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Watering the Seeds of Love and Continuation
I love you means to offer your freshness, true presence, joy, service, and understanding. We often think we know a tree, a cloud, another person, even ourselves, yet our knowledge is minimal. The story of a young nun who, after three years’ practice, answers “I don’t know who I am yet,” teaches us to stay open to exploring our true self rather than cling to names or labels.
A simple exercise with a grain of corn illustrates “continuation”:
- Plant a seed in a pot, water and keep it warm.
- As it sprouts, talk to the plant, asking “Do you remember the time you were a grain of corn?”
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Patiently show that the plant is the seed’s continuation—you still see the seed alive within its new form.
Likewise, before birth each of us was a tiny “grain” in our mother’s womb; our parents’ seeds continue in us. In meditation, you learn to see your father and mother alive within yourself, and to reconcile any anger by recognizing they are part of you.
In Buddhist psychology, our store consciousness holds fifty-one categories of seeds—positive (mindfulness, concentration, insight) and negative (ignorance, craving, hate, violence, doubt, etc.). Practice “selective watering”:
• Water joy, peace, and mindfulness seeds daily to nourish them.
• When a negative seed (anger, habit energy) arises, recognize “Hello, anger,” breathe in, smile to it, and refuse to fight or suppress it.
This non-dual, non-violent method transforms habit energies and brings insight. The path—from Right View (insight into inter-being), through Right Thinking, Right Speech, and Right Action, to Right Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration—is expressed concretely in the Five Mindfulness Trainings, offering a global ethic of love, compassion, and healing.
Part of the following collections
Ringing the Bell of True Presence: Family Breathing and the Four Immeasurables