Story on peace in a garden.
Once upon a time there was a young monk. And he lived in a monastery in a faraway land. In a remote Island. And in this monastery, there was a garden. The garden had a beautiful landscape with plenty of flora and fauna. And after some time, people noticed the garden is transforming into a picturesque form. The hedges were pruned. The paths were laid with white sand. And sometimes with pebbles in beautiful patterns. Like it has happened magically.
People came to see the garden from faraway places. On pilgrims and visited the monastery. Met the monk and they thought surely there is something. There is something attractive in that Monastery which pointed everyone that it is a sacred place. As nobody knew who the gardener is. People always like to see miracles. And they will start talking about it even after days. The news of the monastery spread rapidly and even reached the wise old teacher of the monk.
One day the old monk came to the nearby village and wanted to visit his disciple. And hearing the stories old monk was curious to see what happened. And he went to the garden early morning and hid behind a bush. And in the time of dusk, he saw a silhouette of a monk appeared and started to clean the garden. Removing all the bad leaves, picking them by hand. Separating them according to the color and lay them in patterns. Re arranging the pebbles in foot paths, mixed up by the crowd previous day. And he worked with so much effort for two hours and he did not even notice his teacher coming up to him and holding his hand.
And he turned around. "Master" he spoke.
Teacher asked. "What are you doing? I knew it must be you. You have become a fine gardener!"
The young monk was a little bit ashamed on the remark and the kind old monk knew this.
He went to pick up a handful of dead leaves and spread them in air. And they fell all over the place. And he spoke.
"Son, Peace is not always in places tidy. It's hard to be mindful in places where there is chaos. But that is exactly what we should do. That's what we practice for."
End Story on peace
Peace with Garbage
Have you walked on your street when the garbage pick-up truck got delayed? Have you walked on a road, after a hurricane, after a rain. In autumn, when there are heaps and heaps of rotten leaves, stinking piles mixed with leftover food thrown away by the homeless? Have you had a clogged drain once in a while, a messy room after party. Have you been to a pig farm? I am sure you have, experienced even one of these. What reaction does your mind have in these places? I am sure you tried to run away or blame someone or do something to change. And you were not happy until you were done!
And that is exactly what most of us would do I would say which is the correct response. And also, I can see opportunity to observe behavior of mind in chaos in such places. Like the wise old monk suggested such places are obviously most difficult places where we cannot maintain our mindfulness. We cannot be mindful until our drains are clean, cloths are nicely arranged, and gardens are nicely swept. But obviously these beautiful places exist only relative to the clogged drains, untidy gardens and stinking cloths. It is our mind which judge the nature and give a positive or negative value to make it trouble our peace either way. And when you understand the duality of nature, you will know how to at peace even in chaos.
In summary, to practice mindfulness in places it is disturbed, we need to understand it is by our own judgement that peace is disturbed in the first place.
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