by on November 5, 2014 in BlogThis article was originally published on The Huffington Post, May 29, 2010
The Buddha spoke about five ways to protect ourselves and our practice. He used the example of a plot of land to symbolize how to relate more skillfully to our bodies and minds. We want to use the land well, to protect it, to treasure it. He said that the first thing we need to do is to fence the land in, to protect it from wild animals. Then we need to water it regularly. We need to loosen the earth around the roots, so that the roots can grip strongly. Then we need to weed the plants, weed the garden so as to remove the inessential factors. And the last thing we need to do is keep away the insects, which may be very small, almost invisible to the naked eye, but these very tiny creatures may do great harm to the plants in the plot of land. If these efforts, these five things are carried out, then we can enjoy the fruit of our labors, of having this plot of land. In just that same way we fulfill these five in order to enjoy the fruits of our efforts, to live with our bodies and minds as an expression of love, awakening, and compassion, rather than as an expression of grasping, aversion, and ignorance. Here I’ll write about he first two of these, and continue with the rest next week.
