Oakville Zen Meditation
Nurturing our good seeds
As the soil of our planet, our subconscious is full of good and bad seeds that I will call weeds.
When we water our seeds, they mature and manifest in our consciousness. Example:
1-By watering good seeds they will grow stronger creating positive thoughts, feelings, and attitudes.
The growth of our positive seeds is helping us to be happy, compassionate, and understanding.
2-By watering bad seeds they will grow stronger by on the opposite.
The growth of our negative ones - our weeds- brings suffering, sadness, anger, worries from
endless and unachieved desires, hatred, and illusions as opposed to the factual realities of life.
An important point here:
Because we are the only ones to water our seeds, all of these manifestations are self-created
and under our control.
Everything depends on what kind of seeds we are watering and how often.
Unfortunately, many of us have the tendency to nourish our weeds in the form of unachieved desires, hatred/ aversion towards people, events, and things of all kinds.
Some of them, even, identify themselves with their negative traits and may need therapy.
Therefore, we need to maintain positive nourishment on good seeds in order to grow happiness.
How to do that?
Using mindful awareness, we must learn to be selective in what we water.
- First, by discovering and feed our good seeds. They are always there.
This is how we touch the wonders of life that are always available to us.
- Two, by taking care of our suffering.
One way of taking care of our suffering and its causes is to invite the opposite seeds
to come up because nothing on earth exists without its opposite.
When we have the seeds of despair, we also have the seeds of hope. Up to us to invite them.
When we have the seeds of depression, we also have the seeds of vitality and happiness.
Up to us to invite them.
Observing w/o resistance to our negative feelings in a mindful way has an immediate impact on
them and their opposites. This is some sort of entanglement.
It will weaken the power of the negative seeds and strengthen the positive seeds at the base.
Everyone has the seed of compassion, so, when we practice mindfulness of compassion every day
that is watering the seed of compassion, it will become a strong powerful source of energy inside self and around us.
Also, the more we cultivate serenity within us, our sadness, despair, hatred, and illusions will naturally decrease.
We don’t have to eliminate or even fight our negative seeds.
Like weeds, they will come back whatever we do. Just accept them in a mindful way.
Then, switch to your positive seeds, pay more attention to them by watering them more often.
Thank you all. Zen Master Ji Gong
