Our Garden of Consciousness

Perhaps you’ve heard this poem,

As my wife, Nancy, and I were admiring the vegetable garden at our home, she commented on how well the garden is doing and credited her earlier effort in the spring when she took out a good amount of clay soil, and replaced it with a nutrient rich compost. It wasn’t a total replacement of soil, but enough to change the chemical balance of things and make a dynamic difference for the seeds and plants that she placed there.

Our consciousness is very similar. It’s like an empty garden plot and the soil from which it’s made can be improved with even a little effort. Weeding out old habits and negative thought forms, replacing it with meditation and attunement to Spirit. It’s from that place of consciousness that all of our life experiences take root, and because of that, it’s really important that the soil be tended and cared for.

It isn’t happenstance that a field of weeds or beautiful flowers grow from the soil of our consciousness. We are, indeed, the gardener’s of our life. How we choose to till the soil, water and tend the plants, it’s all up to us.

And it doesn’t take much effort. In my many years of business experience, I have seen that the difference between success and failure is often made, not in large, bold decisions, but in the many, small actions of our daily life. How we treat our customers, how clean we keep our store, our attitude to our employees and vendors. It’s all directional, and it all makes a difference.

Life is like that too. Every day we have a chance to tilt our consciousness in a more positive direction through meditation, prayer, and our response to all that comes our way.

That’s why, in Autobiography of a Yogi, Mahavatar Babaji repeated this statement from the Bhagavad Gita, (He was speaking of the efficacy of Kriya Yoga, a form of meditation and pranayam.)

Dire fears and colossal suffering? How could he make such a statement? It’s because consciousness is everything. It’s the field on which all of our life unfolds. Which brings us to the question, “Which way shall we turn our consciousness, to the Light or to the dark?”  We make that choice every day.

Here’s to a wonderful garden.