The Fruits of Training

My garden has exploded and I have become an urban farmer. Plums, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, apples. All of them have decided to ripen simultaneously.

This Buddha statue sits beneath my plum tree. I have watched it sit serenely as plums fall around it all day long. I reflect upon the fact that often I feel that my efforts in training are fruitless. Yet, if I truly look into my life with the eyes of a Buddha I see that, indeed, the fruits have ripened and lie all around me. They are there, but remain neutral. They do not shout out at me to see them, harvest them, make use of them. They lie there and it is up to me to extend the further effort to gather them and partake of them with gratitude. However, if I do nothing with them they will simply lie there, continuing to ripen then rot. Becoming food for ants and wasps and squirrels. Or simply turning into compost to feed the source of their birth, growth and death. Nothing wasted.

This training is a wonderous thing and I am deeply grateful for the lessons of the Dharma which come from simply living this extraordinary, ordinary life.