A garden is a great metaphor for Inquiry. It is amazing what tending to the earth can reveal to you about yourself. A garden requires attention. We have to plant the seeds and nurture them. It is amazing that a plant arises from something so small. The plant blooms producing flowers and fruit and in turn nourishes us. In this season when the light returns, the earth warms and the pace quickens, it is sometimes difficult to be still when there is so much to do.
Bringing presence to our everyday situations can bring joy. Much has been written about the power of the present moment. I once had a bumper sticker that said There Is Only Now. Although we live in a time where multitasking seems to be the norm, the truth is one thing at a time is what we actually do. We assume, mistakenly, we must stop everything to have an experience of now yet doing a task with full attention is now. We loose presence when we are focused on the next task while doing the one in the present. When we can embrace each task and allow our consciousness to guide, often tasks are completed with little thought or resistance. Being and doing converge. Where your attention goes your energy flows.
The basis of Inquiry is to bring attention to what is usually not questioned. Has your life become like an untended garden? Inquiry is like weeding the garden. Without weeding the plant gets choked out and has difficulty growing, revealing its beauty and growing to maturity and bearing fruit.
The crops in the inner garden are the thoughts, beliefs, concepts, ideas and assumptions that we have planted or allowed to grow within us. Some of those thoughts are repetitive or even obsessive. They are like plants that take over the garden. You weed and weed and they keep coming back. Some just show up like a seed from the compost that germinates. A tomato shows up where you planted the lettuce. By consciously examining and questioning we can create more connection to our essential self.
Exercise: Tending the Inner Garden
1. What thought, belief, concept, idea or assumption have I planted?
2. How has it taken root? Has it taken over?
3. From where did it arise?
4. What feelings or sensations accompany the thought?
5. What would my life be like without this thought?
6. How does the thought see now?