Glass Wall

My neighbors have a greenhouse attached to their kitchen, and it is looking spectacularly summer-ish right now. Impatiens, begonias, and verbena are still blooming. Add 2 dashes of mums--pink and yellow-- and i smile every time i look into the greenhouse.

Just outside the glass walls and glass roof, the temperatures are below freezing. The greenhouse is cool, yes, and the flowers love it.

One description of the meditative absorptions (jhanas) is that it's like sitting under a glass jar: Outer sounds are muted, and body sensations drift away to a distance, so the sense of the body becomes rather amorphous.

"Inside" the meditative absorptions feels happy and calm despite whatever may be going on outside.

The greenhouse is a protected space. So is meditation.

A Blooming Basket

I'm an inveterate plant saver--sometimes i save them; sometimes i don't.

Last spring i bought a hanging basket chock-full of pink petunias, purple verbena, and silver-leaved helicrysum. A month later, all their tongues were hanging out. If i missed a day of watering, all the flowers looked cooked. I divided the planter in half, and both planters limped along. By the end of the summer, one sprig of verbena remained in one basket.

I brought it indoors in September. Now, 5 months later, the pot is full of green leaves and 2 delicious purple blooms.

Our meditation practice can feel very full and blooming after we've put ourselves in the "greenhouse" of a retreat. Then we come home, and life's frictions heat us up. We come dragging home from work with our tongues hanging out.

Re-commit to the regular watering of meditation practice, and within a short time, you too will be blooming.