Selective Watering

Thich Nhat Hanh has such a beautiful teaching about being a good gardner. He talks about being mindful about the seeds that we tend to within ourselves.

In the depth of our beings, we all have the seeds of both goodness and also those shadow seeds within us. We all have the seeds of compassion and love, the seeds of kindness, the seeds of empathy, but we also have the seeds of fear, the seeds of heat, the seeds of jealousy that live within us.

And we have the opportunity to tend to and care for seeds within us. Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh) calls this process selective watering. When we mindfully tend to those seeds of goodness within. Taking time and energy in a sitting meditation or in our practices to intentionally water those seeds within us. The seeds of love, the seeds of compassion. Each time we take the energy and efforts to sit still, to cultivate loving kindness, we are watering those seeds within us. 

 This teaching reminds me also of an old Cherokee proverb about the two wolves within us. The teaching talks about these two wolves within us at war. That internal battle of good and evil, so to speak the shadows versus the light, and in this proverb, the grandson asked the grandfather, which of the wolves within us will win, and the grandfather replies, the one you feed the most.

When we spend our time, our energies, our efforts on focusing on the bad, hyper fixated on the fear, the anxieties, the negative influx of energy, this is what continues to grow in our minds eye. I think a good rule of thumb mentally (especially for negative/positive energy) is that energy flows where your attention goes. If you are always watering those places of fear and hatred inside those places will grow. But when we can slowly begin to water the seeds within ourselves of gratitude, of love, those feelings also begin to grow and expand within us.

Selective watering isn’t about bypassing any negative feelings. It’s about sitting quietly with yourself and recognizing the roots of those feelings. Compassionately investigating why they have taken up so much space in your mental garden. And like any good gardener, we know that even the muck, the compost, the waste, have a purpose in the garden. These can be some of our deepest teachers and road maps for where we need to work on ourselves next.

Happy inner gardening.

• What seeds within myself I have been tending to most?

• What are the seeds within myself I want to see grow?

• How can I help foster their growth?