Yard Zen

Zen Buddhism teaches that that life is permeated with suffering and caused by desire. Suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth.

Should I try to be more Zen about the grass in the yard? Might I just cease from caring, let the desire for a nice lush yard die? Last summer I was assured by the Scott's rep that the grass out front was in hibernation because of the heat and lack of rain. He told me that it would go green again once we got some rain and the temps dropped. I let go. Well, the grass might have been hibernating for a spell, but then it died. In the early Fall, we were left with a hill of mostly bald dirt out front with some crabgrass combover. No rebirth or reincarnation here. Dead desire, dead yard.

Fundamentally, dying to all desire is anti-life. The Buddha throws out the baby with the bathwater. The Christian ethos instead is to desire right things both in terms of means and ends. Right desire is to be watered, while withholding the watering of wrong desire. No water for the grass at all means dead everything. I had to engage in a grueling reseeding and watering program both last Fall and this Spring for a month both times, to get things back to green (sort of). So much work because I didn't act preemptively last summer. Our spiritual lives too can become dead because of the lack of soul water.

This year, I water the grass out in the front (the showpiece turf for the property, and the one where the grass dies first and grows the worst). I head out for 15 minutes and water away. Apparently, better to water first thing before the heat of the day sets in. A lesson there for the devotional and meditative life. The other 80% of the yard, flatter and less crowded with trees, plants, and shrubs, tends to not need H2O intervention. If it goes brown, it does come back.

No, I am not Zen about the yard. But, I am at Peace in my heart and mind. Not the same thing.


And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann...
Read more

Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

Image
I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant. There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament . See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity. The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations. When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" w...
Read more