Orange Juice

 

Sharon, a California friend, sends me a photo of the orange tree in her back yard. 

Encased in frigid weather here in the North Country, i can't even imagine walking outdoors in bare feet to go pick an orange for breakfast. Fresh squeezed orange juice sounds like heaven.

Yesterday, my spiritual friends group heard from a woman who has a still mind. Unimaginable to the rest of us. Yet, quietude, and eventually, stillness, is one of the fruits of the spiritual life. No mind; no self; no problem.

No problem that i am walking barefoot in the snow.

Time to Put Out the Bird Feeder

 Six inches of snow today make it official: It's time to put out the bird feeders!

The bears are supposed to be asleep in their dens.

Doesn't it feel good when your bear of a problem goes into hibernation?

The birds of joy have been there all along, but the mind has been so focused on threats to the self that the negativity bias rehashes that same old problem.

Feed the birds. Feed your joy.

Mouse Swimming

I was kayaking in a pond the other day when i saw a mouse swimming. It swam about 200 yards, resting only briefly on a very small lily pad. This makes me think twice about deporting other rodents from my vegetable garden. Now i see that they can swim across a brook--no problem.

We are not going to drown out some of the problems that pester us simply by trying to think our way through them. When we find a pest, it's time to sit down and feel our way into it. The way is through, not around.

That cute little mouse showed me this lesson. It could have walked about half a mile around the cove. Instead, it walked right in and kept on swimming.

Daffodils in the Snow

Daffodil leaves are popping up through the snow. We are in the midst of winter-spring. Or is that spring-winter?

This is one of the problems with concepts and categories. We think "spring" means spring and "winter" means winter. Meanwhile, each day is full of changes. Sun, snow, rain, ice, and a new word my sister discovered "graupel," which means a soft, snowy hail.

Change. Every day the weather changes. Maybe we need 31 different words for each day in March to describe various combinations of conditions? Even then, dissatisfaction would creep in because spring or winter or the in-between doesn't look like it's "supposed to."

Keep your eye on the change. It's a deep teaching.

Bear-Proof Compost Bin

My neighbor, Ahren, showed me his bear-proof compost bin. Made out of 2x6's and "nailed" into the ground with rebar rods, this compost bin is heavy-duty. The bears won't be getting into this bin nor tearing it apart nor rolling it away.

What kind of protection do we use when a bear-of-a-problem is lurking in our minds?

Our number one defense is mindfulness. Our number two defense is not putting ourselves in problematic situations. As soon as we notice worry, for instance, we remember that worry is not a healthy habit, and we redirect our minds toward an antidote. Mindfulness, for instance. Or gratitude.

Let that problem compost itself.

Labyrinth

A friend has a labyrinth in her backyard. What a great place for walking meditation.

A labyrinth leads you around and around, back and forth, sometimes nearer to your goal of the center, sometimes farther away, and then suddenly, there you are standing in the center.

The parallels to the problems of life are obvious--around and around our mind circles, sometimes going farther afield, sometimes seeming closer to a solution. Then suddenly, a solution arrives, and we are standing in a a center. We suddenly feel centered ourselves. Ah, yes. This.

Once, i was mulling over a problem, and my teacher reminded me, "It's dukkha." Ah yes. It's dukkha (suffering or stress). Just stand in the middle of that unsatisfactoriness and recognize it for what it is.

Does a Bear S**t in the Woods?

Does a bear s**t in the woods? Apparently not. This morning my neighbor reports a big pile of doo-doo in her driveway.

We have all learned from our forester neighbor to pick scat apart with a stick to see what the critter was eating. At first glance, we might guess Thanksgiving dinner. (Just kidding!)

The clue you can't see is that this pile of scat is about 100 feet from the dumpster shared by 10 households. The 2 dumpster divers on our private road keep begging people to wash out their food containers, and, please, don't put food-infused paper (e.g., pizza boxes or used microwave paper towels) in the recycling dumpster, which sits right beside our trash dumpster.

A fed bear is a dead bear, because a fed bear becomes a nuisance to the neighborhood, and then....

