A poem for a day away from the garden.
Gone Fishing
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Author Archives: jeffs zen garden
Art From The Garden
Ten years ago, we moved from a large home on two rural acres in the Sand Canyon area of the Santa Clarita Valley, with expansive views, to a smaller mid-century home in Old Town Newhall. The yard and gardens were much more compact in this urban environment, but by looking more closely, I found just as many moments of inspiration for new creative expressions.
These images are the result of selecting my best original garden photographs from the past ten years and applying careful cropping and subtle digital enhancements (no AI!), honed over decades of experience as an art director and commercial digital artist.
Cloud Illusions
Our second home in the Santa Clarita valley had a vista that looked westward across the entire valley. Over the 16 years we lived there, my camera captured hundreds of cloud images from sunrise to sunset, in all seasons and in all kinds of weather. While playing around with a few of these images, I noticed that when flipping a duplicate and blending it with the original, “cloud illusions” began to arise and take on form and meaning!
In the garden, there is harmony, balance, and order to the way of nature (the Tao). Our human mind, perceiving this order, ascribes to it a higher imagined meaning, substance, and purpose to existence. Using memories, hopes, fears, and desires as the medium, we create within our minds an elaborate thought-construct of a separate, solid, and unchanging self moving within a fantastically complex dream world we have conjured.
It seems apparent that it is our human nature to construct layers of meaning upon the phenomenal world. It has obviously provided our species with spectacular evolutionary advantages. But it is also apparent that we have forgotten that when we create this composition, we are painting with illusions of meaning, a dreamworld upon an empty canvas.
To recognize that we project these illusions upon the empty world is to remember once more that we are, each of us, the unwitting architects of our own most beautiful fantasies as well as our own ugliest nightmares. This is the first movement in awakening to the simple truth that there never was a gate separating “my self” from “the world” and that when we open our eyes at last, we see that we have been standing in the garden all along.
“When all phenomena are left as they are, their appearance is not modified, their color does not change, and their brilliance does not diminish. If you do not spoil phenomena with clinging and grasping thoughts, appearances and awareness will nakedly manifest as empty and luminous wisdom.” ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Witness To Dreamland
Not long ago, I woke up from a dream and realized I couldn’t move at all. Even though I was stuck, I could still see the pillow against my cheek, the sunlit white wall, and the tan carpet below. I heard people talking behind me. I didn’t care what they were saying, but their voices felt familiar and comforting. I tried as hard as I could to move my legs, willing my body to respond. As I struggled, my mouth opened, and I started to moan softly, like a baby waking from a nap. Then I woke up for real, lying in bed next to my partner, with sunlight pouring into the room.
The experience wasn’t stressful at all. When I woke up, I felt completely relaxed. Since then, I often notice myself drifting in and out of what we call the “waking world.”
I’m starting to realize that in this waking dream, I can’t control much either. All I can do is watch. Becoming aware in this dream state just means fully understanding that this is also a dream, and accepting my role as a witness to it.
This has led me to one clear conclusion: that’s why we’re here in this dreamland.
Living with the unknown
This morning, I sat on the patio and thought about how all life on Earth follows the same path: birth, growth, flowering, seeding, decay, and death. This journey looks different for each form of life. Some are tiny, others as large as a forest. For some, the process takes centuries; for others, it happens in just minutes.
I reminded myself that humans are not the only life forms exempt from this path. We all follow the same journey as every other living thing. Even though we often see ourselves as separate or above the rest of nature, we are, at our core, just like all other life on Earth.
If we can truly see this simple truth, it might help us accept that we are just one part of the vast web of life. Life on Earth will probably continue long after the ‘Age of Man’ has passed. The real question is whether we can let go of our need for certainty and learn to live peacefully with the unknown.
Be here now
Gardening is a true spiritual practice, and the garden is my Sunday Sanctuary. This morning I woke up early to pull weeds in the patch of garden I had softened with water last night. I do not pretend to enjoy pulling weeds, but I peacefully accepted the task, surrendering wholly into the activity, paying deliberate attention to each moment in the warm morning sun. We burn self-consciousness in this fire of concentrated and focused attention.
Repartee
Spectacular vista! The garden is abuzz in glorious reverie. Nothing to be accomplished, nowhere to go. Sit down or join in the dance; there is no path to be followed. You’ve never left. We’ve awaited your return. Dry your eyes, it was only a dream
With warm gratitude to Bob O’Hearn, a brilliant writer and constant inspiration.
Feelingtoinfinity
Dream a Little Dream With Me
Forgive me, for I am but a humble dreamer living among other dreamers in dreamland. The only distinction, perhaps, is my realization that all that is, is but a dream. Then again, this too is a dream. What to do but make a pitcher of iced tea, sit in the garden, and talk to the succulents.
“What we call the “objective world” is a sort of Rorschach ink blot,
into which each culture, each system of science and religion,
each type of personality, reads a meaning only remotely derived
from the shape and color of the blot itself.”
~Lewis Mumford
Dancing
Dancing, the universe doesn’t wait
For you to take it’s hand.
Dancing, the universe doesn’t wait
Stand up and take my hand.
Jeff's Zen Garden 