First I remove my shoes and sit on the earth, either cross-legged (aka “Indian style”) or with my feet flat on the earth. Secondly, I place my palms on the earth. I close my eyes. Entering meditation, I can sense the elements around me.
The earth is very powerful. It absorbs the negative energy that may be resident in me as a negative mood or thought.
I raise my palms to the sky. The air wisks away the ambitions that drive me – my motivations, plans, thoughts and egoic efforts — what keeps me perhaps from being still.
The thoughts part like clouds fading away from the face of the broad sky, and I am aware of the stillness that is not as empty as you might fear. It is full of the garden. I can appreciate it fully, in the moment, in a thoughtless yet fully aware state.
Everything is crisp and clear. Songbirds sing more sweetly. The breeze across my cheek seems so gentle and caressing. I feel loved. It is everywhere. I realize that the plans I make are just thoughts from the future, and the moods I cling to are just memories from the past, but nothing can replace the moment that I am in now.
It helps calm my mood and stabilize me throughout the day. A garden is a spiritually refreshing place. A garden is not the mere sum of its parts, but it incorporates the mountains beyond its borders, the sky above it, the earth below, the animals that visit, and everything that thrives within it pulsating to a beat of the cycles of the day, month, season and century.
I close my meditation by placing my hands on the earth in front of me and saying an inward word of gratitude.
Learn to meditate, and the garden can come alive for you as well. Each meditation session is a unique experience, just as the garden itself is ever-growing.
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