden Rule is found in all the world's religions.

Just for today:
Practice doing something for someone else as you would like another to do to you.

Practice not-doing something that you would rather not happen to you. (e.g., that brilliant stinging comment.)

Perennial vegetables sustain our body. Perennial wisdom sustains our mind.