A year ago, I reflected on the nature of the seed and the beauty of the inherent potential all of us has within us. Reading a book by Thich Nhat Hahn today I came to a beautiful augmentation of my understanding of the possibilities of the nature of the seed.
The true nature of the potentiality of the seed is it’s growth into a plant that is inherently the world around us. Just as a seed has the potentiality to grow into an apple tree or a corn stalk, that tree and that stalk grow into the leaves and the roots and the flowers that will one day die, decompose, return to the soil and be reborn into one another. The corn stalk becomes the apple tree. The apple tree becomes the daffodil. The daffodil becomes the woman and the woman becomes the child. Exquisite beauty in the impermanence of all life.
Bacterial meningitis drove the person I was to a death. I was reborn into a drug addict and alcoholic. And I was reborn again in sobriety to the recovering alcoholic writing this post. All these selves were the manifestations hidden in that one seed, The seed of my true self. This is a beautiful concept because we all have the same hidden potentials in all of us. Everyone I love, hate and am indifferent to can be, has been and is now quite literally the same person. In my life, the reporter and alcoholic and animal lover have grown to blossoming trees and flowers, died, decomposed and were reborn into the person I am now. Like a new seed, I have been all these things, played all the roles of son, lover, friend, jerk, casual acquaintance and the proprietor the of fear and resentment. And inherent in this is the startling beauty that each and every one of us has the potential to be the lawyer, nurse, musician, dictator, criminal, son, husband, wife, father, mother, child, brother and millions of other potentialities. This is a daunting yet exhilarating prospect. I am and you are all of these things intertwined into the impermanent beings of ourselves. All of us is a seed with unlimited potentials and we have those potentials every moment of every day.
I have realized the many ways of manifesting my up-to-now hidden potentials that have been with me since even before that horrible sickness I sustained 11 years ago literally and figuratively killed me. Some of those potentials will be realized, some will not, and all are glorious. One of my ultimate goals is to come to be the wisest manifestation of my potentials, with one of the soundest realizations being openness to the wisdom I can glean from others as we all have experiences to share and wisdoms to absorb from each other. The simplicity and beauty of that is truly a miracle.
My Zen Brain 