The bear is trolling her usual food sources (including our dumpsters), just like we shoppers troll our favorite stores, the places where, in the past, we found something that we like.

Unfortunately, our mind trolls our problems, turning them over and over and over and ..... Even if they are a pile of s**t.  Er, "scat," i mean.

As one Tibetan teacher says, "Have a good time with your bad time."

Eventually, we do realize that whatever s**t we are putting up with, it's just not worth it.

Bear in the Bird Feeder

Oh-oh. My birdfeeder is on the ground, minus its cover. The bird feeder is empty. Totally cleaned out. It's arcing hanger is bent into a V. And the C-hook it was hanging on has been straightened out by somebody heavy.

My bird feeder is squirrel-proof, but it is not bear-proof.

The bears are awake and trundling through the garden. No kidding. It is definitely time to stop feeding the birds and store the bird feeders away until it snows again next December.

Don't feed the bears.
And don't feed the bear of a problem that lives in your mind either.

First of all identify the food with which you are nourishing that bear of a problem: worry? anxiety? impatience? anger? frustration?

Notice that "nourishment" every time it arises. Simply notice it.
Then feel how that worry-anxiety-impatience-anger feels in your body.
Really become interested in the sensations of that uncomfortable, unpleasant, grrrr feeling.
Label those body sensations.
Keep your attention on the sensations.
Notice the changes.

When you're ready, practice some self-compassion.

Note the hanger, bent from a C to a V. Somebody was hanging on the bird feeder!

A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear

While i was at meditation group this morning at the neighbor's house, a bear ambled through the woods near our house.

Another neighbor who was out for her morning walk managed to take a couple of photos with her mobile phone.

I have no doubt that the bear was checking the ground underneath our birdfeeder. We only put a handful of sunflower seeds out at a time on our second-story deck, but i see the birds flicking seeds here and there. I know some wind up on the ground underneath the deck.

A fed bear is a dead bear. This means i have to stop feeding the birds. Whether my sweetie also stops feeding the birds is another question.

How do we subtly "feed" the bear of a problem in our lives? We tell ourselves stories about that other person who rubs us the wrong way, and then we believe the story we have told ourselves. It's time to stop. Stop telling our self that story. That bear of a problem person exists only in our minds. And it's really time to stop. Just stop. Stop feeding the bear.

Baby Chard

Rainbow Chard

I bought a 4-pack of tiny rainbow chard plants and planted them yesterday. It's hard to believe they will grow into an overwhelming amount of leafy vegetables.

Isn't that the way it goes? We buy some lovely something. Then it needs altering or maintenance. Every good thing has a problem hiding behind it.

In the case of chard, the "problem" is abundance. Too much of a good thing.

But for now, the chard is little and cute and full of promise.

A Bear and a Problem

A black bear prowled around our house last evening, just before sunset. It smelled the birdfeeder on a second-story deck in which we keep only a handful of seeds at a time. Fortunately, it did not climb up the 10 feet to lick up a few stray sunflower seeds.

Inside the house, my sweetie was running from door to door, locking them, and closing the garage door, which leads to the trash can where we store our birdseed. The trash can protects the seed from mice, but would be easy pickings for a bear.

Sometimes our minds are grappling with a "bear" of a problem that prowls around our mind, ravenously hungry, and looking for any excuse to justify our words or actions. The "I" wants to be right, and it will toss and turn the body for hours in the middle of the night to prove its point, over and over again.

The visit from the bear encourages me to clean up my act:
(1) don't feed the birds in the summer
(2) NO meat scraps in the compost

How do we clean up our mind?
We practice compassion for ourselves and for the "bear" of a problem.
We practice kindness toward ourselves first and toward the other person.
We notice what truth feels like: There's a relaxation that goes with truth. "Ahhh. Yes."
Chances are, the bear-of-a-problem has to repeat itself over and over, in our minds, telling us again and again and asking us to believe it time and time again. (Is that the definition of propaganda?) We only need to hear truth once to "know" it's true.

When you stand--or sit--on the side of truth, the mind relaxes and becomes like a still forest pool. As Achaan Chah says, "All kinds of wild animals will come to drink there." Even a black bear.