Planting a seedling ....

This past weekend was a busy one because Uthpala and I organised an alms giving at our home, inviting Ven. Pesala Bhikkhu (www.aimwell.org) and a number of our friends. It was a very pleasing occassion to get together with friends and share in this act of generosity (called 'Dana' in pali) which is a key aspect of Buddhist practice. Organising an alms giving helped remind us of the importance of spiritual development in our daily lives since without this, life is just an endless stream of striving to keep the senses satisfied - a futile endeavour. This simple act of generosity, providing a meal to a monk, is an action that reduces our attachment to material wealth, allows us to share the companionship of good friends and have an oppportunity to develop our spiritual faculties. Personally it also reminded me of the importance of the other aspects of the Buddhist path - moral conduct (sila) and mental training (bhavana).

The spiritual refresher of the weekend activity has taken me back to redoubling my efforts to establish a regular meditation practice. I was reading a simile of Achaan Chah on my way into work this morning which summed up my current situation quite well:

"In meditation, you must continously be attentive, just like when planting a seedling. If you plant a seedling in one place, the after three days you pull it up and plant it in another place, and after three more days, pull it up again and plant it somewhere else, it will just die and not grow up to bear fruit.
Meditation is just the same. If you do a seven-day meditation retreat and after leaving it, for seven months you go around 'soiling' the mind, and then come back and do another seven-day retreat where you don't speak and keep to yourself, it is like replanting the seedling over and over again. Your meditation practice won't be able to grow and it will die without producing any real results"

So this week I have made a new determination, to plant my 'seedling' of bhavana and strive to nuture it to maturity. Of course the best of intentions can often end up by the wayside, but hopefully writing this down will strengthen my resolve to follow through on this one!