Cultivating Concentration in the Garden

by Alekos
Athens, Greece

I have a garden in my house and I like spending my time taking care of it. I like seeing the whole procedure of growing flowers and finding out what the needs of a flower are, for it to grow and be beautiful.

So one day I decided to look after my garden in a different way; I tried to be concentrated on my activity, to be in the moment and aware of what I had to do.

As I was digging in my garden, I started to hear the wind passing serenely between flowers, to smell different and beautiful smells from the flowers, and to be aware of where I was and what I was doing. I was observing inside me a peace, cleanness…without any thoughts and emotions. My concentration had such strength that nothing could bother me from my activity.

As I was concentrating on tidying my garden, I was receiving information from my five senses and inside me there was a feeling of love for the activity of taking care of my garden as best as I could.

There were many times when I couldn’t hear the wind, the movement of flowers and the different smells of the flowers. But when this information stopped, I realized that something went wrong; I was losing my concentration – I forgot to be ‘in the moment’. But I kept trying to come back into the moment and have wariness in my activity. I set a goal: Taking more detailed information from my garden, finding whatever small thing I could in my garden, like small flowers, small animals, etc, in order to keep interest in my activity.

So as I tried to find detailed information in my garden, I noticed a small beautiful flower hidden among weeds. It was the first time I had seen this flower. I was keeping my awareness on it, and suddenly, I felt the need to remove immediately all the weeds which were growing around the flower, taking the essential components which a flower needs to grow. So as I concentrated on the flower, I received information about myself and my psychology – I felt that I was the flower, and all these weeds were my inner-states trying to stop my growth. I focused more and more on the flower, on its details, and I received information about life. All this information had the form of parables…

My concentration had the strength of water which is poured in a funnel. The time had stopped. The flowers, the small woods, and the ground wanted to give me their help, their information about life. I felt alive, and I knew where I was; everything around me was so alive. I felt the strength, and at the same time the beauty, of the environment. I had the ability to hear far away, to smell far away, to see clearly and focus easily on the details of the flower, its colour, its shape. I felt beautiful, living in an eternal peace…

There were thoughts trying to take me away from this, but nothing at this time, so insignificant, could stop me. Because I was realizing what I wanted and what I was doing, I didn’t want to loose what I was feeling. So I set another goal: to get as much information from the activity without loosing my concentration.

When I finished my job, I wrote down my experience and I realized that even the small things in our lives, even more the things which we consider insignificant, can give us huge Gnosis for our lives; it is the appropriate psychological approach which makes the difference. I realized that concentration is very important and necessary for spirituality.