Practice Corner

"There is a power that has been since all eternity, and that force and potentiality is green!” 
-Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard wrote of viriditas -- the healing power of the green vitality of earth, a potent force for physical and spiritual wellbeing and wholeness. That concept beautifully describes what I experience participating in working meditation at A Long View Farm.

I begin the drive, often transporting a hitchhiker — a restless, swirling mind. Waves of strong emotion frequently attempt to engulf “me” — profound grief over a personal matter and all that comes with learning to build a life 3,000 miles away from anything I’ve ever known, heartbreak at the devastating news of the world. Stress, worry, fear, frustration, despair and all the rest.

I cross over the river, turn and start the drive up the hill, climbing higher, into the trees, into the green, mountains coming into glorious relief, closer and closer to the clouds.

Park. Turn off the car. Step onto the earth. Don boots, gloves. Drink in a deep breath of green. The earth holds it all and begins to set me right. We work. Dig. Weed. Prepare and turn compost. Carry clods of earth through fields of grasses and buttercups. Fashion poultry wire dresses for the trees. Birds soar overhead. Stunning beauty all around.

Astonishing things are accomplished — a greenhouse is built; hundreds of trees and plants are cared for; food scraps are saved from the trash heap and turned into magical, dark, rich compost at a remarkable clip; food goes to the food bank; soil is regenerated.

The Guide models work with joy, compassion and ease. Everything happens with incredible attention and care: Worms are gently relocated from project sites to little hand-dug holes so they are not left exposed and can safely burrow back into earth; a sun shade is moved along a few feet at a time to protect practitioners who are weeding from the intense rays of strong summer sun. Tools are sharpened, appreciated, put back in proper places. Plants are celebrated and cheered with joy and awe at each exciting phase of growth. Moles are honored for their steadfast work of offering up fresh piles of nutrient-filled, wonderfully aerated soil to be gathered for planting.

At the end of each working meditation period there’s a felt sense that this regenerative farming is regenerating the practitioner; deep places of separation are being healed. Seeds of trust, adequacy, relaxation, happiness are being cultivated and nurtured. Time spent with hands and feet on the earth, working with Sangha, attention on care and enjoyment, breathing in green, following the Guide’s directions of Love. The grounding, steady heartbeat of the earth syncs the practitioner back up with heart time, again and yet again.

In these, what feel like big times in this particular life and on the planet, I am deeply grateful for this tangible practice — as the Guide has encouraged, wherever we are, we can each help to care for something in this way — a tree, a garden, a plant, a compost pile. What a gift to have this happy blessed Awareness Practice opportunity to steward our earth, as the earth stewards “me,” and Oneness is.

Gasshō,
j yo