In a few weeks, I am going to have my one-year anniversary of residing on a homestead. And I can say with full honesty that I really like this life. Rising meals and caring for animals is rewarding.
Watching the land develop and shrink all year long is instructional. And being surrounded by nature is nourishing.
That stated, there have been challenges and arduous classes. I believe I could have killed my tractor. Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to depart fuel in it over the winter. And several other bushes have fallen down in our again pasture. So, these will have to be limbed and quartered in some unspecified time in the future.
Crucial problem (and lesson) got here early final 12 months after I was working within the backyard. I used to be coping with an infestation of striped cucumber beetles that have been threatening to destroy our squash crops. this was after coping with slugs that threatened to destroy our bean crops and gypsy moths that threatened to eat our collard greens.
As I stood there baking beneath the summer time solar, rigorously spraying every tender leaf with soapy water within the hope that it will preserve the beetles away, I noticed that every thing on earth needed to kill my backyard.
The neighborhood cats needed to dig up my greens, the bugs needed to eat them. And the solar needed to rob my backyard beds of water. Because the gardener, it was my job to maintain these issues from taking place. I needed to preserve the backyard alive.
I discovered this lesson once more after I introduced chickens on the property. After I first obtained them they have been puffballs, I may barely inform one from one other. However they grew shortly, growing feathers and personalities. Ultimately, it was time for them to depart the security of my barn.
And that is the place the issues began. It seems everybody likes to eat chickens. Possums, raccoons, weasels, hawks, canine, cats; something with enamel or talons is a hazard to my birds.
So, I constructed them a coop, and I constructed them a hen run. The chainlink fence that enclosed their run to maintain canine out was strengthened with a layer of hen wire to guard them from raccoons. Then extra hen wire was put excessive to maintain the hawks out.
I even nailed down the fencing with backyard staples to make sure that nothing may dig beneath. My birds stay comfortably inside an iron dome that may require wire cutters and opposable thumbs to breach Nevertheless it’s not sufficient.
It isn’t sufficient as a result of chickens do not do effectively within the warmth. Their inner physique temperature is 105 levels, and their feathers are like winter coats that they can not take off. If the out of doors temperature goes above 85 levels, their in peril of warmth exhaustion. So, my summer time was spent placing ice cubes of their water to maintain them cool and feeding them watermelon to maintain them hydrated.
The issues continued into the winter months. I went out two, typically thrice a day to switch their frozen water with the liquid form. I weatherproofed their coop and run with heavy tarps. Chilly temperatures aren’t a hazard to the birds, however they have to be saved out of the wind and rain. Additionally they want a gentle provide of dry bedding to make sure they do not get frostbite on their ft.
At some point, after I needed to chip ice off of the hen coop’s door earlier than I may open it, I noticed every thing on earth needs to kill my birds. Animals need to eat them, the solar needs to cook dinner them, and the snow needs to freeze them. Because the hen keeper, It was my job to maintain that from taking place. I needed to preserve the chickens alive.
The identical is true of the cats, my household, and each residing factor on this homestead. For every of them, I need to stand within the hole; putting my physique between them and a world that wishes to do them hurt.
Thus, the trail of a homesteader is like the trail of a Bodhisattva
When Buddha first laid out the trail to enlightenment, he taught the Sravaka and the Pratyekabuddha dharmas. The previous targeted on strict monastic self-discipline throughout the confines of a Buddhist group. And the latter targeted on meditative coaching; carried out in isolation.
In each instances, the first objective was to understand enlightenment as shortly as attainable to finish the non-public struggling of the practitioner.
Late in life, Buddha taught the trail of the Bodhisattva. Explaining that the dharmas of the Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas may solely get us to the cusp of full enlightenment. If a practitioner needs to understand full, full enlightenment, Annutarra Samyak Sambodhi, they need to develop into a Bodhisattva.
A Bodhisattva is a being who vows to understand enlightenment for the categorical function of saving different sentient beings from struggling. so, whereas their very own happiness definitely enters the equation, it’s the happiness of others that drives a Bodhisattva to stroll the Buddhist path.
To an outdoor observer, this will look like an odd course of occasions. Why would Buddha trouble instructing the Sravaka and Pratyekabuddha dharmas if solely the Bodhisattva realizes full enlightenment? The reason being easy.
The journey of a Bodhisattva is troublesome, it requires a powerful private observe. Greater than that, it is not possible as a result of even because the Bodhisattvas work to avoid wasting all beings from struggling, they perceive that there the place at all times be extra struggling to work by way of, and extra beings to avoid wasting.
In Vasubandhu’s Treatise on the Bodhisattva Vow, it is described on this manner:
If beings have been to return to an finish, then and solely then would my vows then come to an finish. Nevertheless, beings are actually countless. due to this fact these nice vows of mine shall additionally by no means come to an finish.
What’s stunning about this passage is the extent of dedication it describes. Bodhisattvas perceive that there’ll at all times be beings who are suffering on the earth. So, they reply with a promise; that they will by no means cease working to finish that struggling.
However what does struggling seem like? How can we codify the Bodhisattva vow, in order that it is helpful in day by day life?
Merely put, struggling is the pile of soiled dishes within the sink. It is the driveway that is buried beneath two ft of snow, it is the sick youngster that wakes up crying each two hours.
And the work of a Bodhisattva is to deal with that struggling; wash the dishes, shovel the snow, consolation the kid with the data that it is solely a matter of time earlier than the dishes are soiled, the driveway is roofed, and the kid is sick once more.
As people, we stay in a world bent on destroying every thing we love. As Buddhists, we wrap our arms across the issues we love; preserving them protected, preserving them alive for so long as we are able to.
Once we do that, once we stroll the trail of a Bodhisattva, satisfaction is just not discovered within the completion of our work. Relatively, satisfaction and a way of achievement come from our willingness to do the work over and over.
I take into consideration this as I am going about my work on the homestead.
I do know I am preventing a shedding battle. I do know there’ll come a day when my backyard beds are rotted, when nothing grows in them however weeds.
I do know there’ll come a day when my chickens die, when my physique is simply too outdated and feeble to guard them from this world. I do know I will fail.
However that day will not be as we speak. At the moment, I am going to stroll the Bodhisattva path. At the moment, I am going to wrap my arms round my chickens, my backyard, my household.
I am going to wrap my arms round all residing issues. And when the world makes an attempt to do them hurt, I am going to inform them, “Don’t fret, I am going to preserve you alive”.
Namu Amida Butsu
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