During my elementary school days I remember the good Sisters at St. Alphonsus School telling us to concentrate, to be careful, and to pay attention to the details. Excellence in spelling, cursive handwriting, grammar, and arithmetic were part of the emphasis upon paying attention to the details. There was an exact, precise and known "right way" to do these activities and we learned to concentrate on the correct way. They could see a fine response to a question, clever and creative thinking, and superior writing; however, if these were not presented and clothed in proper form, and in correct modes of expression, one was more likely to receive criticism than praise.
Most recreational gardeners have more freedom of expression. They can goof up, be sloppy, make mistakes, and are free to put the wrong plant in the wrong place and nurture it in the wrong manner. The death of the plant, like an F grade, is the ultimate result, in many cases, but some only care when looking at their empty wallet.
A good case can be made for bringing a love for details into one's gardening life. Read up one your soil, your climate, and the plants you wish to grow. Study your garden for patterns of light and shade as the seasons progress. Learn about the wide variety of "wild" plants and animals that live in and around your garden. Read the great garden writers to bring a new vitality and level of awareness to your gardening experience. Take time to carefully observe all the parts of your garden plants, not just the flowers and fruits. Don't bring the problems of day to day life into your gardening mind: concentrate on your immediate task, pay attention to what is immediately before you, focus only on your gardening. Treat your garden like a natural history museum, and act like a curator. Garden with passion, attention, and 110% of your spirit.
To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.
- Zen Master Dogen
The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.
- Benedict De Spinoza
God is in the details.
- Mies Van Der Rohe
Caress the detail, the divine detail.
- Vladimir Nabokov
Details are all there are.
- Maezumi Roshi
We think in generalities, but we live in details.
- W.H. Auden
If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.
- R. Reese
We work with the stuff of the soul by means of the things of life.
- Thomas Moore
Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones.
Generalization and abstraction are the plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave.
- William Blake
The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things.
Without them, - these sticks, stones, feathers, shells, -
there is no Deity.
- R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics, p. 144.
When we look for things there is nothing but mind,
and when we look for mind there is nothing but things.
- Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, p 131
Great accomplishments are composed of minute details.
Those who succeed in attaining the Whole
have attended carefully to each tiny part.
Those who fail have ignored or taken too lightly
what they deemed to be insignificant.
The enlightened person overlooks nothing.
- Han Shan Te'-ch'ing, 1600
The Maxims of Master Han Shan Te'-Ch'ing
Translated by Grandmaster Jy Din Shakya
Cold Mountain Buddhas
10:52:15 AM 
|
