First Amaryllis, and the Peace Mind

My husband and I have started planning our Vermont trip. We picked a date in November and are saving our money, because even a day or two away doing ordinary things can get costly.

Last night we were discussing what we want to do. His priority is always food: he wants to pick up his customary year’s supply of Vermont dark maple syrup, as well as Vermont maple candy, cheddar, cider, and apples. I’ll turn some of the apples into an apple pie.

I’m psyched for a yummy hot maple soymilk and a vegan snack at Moon Dog Café in Chester. I’m definitely going to ask them about that amazing papaya tree in the window. I also want to check out the yoga studio in town. We always visit the Vermont Country Store, even though it’s become a tourist trap filled with a China-made jumble of junk. But they have a penny candy section that my husband loves.

My big item for this year’s trip is a visit to the Himalaya Buddhist Center (Tibet Gelupa tradition) in Brattleboro or the Mandala temple (Shingon) in Burlington.

I picked up a couple of cheap ($5 each) amaryllis bulbs yesterday. Yes, they’re already for sale, and it’s too early for them if you want Christmas blooms. But if you’re like me and just want to enjoy the splendor of a pretty tropical like amaryllis, then it’s a windfall.

They’re decent-quality bulbs for 5 dollars. I chose an orange (‘Naranja’), and a bicolor red and white. The bicolor is in my workspace, and the orange has been placed in our kitchen. They’re each been given small drinks of water to just coax them out of dormancy without rushing them to bloom.

But a 5-dollar amaryllis bulb is a throwaway – destined for the compost bin. They don’t rebloom reliably. They’re mass-cultivated by cutting corners to make them ready for commercial sale as quickly as possible. So, enjoy them for what they are: beautiful but momentary gifts of nature to be repurposed as black gold for next season’s garden beds.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been having an interesting dream life. Many of the dreams are lucid. There have been elements of fear, but mostly of finding myself in new settings that are compelling yet comfortable. And the dreams have been so charged with detail that I can barely remember them, there’s so much going on.

They’re reminding me of the tantric wisdom dreams written of by Chongtul Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist of the Bön tradition (the ancient religion of Tibet). I read Rinpoche’s ideas on wisdom dreams years ago.

Wisdom dreams are not karmic, but instead come from and orbit around the dreamer’s own wisdom and experience, especially the dreamer’s experience of the five elements of the body. They’re consciousness strong and tend to spotlight one of the elements.

In my case, I’m meeting the earth element over and over: many of the dreams of the past weeks involve me near ground or underground. In last night’s dream, I willingly stepped into what seemed like a grave. A few nights ago, I willingly walked alone through a long underground channel. In most of the dreams, I’m alone, and I feel curious and unthreatened.

I heard a teacher speak once about the Peace Mind. It feels like that. I’m finding myself in challenging, strange places, and I’m good with it, I flow with it. I keep moving forward, and every night, I go to a new landscape with the same curiosity and sense of calm. In these dreams of late, it seems like I’m searching the deepest parts of my own consciousness. I’ll let you know what I find.

Barbie xo