If Life Were A Garden ..

It blesses us to have a well-stocked garden with a vast array of plants. Our life garden is similar. How we treat our life garden has a huge impact on our life. 

We are forever blessed to have beautiful plants full of wonderful blossoms spreading the fragrance of love and forgiveness. We are in awe of the tough little plants that struggle to flower. They battle day in day out just to survive. Their struggle inspires us and reminds us of how fortunate many of us are. 

Who can forget our sunflowers? They are the joys of our lives always so full of optimism. Their beautiful faces pointed toward the sun spreading happiness and hope. They bring smiles to our faces just being in their presence. 

We have the mournful weeds full of negativity. But rather than discarding them if we spend time to place them in the right setting we often find their mournfulness fades. With that their simple beauty radiates. 

The dark thorns hide in the corners. Their hearts are black. Those we remove without hesitation. For to leave them risks losing everything. They spread like wildfire choking everything they touch. 

Like, all good gardens our garden of life ebbs and flows with the seasons. The magic and rebirth of spring, the joy of summer, the struggle with the change of autumn and the darkness and cold of winter. The kaleidoscope of colour and emotion growing and fading in intensity as each season passes. 

If we nurture our garden of life and treat it with love and kindness, our rewards will be many. If we continue to plant the right seeds and to lavish our garden with understanding and compassion and with acceptance of the beauty that difference brings to our lives our garden of life will flourish. Our harvest will be rich. If we treat our garden poorly and if we continue to plant and associate with dark thorns, our garden will be barren and dry. It will diminish us. 

For as with all gardens we reap what we sow. Life is no different.

The Lesson From The Elephant & The Blind Men

I was reminded of this story today. It sprang to mind after reading some of the articles and following comments related to the global women’s protest. I think it's a good story and an even more important message. 

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went to where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

1. "Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
2. "Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
3. "Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
4. "It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
5. "It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
6. "It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not because they may have different perspective which we may not agree too. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." This way we don’t get in arguments. 

In Jainism, it is explained that truth can be stated in seven different ways. So, you can see how broad our religion is. It teaches us to be tolerant towards others for their viewpoints. This allows us to live in harmony with the people of different thinking. This is known as the Syadvada, Anekantvad, or the theory of Manifold Predictions.

I think that applies to politics (not just religion). As well as applying to our social belief's. I personally think the demand that people take sides, support one side or the other creates a lot of the stresses we see in the world today. Politics, religion, even actual sport, it's all about sides. Using the elephant as the example. Dependant of your side, you’ll see the elephant differently, but it's still an elephant. 

Many of the reactions to the global women’s protest were the same. According to some, if you marched you were a leftist, raging lesbian, feminist, pinko. How insulting. Millions of concerned people just like you and me. Branded.Despite many who were just the opposite and, who supported the march. In stating that, these people were still labelled; leftist, lesbian, feminist, pinkos. I am one who was essentially called a liar. I couldn't possibly be a conservative, if I supported the protestors. Bit silly really.

When people are separated into sides, suggesting that an idea from the other side has merit will result in you being given a red card faster than you can blink and eye. You're sent off and sin-binned. Torn asunder and fed to the wolves. Branded a traitor and obviously confused about who you really are. When really, it’s simply a matter of the people seeing and judging things differently. I don't think life or belief should be about the limitation of sides. I believe it should be about right or wrong. The elephant is the creation of sum parts. Life and humanity is the same.

Always remember, that in respecting the opinions of others, we aren't being disloyal to our own.