unguarded

Your worst enemy cannot harm you
as much as your own unguarded thoughts.

~The Buddha

weeding the asparagus

Weeding the asparagus patch, it strikes me how much like thoughts weeds are; ubiquitous, tough and insidious.

Now that I tend a garden I’ve discovered that weeds are clever, growing as close to a ‘good’ plant as possible, twining in and around the stalks and leaves, making it difficult to tease them out. My thoughts twist together as well, the undermining, repetitive, hopeless ideas tangled up with the useful, helpful, hopeful ones.

So I weed carefully, and I meditate. I can’t get rid of all the weeds, or of my negative thinking, but I can tease out the difference between constructive and negative thoughts, between the ground ivy and the asparagus, making room for sunshine and water.

6 Responses to “unguarded”

  1. Barb Says:

    Oh, yes, can I ever identify! Centering prayer is helping me let go of all of the negativity, hurt, worry, busy-ness. Some times I can “let go” more than others.

  2. Wendy Says:

    This is so right on. Thank you.

  3. jude Says:

    well this is just perfect.

  4. Mary Muncil Says:

    Great quote and blog!…thank you….random thoughts and weeds, what a perfect analogy!

  5. Ellen Says:

    Thank you for the perfect reminder. It helps me to deal with the busy mind I have got running around wild in this neighborhood! My thoughts have all this energy. When I was on retreat 2 weeks ago, I experienced how fear and anxiety creates more and more of the same. wow!!

  6. Ellen Says:

    I am noticing how bare the plant is, without the weeds “sheltering” it..and started to notice, like the plant in the picture: how naked one becomes, how undefended and present, as the thoughts are seen finally as Not who we are … We begin to see how we have carefully manufactured, all these many years a doppleganger, instead of simply being the fierce, simple, loving nature of the life force living itself as us for now…the realization brings some grief and relief, a surrender: there is no need to manufature anymore lies about myself or anyone else for the moment and I feel sorry that I ever did…

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