Zachiah Murray - Mindfulness in the Garden: Zen Tools for Digging in the Dirt

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Photo Natascha Bruckner

ZACHIAH LAURANN MURRAY is a Registered Landscape Architect and Certified Massage Therapist. A Masters of Divinity candidate in Meru Seminary, at The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, she regularly teaches meditation classes for the community and outreach programs. She is a member of the Order of Interbeing in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, and holds a second degree brown belt in Aikido, a nonviolent martial art seeking the harmonious resolution of conflict. She assists and teaches in the childrens classes at Aikido of Santa Cruz where she trains regularly. She finds her home in a lovely cottage located in Santa Cruz, California, where the wild peacocks roam freely and often sleep in the redwoods above her roof.

JASON DEANTONIS is an award-winning sculptor and visual artist. His illustrations have appeared in galleries, art books, textbooks, novels, and childrens books. His recent projects for Parallax Press include Making Space: Creating a Home Meditation Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh and Little Pilgrim by Ko Un. You can see more of his work at www.jasondeantonis.com.

Parallax Press, a nonprofit organization, publishes books on engaged Buddhism and the practice of mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh and other authors. All of Thich Nhat Hanhs work is available at our online store and in our free catalog. For a copy of the catalog, please contact:

Parallax Press www.parallax.org P.O. Box 7355 Berkeley, CA 94707 Tel: (510) 525-0101

Monastics and laypeople practice the art of mindful living in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh at retreat communities worldwide. To reach any of these communities, or for information about individuals and families joining for a practice period, please contact:

The Mindfulness Bell, a journal of the art of mindful living in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, is published three times a year by Plum Village. To subscribe or to see the worldwide directory of Sanghas, visit www.mindfulnessbell.org

Entering the garden
I see my true nature.
In its reflection
my heart is at peace.

We cross many thresholds in our lives. Some thresholds are monumentalbeing born, learning to walk, starting school, graduating, getting our first job, losing our first job, getting married, giving birth, and dying. Other thresholds are subtlemoving from one room to another, passing through a gate, or crossing an intersection.

When we enter a garden, we are crossing a threshold into nature. William Longgood wrote, A garden is a portal, a passage into another world of your own thoughts and your own making. Our entryway into the garden may be unusual, such as an old architecturally rendered door salvaged from a garage sale, an ornately detailed wrought iron gate, or a lovely wooden arbor adorned with our favorite wisteria vine draping with its magnificent fragrant purple flowers. It may be an understated entryway, such as a simple change in pavement, a single row of fresh boxwood shrubs opening in their middle like a low wall, or the boughs of two maple trees creating an arch in natures blue-sky ceiling while dappling their shade upon the earth.

Bold or subtle, a threshold into the garden gives us just enough space to come back to ourselves. It is a place where we shed our time-focused, goal-driven pace. We slow down, and we enter the present moment. Crossing this threshold mindfully, we make the transition from the mundane into the sanctuary of our garden. As we enter our garden, we arrive. We can stop here and follow our in-breath and our out-breath, observe the beauty and grace of the plants around us, and become deeply present.

Entering the garden,

Breathing in, we bring our full awareness to the moment of our arrival.

I see my true nature.

As we breathe out, we realize our direct communion with all of nature, and we understand ourselves more deeply.

In its reflection

Breathing in, we see that the beauty and magnificence of our garden is a mirror of our own beauty and magnificence.

my heart is at peace.

Alive in the present moment, held in the arms of nature, and knowing our direct communion with life, we breathe out and our hearts are at peace.