Your mind is a garden
And you are the gardener
Sometimes there is great wisdom in the words of people who lived long ago or far away from where we are now. Accessing their important words often requires us to translate from their language/vocabulary to ours. But the act of translating always changes the MEANING of the words, and something important can be lost in the process.
The Buddhist theory and practice of self-development is one of the most powerful methods ever devised for the pursuit of well-being and the prevention of suffering. But many people have a misunderstanding of Buddhism due to a critical translation error of one key word.
Most people think of Buddhist practice as sitting in the lotus position with eyes closed, either thinking or trying not to think, and perhaps breathing deeply or chanting mysterious sounds such as “Om”. These practices have been gathered in translation under the umbrella term of MEDITATION which in English means roughly to pay attention to or think on.
So most people with a passing exposure to Buddhism view its core as a mysterious mental practice which after much effort and time will somehow lead to something wonderful. Meditate hard and long enough and a light will go on in your head!
Rx: Tend your own garden
But there is another way of translating the various words for Buddhist mental practice (such as samadhi, dhyana, dharana, and jhana) than meditation, and the difference makes all the difference in the world. That other word is CULTIVATION (the word bhavana comes closest to this meaning).
Cultivation brings to mind activities of farming and gardening, specifically the preparation and enrichment of the soil and fertilizing/weeding the plantings for production of a better crop. So how is our understanding of Buddhist practice changed if we substitute the word cultivation for meditation? Immediately we must ask:
Cultivate WHAT? Cultivate HOW? What is the “earth” or “plant” we are cultivating, and what are the tools (fertilizer, hoe, clippers) we are cultivating with?
With the paradigm of cultivation, we are challenged with more metaphorical complexity than a simple notion of just sitting and meditating and sitting and meditating until the light goes on. Sometimes more complexity is good (though harder) when contemplating something as complex as the human mind.
The specific practices we think of as “meditation” (sitting, focusing on breathing, chanting etc.) are not the core of Buddhism. They are simply tools for the cultivation of specific desirable qualities of mind that lead to less suffering (for both ourselves and others) and more joy in living.
The aim and purpose of Buddhist practice is the cultivation of specific desirable qualities and traits and attributes in the human mind and personality, the most important of which are
Mindfulness (full sensory awareness of the immediate present without judgment)
Separateness (right attachment to people, things and ideas)
Kindness (compassion, generosity, caring)
The practice of MINDFULNESS as we try to focus only on our breathing is designed to help us observe how the mind’s thoughts and worries (ruminating) and judgments and leaps into the past/future continually distract us from engagement in the full sensory experience of living right here and now. One can cultivate mindfulness/presence in the lotus position, but also while walking or playing a sport or during sex.
Once we learn about this tendency of our minds to get overly attached to its own thoughts and beliefs as well as to other people and things, we can work to maintain an optimal degree of SEPARATENESS, a shimmering boundary that can protect us from the loss of our personal equilibrium, our self, and in some instances our life. It involves living and letting live, not caring too much what others think or do, not trying to control other people or events too much, not getting overly attached to any specific person or idea or thing.
When we consciously cultivate the virtue of KINDNESS toward our fellow living beings (both human and non-human) on this planet through caring practices of thought and action, we elevate ourselves to a plane of being that can bring us deep joy and also protect our families, our communities and our world.
And this all becomes possible when we replace the word meditation (a concrete technique) with cultivation (a deep process of personal centering and flourishing) as our guiding paradigm for self-development.
Words matter. The right words can literally save our lives and sanity (and that of others) just as the wrong words can threaten both. So let us choose our words carefully.
For more thoughts about mental cultivation:
Replacing meditation with cultivation with the meaning of personally centering and flourishing speaks to me. I also own my prejudice of being a gardener, but I suspect nongardeners can also identify with your reframing of the construct.
Very nice essay Baird, the issue if words and meanings us an important in and have vexed translators for a long time. An eminent french translator of Buddhist texts is very vexed by how often significant terms are mistranslated. Especially the use of the word "Presence". "Cuktivation" is a very useful term as it implies a telos. I do not cultivate my kitchen floor, but I do my garden. Yet it can be part of my self-cultivation that I'm mindful when working in either.
Here's an interesting passage on cultivation (in the Buddhist sense of the word) from Professor Daniel P. Brown in his book, Pointing Out the Great Way, page 113.
"Cultivating Virtue:
Removing weeds and rocks doesn't guarantee that a seed will grow into a tree. It is far more important to supply the right positive conditions for the seed's development such as water, sunlight and nutrition. Likewise, eradication of obstacles to spiritual development does not automatically lead to progress in spiritual development, but simply the removal of conditions that prevent progress. Genuine progress is a function of active cultivation of positive mental factors that have the ability to potentiate spiritual development... Active cultivation of these virtuous (dga ba) mental factors over time gradually shifts the balance within the unfolding mental continuum in the direction of predominantly positive states, which in turn lays the foundation for genuine spiritual progress..."
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