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A month or so ago when I came upon a book at the public library called Mindfulness in the Garden: Zen Tools for Digging in the Dirt I thought it would be something I’d like very much. And it is. But, the book turned out to be nothing except meditations to do in the garden. They are lovely, for instance:
Looking deeply at the tree,
I feel its presence.
In its stillness,
I find my true being.
And
Dear garden,
you mirror my heart.
With each beat,
a flower blooms.
Each meditation has a short explanation following, telling how you are supposed to do the meditation, when you are supposed to breathe and whether it should be an inhale or an exhale, that kind of thing. And reading this I realized I knew pretty much nothing about zen meditation. Sure I’ve meditated before but nothing so directed or specific. So, as things happen, one book took me to another and I borrowed The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh from the library.
Oh what a lovely book this is. Thich Nhat Hanh is Vietnamese and now lives in France. He is a Zen master and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. He is not the sort of spiritual leader who advocates withdrawal from the world to seek enlightenment by sitting under a bodhi tree like the Buddha. He is a peace activist and believes in being engaged in the world. And it turns out the thing about meditation is, it can be practiced any time, and any where for an hour or more or for five minutes. It can be done while in the garden or washing dishes or waiting for the bus or waiting in line at the grocery store.
Of course, Nhat Hanh advocates a practice of regular, long, quiet sessions the short ones worked in throughout the day. The Miracle of Mindfulness was originally written as letters to Brother Quang at the School of Youth for Social Service in South Vietnam in 1974. The style is friendly and matter of fact, easy to read, hard to put into practice. The essence of Zen meditation is breathing. The amazing thing is something as simple as paying attention to your breathing is really hard to do! The mind wanders and before you know it you are writing your grocery list in your head or thinking about what book you are going to read when you are done meditating.
The subtitle says manual and it really is, explaining how to breathe, how to sit, how long one should sit, how often, what to do when you realize your mind has wandered away, and why anyone might want to try meditating to begin with. There are also a number of guided meditations for walking, washing the dishes, even cleaning the bathroom. And of course there are meditations for relaxation.
It is a short book that will take a couple hours to read and a lifetime to master should you choose to pursue that goal. It helped me make sense of the meditations in the garden book. And while I haven’t been diligent at practicing meditation every day, the time I have given to it has felt good. It really does help one pay attention, be more mindful. And in these days of multitasking, being always connected and perpetually in a hurry, it is amazing how paying attention to your breath for five minutes brings focus and clarity and relieves stress. It’s the best kind of self-help.
EXCELLENT STEPHANIE! SAY HAVE YOU READ OR WOULD YOU CONSIDER RE-READING “TREES” BY JOYCE KILMER? IT SEEMS TO SAY IT ALL…DOESN’T IT?
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waddlesbluhealer, thanks! I haven’t read that poem in a long time so thanks for the reminder. It is a fine one indeed, a good reminder that one can’t improve on nature, especially on trees! 🙂
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I don’t have as much gardening experience as you, but the one summer I grew a garden, I thought that gardening itself, particularly weeding, was a very meditative experience.
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biblioglobal, oh yes, I like weeding for that very reason which was a big prompt in my borrowing the gardening meditation book. It includes a meditation for weeding. I haven’t tried it yet but I definitely will.
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Oh, it seems that your post attracted spammers… which are the opposite of mindfulness really. I don’t have a garden and I don’t meditate, but I follow Thich Nhat Hanh on FB (which is kind of ironic, when you think of it) and I find his words very wise.
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Sounds like an interesting book. I recently read a book by Tim Parks – Teach Us To Sit Still. The author describes his struggle with chronic pain that eventually leads him to explore meditation in the Buddhist Vipassana tradition. It is a real wrestling match for him (the book is subtitled A Sceptic’s Search For Health and Healing) mostly perhaps for the questioning the validity of writing for him. It was well worth reading.
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Ian, it is an interesting book. I’m currently trying to get my husband who has ADD to read it hoping it might help him find a way to focus better. The Tim Parks books sounds really interesting! I think I will have to look for it at the library. Thanks for letting me know about it 🙂
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smithereens, yes, the spammers have been very active lately! Thich Nhat Hanh has a FB page? There is definite irony in that! I wonder if he has a Twitter account too? I’ll have to check. I suppose he brings some mindfulness to social networking.
