It's been a quirky season for growing.
Many of us have found ourselves in situations, places, relationships, that we couldn't have imagined for ourselves back in the Spring.
The Harvest Moon on October 1st is a time to look at what's come to fruition in your garden this growing season, to appreciate what is, even if it's not how you seeded your intentions last Spring.
Here's a short journal activity to explore the harvest of this season through the lense of the Kleshas.
Harvest Moon Garden Plot
Drawing, Reflections & Meditation
Use a blank sheet of paper or print out the Harvest Moon pdf.
Gather you markers or colored pencils. Create a comfortable space to work, perhaps lighting a candle, making yourself a cup of tea, and sitting on a cushion.
1. Close your eyes and visualize your metaphorical garden. (You can use the analogy of the plot, the garden plot and the plot of your life) Think back to the Spring, at the beginning of the season, what seeds did you plant? What were you thinking might germinate in your life. Write down those seed plans you had for your life back in the Spring next to the black dots.
2. Close your eyes again and visualize the plot of your life. Has anything you weren’t thinking too much about back in the Spring flourished in your garden plot? What has blossomed that you didn’t expect? What unexpected joys have grown in your life? These might be relationships, ways of living. Use the colored pens to write the things you didn’t know you were cultivating that have grown for you. Draw a big flowery cloud around each item you write.
3. Close your eyes once more and visualize your daily life. Think back to small moments and details of the past growing season. Use a light color like pink or yellow and write in any small appreciations you have. Think back to small moments and appreciations such as that time you noticed the fragrance of a flower in bloom, waking up early and seeing the sunrise, sharing something, etc.
4. Have a look at the page. Add in anything else you like. If you are still cultivating the sees you planted in Spring, add a little vine or leaves. Add color and brightness to reflect the size of what is coming to fruition in your life. Add more color to the things you can find gratitude towards.
Reflection:
As you add color, texture, brightness to your drawing. Notice what comes up for you. Feel your feelings about what has or hasn’t come to blossom this season. Do you feel disappointed with the things that haven’t come to fruition? Relief? Frustration? Patience? Can you find anything you weren’t expecting or hadn’t appreciated previously?
Looking through the lens of the kleshas, or afflictions that keep us from self realization. The kleshas can be found in both Buddhist and Hindi traditions; they known as the poisons that cloud your own divine radiance from shining forth.
To gain more insight into your own harvest this season, you can look at what’s come to fruition in your life through the lens of the five kleshas.
The first affliction is avidya, or ignorance to recognize the true nature of reality as ever changing and evolving. To overcome avidya is to recognize the impermanence of everything. Looking at what’s cultivated in your garden, remember the true nature of reality and that this harvest, this is just one impermanent season.
Asmita, the second affliction that keeps us in the dark, is forgetting our connectedness to everything. Asmita is the ego centered I-ness that says “This is mine,” “I’m in control,” “This happened to me.” To overcome asmita and overcome our self-centeredness, we must return to knowing our oneness and connection to everything, down to the anatomic and energetic levels.
Looking at your garden map, notice how many things were not created by you alone. Find synchronicities, serendipity, magic that connects you to something bigger than yourself.
Raga, the third klesha, is about attachment. Raga is our desire, even expectation, for a certain thing or a specific outcome. It’s an attachment that ties back to asmita and the ego as and “I want. . . .”
Dwesha is the opposite to desire. Dwesha is aversion, avoiding what you don’t want and expressing your dislike of a certain thing or a specific outcome.
Look at your harvest of the past season through the lenses of Raga and Dwesha What were you attached to? What were you avoiding? How does it feel to release the attachment? How has it felt to be with something you had an aversion to?
The final klesha is abhinevesha clinging to life. Abhinevesha is fear of death. Abhinevesha relates to asmita, as it is the ego and “I” that fears death and clings to life. Abhinvesha spirals us back around to the first klesha, avidya, remembering the true nature of reality. The true nature of reality is that everything is made of pure consciousness. Consciousness is ever evolving, its impermanence arises out of this continuous evolution. When you accept the true nature of reality, there is fear in death.
You can use these ideas to look at your garden again and see if there is anything else you want to draw in.
To remove avidya, we recognize this plot is temporary and ever evolving.
Lifting asmita, we recall our connectedness and remember everyone may have a different plot, but our stories, communities, and unconscious interweave and are interdependent.
To lift the veils of raga and dwesha we simply reframe desires and dislikes. When we let go of our attachment to one thing or our avoidance of another, we can have gratitude for what is.
Overcoming abhinevesha is to live while you’re alive. Rather than clinging to life in fear of the inevitable, appreciate the life you’re living and live it. Smell the blossoms while they are in bloom. See what is growing in your garden plot is your medicine, work through these shadow sides and see if you can find more gratitude and appreciation for what is.
You can link to this video for a short meditation after you complete this activity.
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