Not everyone is into gardening, nor is everyone fortunate enough to have a garden. But, we humans have consciousness - and if we choose to we can practise cultivating a beautiful mind with the same enthusiastic joy we might invest in our garden.

Like a gardener’s seed store, in the depths of our store consciousness we have a whole array of wonderful seeds, waiting to be sown. But this selection doesn’t just include lovely looking examples of fauna - there are also a whole selection of nasty weeds, if allowed to grow the type that could give us backache after hours spent pulling them out only to watch them re-grow.

These seeds in our store consciousness are a mixture of negative mind activity - fear, anger and ignorance and positive mental activity - understanding, compassion and forgiveness. Many of the seeds that exist in our store consciousness have been handed down from our parents, guardians, society and ancestors.

To ensure our mind doesn’t end up as a garden of weeds, one whose angry stinging nettles hurt others we need to practice the same diligence as an expert gardener. We need to cultivate and water the positive ones so we can bring happiness to the upper levels of consciousness, as we strengthen these positive seeds we can bring more joy to those around us. The negative seeds must be watched carefully, if we see them starting to grow we must avoid watering them so they wilt and don’t take hold of us.

In relating to others we can take the same approach - we can notice when negativity starts to arise and do our best to prevent it. We can also encourage positivity and seek to provide the conditions for it to arise and remain.

The best opportunity to practise diligence is perhaps when conditions are particularly challenging and we’re faced with the frequent arising of our negative thought patterns and emotions. We can learn to be grateful for testing times and the opportunity to practise that they present.

This gardening of the mind should be carried out with energetic joy, diligence and perseverance. The seeds are there - it’s our job to cultivate those that will lead to happiness.

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