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It’s been years since I’ve read anything by the author. He has a collection of poetry that I loved years ago. I’m adding this to my tbr list.
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Vasilly, oh, poetry. I’ll have to see if my library has any of it. This one is very useful if you are interested in learning how to meditate.
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This spring we both read The Novice by Thich Nhat Hanh, his retelling of the story of Kinh Tam. We both thought it gently beautiful. The word ‘gentle’ comes to mind too when thinking about Thich Nhat Hanh himself. We met him in 2012. Softspoken, quiet, calm, gentle. We did a walking meditation with him in nature. An experience never to be forgotten. I will read The Miracle of Mindfulness now.
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Cath, gentle is a good description. He is gentle in this book too and encourages the reader to be gentle with themselves especially when the mind wanders while meditating. How wonderful you got to meet him and do a meditation with him. I will have to look for The Novice at the library.
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This is one of my favourite books. I’m glad you found it. I haven’t come across the gardening meditations but there are similar ones to do when walking. The problem is that they don’t allow for bumping into friends while you’re out and about who rarely appreciate that you are in the middle of a chant!
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Alex, I’m glad I found it too! I’ve not tried walking meditation but yeah, I can imagine bumping into someone you know probably puts on damper on things. You can;t ignore them and they probably always want to chat!
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I’ve been meaning to read him for a while now, and your post has bumped him up on my reading priority list. I may even start with this book, because it sounds perfect for me. Thank you!
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Sarrah, he’s really wonderful and seems like such a kind person. This book is good if you are interested in learning how to meditate, very clear and concise. If you read it I hope you like it!
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Mindfulness has been a sort of theme for me this year, mostly in the context of Christian meditation and in yoga. It really does make a difference but is so hard to do consistently.
I was on a monastic retreat earlier this year where we covered some of the same topics it sounds like this book does. One of the best suggestions I got from it was to stop and pay attention when you’re transitioning from one activity to the other. I’ll sometimes say to myself, “Now I’ve finished this {pause – breathe} so now I’ll start that {pause – breathe}.” It seems to cut down on my tendency to multitask, and it slows me down in a pleasing way.
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Teresa, it is very hard to do consistently but any bit helps, right? I am hoping to get more consistent over time. Oh, I like that transitioning breathing! I will definitely try to start doing that. Thanks for sharing it!
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By the way, I just saw this book prominently displayed at my yoga studio the other day. I resisted buying it, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep doing so if they continue to keep it in such a central spot. It sounds tremendously helpful.
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Teresa, go ahead and give in! I got Bookman to start reading it yesterday and he hasn’t even gotten past the introduction and he is really excited about it and already finding it helpful. If you do give in and get the book, I hope you like it!
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Sounds lovely Stefanie. I am a very average gardener but I love visiting the gardens, and I love looking at the nice parts of mine! Our two Manchurian Pears – just about my favourite tree (besides Gums of course) are now in their spring bloom. I am currently doing my morning yoga in the front room where I can see them. Blissful. (I move my yoga around the house with the seasons – well not completely around the house but between living, family and main bedroom.)
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whisperinggums, your blooming trees sound gorgeous! I would want to do yoga wear I could look at them too. That’s neat that you move your yoga practice around the house according to season!
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VASILIY MENTIONED A POETS COLLECTION IN HER COMMENTS. DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIBRARY, OR DO YOU KNOW OF A COLLECTION OF JOYCE KILMER’S POEMS?
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Waddlesbluhealer, I don’t have any Kilmer or Thich Nhat Hahn poetry on my shelves, but it looks like Kilmer has a lot of books. One you might especially like is an illustrated poetry book called Trees. Hahn has a poetry collection from 1993 that looks pretty good that I might try sometime called Call me by my true names.
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OOPS, SORRY FOR THE SPELLING VASSILY AS WELL AS THE GENDER, ‘HIS’ VS ‘HER’.
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