Self as gardener

If you have ever sat down to meditate then you will know that ideas appear and disappear in awareness with seeming unpredictability. Like driving through the rain and knowing that raindrops will fall on the windshield, but not knowing exactly where. Then the busy space of ideas is swept clean by the idea of mindfulness, which itself appears like an idea, and for a moment you can exist in the idea and feeling of emptiness. To me, mindfulness is the windscreen wiper that cleans the lens.

By being aware of awareness, we can sharpen its focus and direct it more intentionally at the things we value. This awareness of awareness doesn’t stop ideas, but it does make them more obvious.

In my own life, I’ve learned to think of ideas as very real things. Ideas are constantly falling into the fertile soil of my mind, where some will grow.