June 9, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma
Be Patient
When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.”
- Tibetan Buddhist nun and author Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Meditator's Toolbox" (Fall 2007)
This one really gave me pause. I get really frustrated sometimes, with the work I am doing on myself. I have a LOT of samskaras that I want to replace. There are many that have been dug so deep into the ground, that the walls to even try to jump out of them seem impossibly high. These grooves, these tracks I've been running in for 30 years feel just as deep even after working on them for a while. So I liked the visual of the garden. No, one wouldn't dig up one's seeds to see if they'd sprouted... so why shouldn't I trust that my work... my process IS working... even when I don't always see instantaneous results?
I just need to remember that this is a journey and I can't always see what things are going to look like around the next bend, but that doesn't mean I should stop walking the path.