Mind - you reap what you sow!

I have watched the seeds in my life grow, and the fruit they've produced. This seed to tree metaphor is a perfect example of what you do to the universe, and what it does to you.

I have no children myself, but I'm thankful for what my parents planted for me, and I do feel what has grown in my life. I can tell you disgusting fruit will grow, and it won't hesitate to grow abundantly, if you nurture the seed with your will. I don't the ratio of good and bad fruits in my life, but I know I've experienced both extremes. I remember how when I was first becoming involved in meditative practices, I kept an open mind and so many beautiful things grew in my life. In some later time, I began engaging in immoral, intoxicating, and delinquent acts. When as the fruit grew, it was all I had to feed upon, and that was the most disgusting spoon of food I ever had to swallow. So don't think the prettiest seed produces the best tasting fruit.

Your thoughts are like seeds, and your actions nurture them. But you see, you aren't going to get rid of them simply by picking them, that only aggrivates the growth, you have to block their source and by time they will wither away by themselves. Thoughts are also like a virus, they are contagious.

You can plant as many seeds at any moment in time, but you have to keep watering them if your expecting anything.

Joseph, I really appreciate the fact that such a young man as yourself has such a strong desire to understand this kind of stuff.

All of what you and I both said takes hard work and obedience. It also takes understanding the meaning and purpose of life... the essence of life. Change comes from within and has complete control over the external forces that so many people are slave to.

nicely said Justin!! Really appreciate the seed thingy with sow and reap.
However I also think that much of what is "reaped" depends on the people's charactersitics etc. It is true that what we teach children etc then they will do, but much of it is nature, i.e. genetics etc. I didnt really believe this but soon came to realize that heredity plays a very significant role in this kind of stuff. We may blame parents for bad education of their kids etc - but a lot comes in that too. Or is the result of the child's way of thinking not the genetic but the nurture stuff? WHo knows... but charactersisitcs, way of thinking and personality also get passed down the genetic tree or "garden" . depends. But genetics really limit us a lot and open or close the possibilities we have.

And what can we or cant we be blamed for? That is the quesiton. What really is our fault and what is the fault of those who planted evil seeds in us? And even THEY may have planted evil ones because they were told to do so. Why? Due to those people before!! And so it goes on, until someone stands against this and changes it.
A person will grow what the surroundings are... so true!!:p

madscientist - "However I also think that much of what is "reaped" depends on the people's characteristics etc. It is true that what we teach children etc then they will do, but much of it is nature, i.e. genetics etc."

Thank you for your comment. You are correct in your assertion that much of it comes from characteristic. However, when a child is born they know nothing. Every bit of information comes to the child externally. In children, influences outside of themselves plant the seeds and then those influences and the belief of that child will eventually cultivate them.

You see, there are two ways to look at everything...

We can blame our parents for our poor education or blame our circumstances. We can also chalk it up to heredity and accept that as truth. If we believe it's heredity (something we did not know when born), then that is something most of us accept as true and something we cannot change - Because we believe we can't change it. If this is accepted as true and we accept the assertion that we cannot change these things, we become a slave to our heredity and to our own thinking. In the end, if we believe it's something we cannot change due to heredity, that is a ceiling we place on ourselves. Whatever it is that we believe (the garden), is undoubtedly going to effect the harvest. Whether it's heredity or the changing wind.

The beauty of this is that there is another way to view it. We can overcome these obstacles we place on ourselves only if we believe we can. This is where the adult mind now has control of the garden. Weed it, turn it and plant new seeds. Heredity is no obstacle unless we believe it is.

How? Well, it starts with desire and then it takes action and meditative prayer. Everything we listen to, everything we read, all that goes on around us that we allow into our minds and heart, effects the harvest greatly. It can make or break the success of our own gardens. We control it, it doesn't control us. The genetic structure of man accounts for some of his physical being but we aren't physical, we're spiritual beings of energy living in a physical body.

Those genetics were passed to us through people in our lives that were fully aware of our ancestors and our parents tend to teach us what there parents taught them. At child-birth, our gardener (parents or other), knew of these genetics, we did not. They may have told us about our heritage or discussed it amongst themselves and we overheard it. It came to us from an external source as a seed in our mind and once we believe it, then it can be nothing else other than what we believe it to be. Therefore, it's important that we work on our garden and pay the price of that hard work it takes to pull new weeds and plant new seeds and then take care of that garden.

Think of this. You go out into your yard, and choose a spot in the lawn to plant a garden. YOU, the gardener or aspiring gardener (maybe first time), go out and till the grass up and plant watermelon. You know it will be watermelon come harvest because those are the only seeds you planted. The garden has no idea of it's heritage because it's a new garden. Neither do the seeds. So as the garden grows, the seeds of the watermelon sprout and begin to grow. Because it may be your first time having a garden, you didn't weed them properly and those watermelon weren't growing like you had expected them to grow. You were told that these are the best watermelon seeds available, however the garden itself would beg to differ because the harvest was not all that great. Weeds had taken over the garden.

So you try again next year. You risk planting some corn and some roses as well as some beans and you know that's what will grow because that's what you planted. This time however, you are careful to read up on gardening and learn how to properly weed the garden and take care of it and nurture it. When the harvest comes it's in abundance, yet it is still that same garden that did not produce well the year before. The difference is the gardener (consciousness), and how that gardener took care of his garden. Last year has been long forgotten and that garden is happy it's being kept after so both the gardener and the garden end up reaping that which has been sown in the harvest. If it had not been fertile ground, then you order enough dirt to make it so. If there hadn't been enough sun, you move the garden into the sun light. Either way, the gardener has full control over the garden and the garden can only produce that which has been planted.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I have to step away and I hope I'm making some sense with this... One last thought...

"If we believe we cannot change the harvest, we are right. If we believe we can, we are also right." - Justin

Hmm so right Justin!
Hear so often "you are just like your dad" but then i say "see, it's genetics!" and then ppl say "well that's an excuse, you gotta change it" etc. But the funny thing is my dad says the same thing!! So kinda paradoxical or what. Maybe we got it genetiuc that we tend to blame things on it - who knows!!
As for the other things - yes people can change but it takes patience and will and time.

BTW where you got the idea of garden from - you heard it somewhere or you made it up? Quite cool I must say!! (no surprising why you made this forum haha!! )

Justin, a round about way for saying clean your act up.

If the average parent was a subscriber to a philosophy forum, they would not need much help in educating their children, I would think that they are more than aware of the skills needed.