July 6, 2024
I recently attended a Buddhist Lazy Day Retreat in Virginia Beach. The grounds and temple are full of eye-pleasing artifacts, flowers, and trees which promote peaceful, present-joy feelings. The approach is that all are welcome to come experience the meditation sessions, the fellowship, the teachings by the Monk. To adapt to the physical body there were cushions or chairs or benches along the wall. One participant had a walker and found adaptations throughout.
For those of us with very busy, fidgety personalities, the adaptations were ours to make. We were welcomed to get up if necessary and go to the break room or restroom. The one 30-minute meditation was a BIG stretch for me as a 15-minute, guided meditation had been my longest thus far. This one had an intro by the Monk to set the mental stage, and then came silence. I had my water and coffee and cough-drops to handle the persistent tickle from a long-lasting case of bronchitis. I itched, I twitched, but I made it to the end! I was dying to know how Buddhists welcome neuro-divergent folks into the practice, but that was a deep and unnecessary, nosy notion on my part that I “let go”.
My favorite part was the Monk’s lesson on how we already have all that we need and know to find joy, seek peace, practice improvement, and otherwise enjoy this journey called life. He noted that regardless of our parenting, our trauma, our resources, all the components that make up any individual’s life, we have choices to make and paths to walk where we make the presidential decisions. I paraphrase, but I took away the message that “You are the President of your own mind, body, path, and you have all the resources you need. You don’t have to look to someone else or something else to bring you peace, improvement, or enlightenment.” (Very paraphrased as I struggled with his thick Vietnamese accent.)
He raised his arm and said, “This is your Secretary of Labor.” Your arms and legs and backs and hands and feet can “do”. He brought comparison to how our minds and hearts help us with lifestyle and relationships with the Secretary of State. I presume he asks us to look at all our encounters as “foreign affairs.” I thought that I would steal the concept for ZenVeg.
Clearly, my manual farming style is all about my Department of Labor. How could I improve the execution of the duties of this Secretary? Most importantly, I want to remind myself of the blessing of having this farm where I can “functionally” exercise. I walk, I carry, I dig, I bend, I reach, I rotate thru rigorous activities that keep me moving. In my first year of retirement, this is good because I’ve developed a TV addiction. Not good.
The Secretary of the Interior is a no-brainer. I want to be tender with this land and use the fewest fossil fuels possible and prepare the plants for the hot, dry, water-deprived climate conditions coming at us like a fireball hurtling from the Universe. Experiment, think, dream, imagine ways to bring efficiencies that don’t need more “stuff” or machines or fuel.
The Secretary of the Treasury is another very important agency. As President of Me, all these years I have been rather frugal and have practiced deprivation. Thrift stores and “Buy Nothing” from my local neighborhood are my go-tos. My search for the ZenVeg property took 10 years. My real-estate partner (Son #2) helped financially and with his MacGyver adjacent ability to fix things. He has a few too many “collections” for my taste, but out of 9.4 acres, I can stay in my lane.
My cousin from Tennessee, who has 800 acres, reinforced my conviction to keep this property. “They aren’t making any more land.” True that.
Ah, most important is the Secretary of Defense. While ZenVeg connotes a peaceful corner of my mind, there is war to be waged. Currently, Poison Ivy is encroaching like Russia on steroids and Adderall. It requires a long-handled cutting tool of some sort, a lopper or the pruning saw on the 10-foot pole. It needs to be mowed. It needs to be sprinkled with vinegar, Dawn, and salt. All the above, shampoo, rinse repeat all year.
The Monk said your legs are your Department of Transportation. Walk and walk and walk. We meditated and walked looping thru the temple in a slow, calm pace. We can all do that anywhere we are, even though we might get weird looks from others. Do it anyway.
And finally, is the Secretary of Education. I have read all kinds of books about organic, restorative, permaculture gardening. I’ve got a hoarder’s quantity of Organic Gardening Magazines and Mother Earth News and Birds and Blooms. There are many different models of thinking, methodology and advice. I, as President, must cherry-pick the info and apply it according to my value system and mission/vision schema for Zen Veg.
Here is what is NOT education. All over Social Media, we see:
10 Easy Simple Living Tips That Will Transform Your Life
5 Books to Master Self Discipline
Four Ways to Prevent Feeling Regret in Retirement
8 Signs You’re Becoming a Better-Quality Person in Life, According to Psychology
If you Recognize These 8 Subtle signs, You Have an Incredibly Sharp Mind
7 Productive Things You Can Do After Work (if you want to be successful)
Wow. There is the bait, the lure that you can’t just be. The Monk mentioned the stories of the many billionaires obsessed with reversing aging. They spend huge amounts of money on research and development and supplements to help them slow down aging. How arrogant. How reluctant they are to accept themselves and the cycle of life given to them.
And here is the major irony. A story from Newsweek sums up what I think many people feel when they are looking at all these “suggestions” which spur some sort of lure to those “secrets” and all the various and sundry things we “should” read, do, journal, invest in, yada yada.
Why You Should 'Beware' Self-Improvement, According to a Psychologist (msn.com)
My ZenVeg conclusion? Honesty is the best policy; meaning don’t lie to yourself and don’t get sucked into the Social Media plucky stories making us feel deficient. Also, DO trust your gut and be okay with self-preservation and balance. I go back to the concept of I Am President of me. As the Monk says, we have all that we need inside of us already. The brain can help us with the basic tenets (of Buddhism) – “listening, investigating and applying…” the dharma. (NOTE: As a Unitarian, I like to borrow those things that resonate and align and am not preaching Buddhism here, just sharing). Use the talents, tools, and trusted educational resources to keep moving in a positive direction. I’m grateful for my land and will tap into my inner resources to rediscover my vision/mission for my little ZenVeg piece of peaceful paradise. In any event, out here I can just be, reflect and enjoy small, natural splays of beauty.
ZenVeg Updates!
Garlic is ready for sale! $10 a bag. Email me if you’d like some and to arrange for the cash sale and pickup.