The gardens we don’t notice

Spring is here, and a different kind of life is starting to show up here in Indiana: buds on the trees, fresh grasses from the dirt, gardens evolving, flowers coming up and even blooming. Birds chirping louder, spring peepers and rabbits hopping about. It’s like there is a whole world that has shown up outside my window, in my neighborhood, and in my favorite hiking locations. Life! So much of it, showing itself exuberantly to me! There is garden going on inside of me, that is just as lush, and magnificent. There is temperature, and qualities, and movement. There are pulsings, shakings, throbbings, flow, heat, contractions, pressure, softeness and smoothness. There’s discomfort and comfort. Ease of flow and choppy constrictions. Sometimes these qualities can be overwhelmingly unpleasant, and other times overwhelmingly blissful. Sometimes they feel boring, and sometimes very entertaining. Sometimes they have images that subtly or overtly come with them, that add to the level of discomfort or comfort. The Living Inquiries calls this “Velcro”, in the sense that there is something (an image or words/sounds or a story) attached to the sensations. What keeps you from exploring your internal garden? What keeps you from exploring the gardens around you? What keeps you from enjoying life? The sounds of the words inside your head? The images that arise? Or is it sensations in the body that feel scary or make you uncomfortable? These things that arise… they can all be looked at/inquired into. If something seems true, then it is perfect for inquiring into. If you are new to inquiry, contact me and we can explore together, and and tend to your garden. [1]                                     Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.                                     My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.                                     Inside your body there are flowers.                                     One flower has a thousand petals.                                    That will do for a place to sit.                                    Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty                                    inside the body and out of it,                                    before gardens and after gardens.               -Kabir from The Only Woman Awake is the Woman who Has Heard the Flute.