“We have billions upon billions of seeds in our minds, planted there by hurting or taking care of those around us.” ~ Geshe Michael Roche
The Yoga Sutra tells us that every minute of our lives we are choosing to plant “good seeds” or “bad seeds”. These seeds store up and then will “sprout” throughout your life. If bad seeds have been planted in the past you can stop them from sprouting by viewing the world differently. How you view the world decides whether you suffer or find true happiness.
The seeds decide how our mind perceive things. We can change the seeds by cultivating our actions and our thoughts to those of goodness. Yoga Master Patanjali says, “The storehouse is planted by the things we do.” Here he is referring to the storehouse as our own mind where the seeds stay until they sprout images and thoughts. Every action we take, every word we say, every thought we have plants seeds in our mind and determines how we see the world later on.
The important message in planting your garden of seeds is to know that everything that ever happens to you only happens to you because you have done the same thing to someone else. This is often referred to as “karma” or in the Bible the ”Golden Rule”: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Epictetus, the black slave that studied and became a stoic philosopher said, “Where is Good? In our reasoned choices. Where is Evil? In our reasoned choices.”
What type of seeds will you plant today?
