Will_Heath

Gary,

I believe you are referring to a ancient Zen concept commonly called "No Mind." I have referred to this here before, the empty mind, the empty cup, etc. I believe this is the same concept that Walter was referring to above.

Too many people carry so much in their mind that nothing new can enter without getting bruised and tainted on the way in by the stuff that is already there.



I thought I would share a few of my favorite notes:


Thirty spokes join together in the hub.
It is because of what is not there that the cart is useful.
Clay is formed into a vessel.
It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful.
Cut doors and windows to make a room.
It is because of its emptiness that the room is useful.
Therefore, what is present is used for profit.
But it is in absence that there is usefulness.
- Tao Te Ching, #11



Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow;
you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.
- Annie Dillard



Earth, mountains, rivers - hidden in this nothingness.
In this nothingness - earth, mountains, rivers revealed.
Spring flowers, winter snows:
There's no being or non-being, nor denial itself.
- Saisho (circa 1490) Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter, p.32



Beyond its practical aspects, gardening - be it of the soil or soul - can lead us on a philosophical and spiritual exploration that is nothing less than a journey into the depths of our own sacredness and the sacredness of all beings. After all, there mustbe something more mystical beyond the garden gate, something that satisfies the soul's attraction to beauty, peace, solace, and celebration.
- Christopher and Tricia McDowell, The Sanctuary Garden, 1998, p.13



When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter as a sacred place, a Sanctum sanctorum.
There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature.
- Henry David Thoreau, Walking, 1851



The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty
or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience.
- Henryk Skolimowski


Will Heath

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