Meet the Medicinal Herbs at the Learning Garden

below is an article I submitted to the school's blog to promote the Learning Garden:

College, work, home…life runs at a furious pace and traveling from one location to the other is filled with thinking, studying, planning.  For every class or project “there’s an app for that,” and for every relationship there is a role. Where does a person replenish the Qi drained away by all this busyness?

We learn that postnatal Qi comes from food/drink and from air and think about our diets and the quality of the air we breathe, hmmm… for most of us that is not so encouraging. But I am here to remind us all that those are not the only sources of postnatal Qi available to us. Our clinic director Robert Newman alludes to this when he is quoted: “If you spend enough time with a plant, and it is your desire and your intention to learn from the plant, it will teach you.” It is not just knowledge that a plant will impart it is the gift of refreshment, and not just in the form of calories or nutrition, not just in the form of medicinal qualities, but plain and simple Qi.

It often seems that wise and gifted teachers direct us to go outdoors to a place of nature so that our knots and tensions can unwind and our Qi flow more smoothly.  It is overlooked that there is also Qi to be gained from nature. The planet, the plants, the animals, insects and birds all share an energy field that we often in daily human life ignore but can access when it is needed. Just listen and you can find it. Robert says: if you spend enough time with a plant…and that is the key – we all have such a shortage of time, but if all your time is spent running the treadmill of accumulation what will you wind up with? Things you can’t take with you when the game is over. 

 Time spent gathering Qi from proximity to plants that are part of our healing traditions replenishes something essential. I invite you to come to the Learning Garden, just to be. Take time to make the acquaintance of the plants that will be the herbs you prescribe and use yourself. It is remarkable what they can do. When it is suggested that you take a moment to breathe, remember that breath can also mean Qi. Take a moment to gather in Qi, to get acquainted with the reservoirs of refreshing Qi in the garden. There is astonishing nuance in the different plants. They are eager to meet us. I love being alive in the company of such beings. Come to the garden and refresh your Qi.

Respect for four and two leggeds

I am offering/sending Fa Qi to a dear one's daughter in a coma, thing is, some challenges take us in directions that do not restore the common plight, often they are to connect us to the submerged understanding that our ideas of reality are not as it really is. And that is really the greater gift.

 But I understand the need and respect the desire to help and to love... such challenges as illness and death exist to provoke a renewal of this understanding, perhaps we can help others to understand this as well.

I guess I am saying sometimes the best way to help someone so ill is to detach a bit and allow them permission to do whatever they need to do. There is a fine line between encouragement that liberates and desire that holds sometimes.

When an animal is ill I have no problem interfering with that illness or seeking to prevent death, why is that? I think they have such a deep understanding that we can not interfere with their plans or lessons by trying to get them to stay and be well and help us. Whereas some people come into life to offer lessons to others and then go, or to learn lessons and then go, and should not be interfered with. Also - animals make it clear what they need and want, if I listen and can discern.

coolest thing since sliced bread

http://suttacentral.net/

bedtime reading for buddhanuts

and checkout the new view at www.greatdetermination.com

vocation / vacation

"A 105 year-old Cistercian nun who lives in a convent in central Spain said that after 86 years of being cloistered, she is happy and has never been bored.
“Even if I had married a prince, I would not be happier than I am now,” said Sister Teresita.
In an interview with the Spanish daily newspaper “Correo,” she explained that a vocation “is something huge” and requires perseverance, but brings great joy."


Some of you probably understand this, some of my classmates may, some of the people at the senior center may, but most people don't. I had a clue and was not afraid to try it out after trying out the other kind of lifestyle most indulge in today. The excitement and enthusiasm of the vocational life is massive, infinite and enormous, once that great adventure is begun why would anyone choose the other? even before reading this, this morning I thought of the slogan "Diverge from the Herd" because that is what we have done. Like the cow that jumped the slaughterhouse wall and found safety in a sanctuary, we have found sanctuary in a different mindset that embraces teaching and healing.

Haiku

Study burns up Spleen
mind in a daze
the dog sleeps

Check out these quotes from the venerable:

www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9074.Thich_Nhat_Hanh/

Good Morning!

this you tube video improves the vision by warming the heart:     http://youtu.be/oQgmSNs695k


I am looking up Dr William Bates - the Bates Method- of improving eyesight with simple exercises that really work... and it's very holistic, advanced physics but grounded in ancient theory and practice - we see what we want to see, what we agree to see, what we allow to be seen, I am going to try these for myself:

http://www.ehow.com/way_5305850_bates-method-eye-exercises.html

and I really like this website that covers the history and more: http://www.visionsofjoy.org/SeeBetter.htm

Happy Seeing!