Gray Water

Our Airbnb casa here near Big Bend National Park drains kitchen dishwater directly into the tiny garden outside the kitchen window. This morning I saw a toad sitting happily in the 3-inch wide PVC drainpipe in a very small puddle of water. Bill was washing breakfast dishes, so more water was coming out. When I leaned over to take a photo, the toad hopped away.

Using gray water to water plants is a must in this climate that receives 10 niches of rain per year. Conserving water is the name of the game here in the Chuhuahuan desert. The gray water creates a tiny habitat where plants grow happily.

At the end of the drain pipe, several things are growing--some sort of mallow, a small yellow daisy thing, and a large yucca.

We meditators need to create habitats for ourselves where we are well-watered. Depending on our larger environment--family, political, work--our refuge may be quite small, yet sufficient for us to grow and bloom. Or sit happily and comfortably like the toad.

Ghost Town

We are in Terlingua, Texas, a ghost town, staying at an Airbnb mining ruin. This miner's hut has been artfully refurbished with all the modern conveniences. Nearby stand ruins of other rock huts--two-room falling-down houses without their roofs.

The Buddha refers to our six senses as a ghost town. Specifically he is referring to our internal senses, which I would call the virtual reality of our thoughts. We see/hear/feel our thoughts and take them to be reality. But when you look more closely, you find only empty huts of seeing thoughts, empty huts of hearing thoughts, empty huts of feeling thoughts. All here and gone in a flash. But continuous enough to feel real, to feel that we ourselves have some reality.

But really, it's all a ghost town.

Dust in My Eyes

Our secluded Airbnb casita in Marfa, Texas, had a blooming honey locust arching over the patio. The Casita Centro was quite cute although its landscaping, like all of its neighbors, looked brown and dry and blown to bits by the wind.

The wind had been blowing hard all day. In fact, while we were exploring town, we noticed the sky had turned a golden pink-brown. Beautiful! And peculiar. And then I realized, a dust storm was fast approaching.

Dust began to blow into my eyes (always bad for someone who wears contact lenses), and I began to feel the sting of sand pelting my skin, as if I were being sand-blasted. My sweetie and I ran the three blocks back to our stalwart casita.

After the Buddha was enlightened, he thought he would not teach because explaining the Dharma to people would be too vexing. But then, a deity begged him to teach, saying there are people with little dust in their eyes. So for the sake of those with little dust in their eyes, the Buddha taught for 45 years.

Jesus said something similar when he said, "Those who have ears, let them hear."

Sometimes we feel we have a lot of dust in our eyes. We just can't see past whatever is blocking our view. But sometimes, our hearts are open, our eyes can see clearly now, and we can smell the fragrance of the sweet Dharma.

Mirages

Driving across southwest Texas, we kept seeing mirages of water on the road in front of us. A mirage is a peculiar trick. It looks like water across the road, but as you drive closer, it disappears.

The Buddha says

Form* is like a glob of foam; 
feeling, a bubble; 
perception, a mirage; 
mental fabrications, a banana tree**; consciousness, a magic trick.

However you observe them, 
appropriately examine them, 
they're empty, 
void 
to whoever sees them appropriately.

Our self is a mirage. Like a rainbow, it seems to exist, but then it doesn't.

* the body
**a banana tree has no heartwood, no core

The Nutrition No One Uses

As i walked in to the Atlanta airport terminal this morning, we passed two giant-sized planters full of beautiful kale. An airport terminal is a busy place, people coming and going every minute, every few seconds. Thousands of people walk by this kale, yet no one harvests it. These nutritious kale leaves are purely decorative.

How often do i leave my good-for-me yoga mat sitting by itself in a corner? My meditation cushion languishes on a chair, ready and waiting to go outdoors and sit on the deck in the early, early morning. Weights, a hula hoop, a mini-trampoline, a trapeze--all this equipment waits for me, yet i keep walking by it. I know it's all good for me, yet..... 

All Lives are Impermanent

Well, spring arrived a week ago, so to celebrate the season, i defrocked the Christmas wreath on the front door and sent the wreath itself to the compost pile. I'll find its "skeleton" in a couple of years--the thin steel metal ring with a slinky spiral of green wire wrapped around and around and around and....

The wreath still looked mostly fir-green, though the yew sprigs were more yellow than green, and the spruce sprigs were turning brown. This is how old age looks on us--a bit paler and frailer than we used to be. Not quite as "much" of us as there used to be.

Friday evening, i attended a Living Memorial service for a friend who is dying. She was the mother of our local Interfaith Initiative, and a representative from each of her favorite traditions spoke, chanted, or danced. A Sufi whirling dervish, the Jewish cantor with a spectacular voice, a pan-eurhythmy dance celebrating sunset, and i offered a Buddhist chant.

All things are impermanent.

They arise, and they pass away.

To live in harmony with this truth

brings great happiness.

The season of my interfaith friend's life is passing away.
And so is mine.

Giving Brings Joy

Tomorrow we leave for a 2-week vacation. I've given away a dozen pots of blooming tulips. Now 3 amaryllis are budding, so it would be nice to find homestays for them so that someone else can enjoy their blooms while we are away.

Giving flowers is a form of generosity where it is so easy to feel the Buddha's words.

“Generosity brings happiness at every stage of its expression. 

• We experience joy in forming the intention to be generous. 
• We experience joy in the actual act of giving something. 
• And we experience joy in remembering the fact that we have given.”

I've got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.