If meditation is like a garden, what are the conditions for growth?

A couple weeks ago I wrote that meditation is like a garden: we don't make something grow. We build conditions, and the mystery grows by itself.

Which raises the question: what are those actual conditions for growth?

Put another way, how do we foster a living spirituality?

I'm sure there are many answers to these questions. In fact, Buddhist texts are chock full of them.

For now, though, I think I'd like to say the conditions that foster a living spirituality are love, time, teachings, and adversity.

In meditation, nothing grows without love. At first, it's helpful to have a teacher who holds your experience with steady care. Soon, though, you'll need to build your own kindness, a sort of atmospheric benevolence, a container of warmth for the whole dazzling mess.

Time is number two in my book. The great masters lived years doing nothing but tending this delicate opening. Dilgo Khyentse spent two decades of his life in retreat. Ajahn Chan wandered, meditating, throughout his 20s and 30s. The great Zen master Chao Chao practiced with singular intensity until he was enlightened at 80. Can we give ourselves a weekend to just be, letting life move through?

Also, we all need teachings. You wouldn't hike Everest without a guide, and you probably won’t find your way out of ego’s brittle labyrinth without pointers, maps, and course corrections from a living lineage. This means reading books, of course; it means maintaining relationships with teachers who know you well; and it means listening to dharma talks while you ride the bus, rake the yard, tie your shoes, and take out the trash. It means fusing the dharma into every aspect of your life and mind.

Finally, adversity. As Traleg Rinpoche says, "It is not true that we only develop when we feel loved, cared for, appreciated, respected, and admired; we also grow when we are despised, belittled, held back, and denigrated.” This can be a tough one to swallow, and of course I'm not advocating for door mat-ness, victim blaming, or trauma-shaming. Still, like a tree that needs wind to grow strong roots, a living spirituality needs (the right amount of) challenge to grow compassion, equanimity, and the rest. Luckily, life has plenty to offer us on this front.

So this is what I've got: love, time, teachings, and adversity.

Maybe next week it'll be four different factors, or five, that strike my fancy. Maybe for you it's three and a half that seem most alive right now.

Isn't it a delight, this reaching together in the blossoming dark?

sending good wishes,
nico hase

p.s. deep bows to Carl Rogers, who’s ideas are very much alive in this blog and the last