Karmapa – Meditation Garden
Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, was kind enough to share his thoughts on Dhagpo’s Meditation Garden.
This garden is a symbol.
The ideal place for meditation is nothing more than an abstract idea.
The seat on a bus or a train might be it.
A mother’s womb might be it.
A death bed might be it.
You can’t really pinpoint the ideal place.
Nevertheless, out of care we can toddle towards creating a symbol of that ideal place.
This garden of meditation is such a symbol.
Just by being there, enlightenment will not necessarily happen. That much is guaranteed.
But there is always a possibility that this place could be it. That much is guaranteed, too.
If there is a glimmer of hope that this environment could give rise to enlightenment – against all odds, against all doubts, against all fear – then this glimmer is as wholesome and wondrous as the place for enlightenment. It’s one in a million.
If you feel this way, as I do, then manifesting this environment will benefit all those who tend to this garden.
Gardening is not spiritual; nor is it non-spiritual.
It’s just gardening.
Karmapa in front of one of the eight stupas, the parinirvana stupa, at Dhagpo in September 2019.
