Magnolia bud with cap

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” ~Pablo Neruda

“The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.” ~Rumi

“I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature’s rebirth?” ~Edward Giobbi

“To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy Solstice! Spring is here. The new begins again. We see the evidence of growth and the energy of life all around. The spring reminds us that there is growth and change even when the world looks like winter, all frozen and solid. Not everything is what it seems on the surface. In Buddhism, there is an idea called signlessness or animitta (Sanskrit) or animitto (Pali). This is the freedom from being caught by signs and outward appearance. We recognize signlessness when the lakes are frozen solid, but we know when conditions are different, the ice will become water, mist, or vapor. We are not caught in a fixed and permanent idea of ice remaining permanently ice. The same is true for all appearances. Nothing that is created stays in one form. Babies are born, grow, age, become senior citizens and ultimately die. The material body transmutes back into Earth elements, water and gas. There is nothing inherently human about our forms.

Thich Naht Hanh writes, “Until we can break through the signs, we cannot touch reality. As long as we are caught by signs round, square, solid, liquid, gas—we will suffer…. When we free ourselves from signs we enter the heart of reality.” This freedom involves looking in to the nature of things. All things are made of other things. Thay tells us:

We get caught in the sign of “self,” because we think there are things that are not self. But when we look deeply, we see that there is no separate independent self, and we become free from the sign of self…. We separate humans from animals, trees and rocks, and feel that the non-humans, the fish, the cows, the vegetation, the earth, the air, the seas—are all there for our exploitation. Other species also hunt for food, but not in such an exploitative way. When we look deeply at our own species, we can see the non-human elements in it, and when we look deeply at the animal, vegetal, and mineral realms, we see the human element in them…When we pollute the so-called non-living species, like the air or the rivers, we pollute living beings as well. If we look deeply into the  interbeing of living and non-living beings, we will stop acting this way. (1998, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings)

Training to see past the conventional separation of things, into their coming, going and interdependence is essential to the understanding of signlessness. This ability to perceive the world as changing and fluid is at the core of the desire to care for the earth. This realization is an awakening to how interconnected and dependent we are on the planet. Indeed, the earth appears to be a separate element from the human, but with a little examination we can see that we are inextricably intertwined. The sign of the earth is replaced by the softening and expansion of the idea of self. We see the boundaries and edges of the small self dissolve and include the environment and all life on earth. Conversely, the entire universe is making the life of this self, down to the smallest single celled animal possible, providing food, atmosphere, and light.

The Buddha directed his followers to use stillness and meditative concentration to come to the awareness of the “signless concentration of the heart.” Dwelling in this place we touch “suchness,” the truth of things. When we peek into this still place, we see that our lives and the lives of all beings are interconnected in a matrix of energy. In this spirit, we can honor ourselves and the planet this spring, observing that the future of the earth and all living beings is in each one of our hands. That we are made only of the elements from the earth, sky and air, we contain all and it contains us. The earth needs us and we cannot survive without her. The spring tells us to stop in the sunshine, to rest and feel the relaxation that permeates our bodies. This is our heritage and the gift of spring. Let us remember to give the gift back, to honor and cherish the earth.

With three breaths,

Celia