Krishna Das explores tending our inner-garden; planting seeds of spiritual practice now to harvest blossoms of real change in the future.
In this 2018 workshop from Miami, FL, Krishna Das invites us to get our hands dirty in the garden of our inner-being. Theming the talk around Sri Ramakrishna’s compelling and vibrant allegory of spiritual practices being seeds of compassion and love planted for the future, Krishna Das tills through the process of uprooting our separate sense of me-ness, laying out the proverbial Farmer’s Almanac for a blossoming harvest of real change from earnest, intentional, and consistent spiritual practice.
Seeds Planted: Spiritual Practice
Speaking to the intrinsic power of mantra chanting – what is know in India as ‘repeating the Names of God’ – Krishna Das shares a whimsical and potent allegory from Sri Ramakrishna explaining the underlying processes which take place when we focus our awareness on chanting practice. Through continued practice and fertile soil, the seeds we plant in our hearts will begin to sprout and bloom, chipping away at the mental structures which keep us stuck operating as ‘who we think we are.’
“Sri Ramakrishna, a great Saint in the 1800s, said that every repetition of one of these Names of God is a seed that gets planted in our hearts, in our karmic flow. Eventually–all these seeds will start to grow when the right causes and conditions arise, just like you plant a garden.” – Krishna Das
Get your hands dirty in the soil – your internal nature is calling. It’s time to sow seeds and tend to the garden of being, on Ep. 50 of Pilgrim Heart
Tending the Soil: Me-ness to Being-ness (5:24)
Elucidating our internal mental constructs of identity–otherwise known as ego–Krishna Das explores all the various ways our personal concepts of “me” & “mine,” create suffering in the world for ourselves and others. Contemplating how our mechanisms of belief can paint, construe, and constrict our reality, he lays out a pathway to stop clinging so tightly to our ‘me-ness,‘ and, instead, begin to more deeply inhabit the pure being-ness of the soul.
“The techniques are tools to stop creating me-ness.” – Krishna Das
Dig deep into the garden of existence, and discover your roots of connection to the compassionate heart of the universe, on Ep. 99 of Heart Wisdom
A Subtle Blossom: Experiencing Real Change (19:16)
Krishna Das describes what the blossoming fruits of practice taste like over time. The flavor may be much more subtle and nuanced than one may think. Illustrating that real spiritual change is actually something which happens beneath the surface, Krishna Das reveals how continued practice actually burns through the self-referential-evaluator inside of us. Meaning–as you deepen your practice–there is less of a compulsive mechanism to recognize and judge the change, and yourself.
“Real change is under the radar. You don’t get to write about it in your diary. Real change happens while you’re busy living your life. You wind up spending less and less time in negative-heavy states of mind thinking about yourself all the time. It just happens.” – Krishna Das
As the bountiful garden subtly blossoms, Sharon Salzberg and Ethan Nichtern harvest real change, on Ep. 11 of The Road Home
Source images via @maximova and @meagan