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