Flowers

“Like garlands woven from a heap of flowers,
Fashion from your life as many good deeds.”
- Dhammapada

I know a girl who is alert. She is conscious of her virtue, her sensitivity, her awakenings, and she is conscious of right mind and right action. She contemplates the way and the ways of the world. She is alert, yet still finding her footing.

“But what should I do with it?” she wonders.

Her wondering sounds as if there were that one action, one occupation, one gift that is perfect and correct. It doesn’t matter. Be a Microsoft engineer. Be a pharmaceutical sales representative. Be a Unitarian minister. Be a mechanic. Be a gardener. Which flowers you grow are not important. How you plant and feed and harvest is the true test.

“What should you do with it?” I repeat. “Do good in this world.”

Do good in this world and release yourself from your deeds. Collecting goodness, patting yourself on the back, is of no value. You can make your actions your possessions - like trophies on a shelf. But these are only icons of actions which have past – only words describing something that once happened.

Do good in this world and let your actions be a garland of goodness that streams behind you like the wake of a boat – caused by the boat but completely indifferent and unfettered from its next action.

These are the flowers which can be looked for and caught and categorized or they are the flowers which are simply planted and left to grow.