The Dharma of Flowers and Weeds
The following is adapted from a Dharma Talk I presented at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple on Sunday, April 28, 2024. I offer it to Being Bombu readers in gratitude to the LAAHBT for allowing me the chance to share my message.
“I, through Amida Buddha’s light of wisdom that shines upon me, am made aware that I cannot help but view even people and all things according to my own convenience and moreover, that I make judgments based only on those areas that I can see, deciding that things are either good or bad according to my own convenience.”
The words that above are not my own, rather they are those of the Reverend Nobokuni Atsushi. In addition to being a Buddhist minister, Rev. Atsushi is also an avid gardener. However, before I get into why that matters and why I chose to open with his words, let me first set the stage for the message I am trying to impart.
During our recent Hoonko celebration at my temple in Los Angeles, one of the messages I heard repeated by our speakers was that of the need to simply live in the moment, for the sake of that moment, and for nothing else. In a world filled with expectations, attachments, and desires, it is hard to imagine even a single moment in which we are not trying to be, do, or accomplish something for an unending myriad of reasons. We want to be beautiful, healthy, wealthy, and successful. We worry that others are expecting the same of us and are judging the state we are in. Yet our speakers, Rev. Higa and Rev. Shimizutani, both reminded us that the most peaceful and mindful thing we can do is to simply live as we are - be as we are - for even just a moment - and to leave the rest to Amida Buddha, whose compassion knows no such discrimination. That message and their words are still resonating with me weeks later.
Just the other day, I was re-reading one of the latest booklets from the Jodo Shinshu International Office, Volume 1 of Gleanings on the Pure Land, and I had one of those “a-ha” moments that help us bring a lesson home and see its wisdom and practicality in our everyday lives. My a-ha lesson was the product of two things, reading Rev. Atsushi’s excerpt in the Gleanings booklet and walking through my own neighborhood in Los Angeles’ mid-city, taking in all of the spring blooms that seem to be in such abundance this year. All of the gardens around me were bursting with the vibrant and beautiful colors of all kinds of flowers and the air was heavy with their intoxicating perfume. The lawns were impeccably manicured by people who were clearly proud of their gardening skills. And in the green bins outside almost every home were piles of wilting and dying weeds. They had been ripped up and put out with the garbage so that their presence did not mar the beauty of the spring landscape. Reflecting on Rev. Atsushi’s writing, I found myself asking ‘why’.
When we think about flowers, I think it safe to say that most of us focus on those aspects of flowers that we believe to be ‘good’. For instance, we might say that they are beautiful. We might also say that they smell wonderful. We might focus on the colors and how much cheer they bring to the yard and the neighborhood. In essence, we prize them and assign them value. But what about the weeds? Can we say the same things? I doubt that most of us would. If I asked you to tell me about weeds, I bet you would say things about how they are a nuisance. You might tell me how they are ugly or maybe smell bad. We would probably engage in a conversation about the weeds might overrun your garden or lawn and choke out the flowers and vegetables. I have little doubt that most of us would strip the poor weeds of any value at all. I am certain that if we were given the choice, the flowers would end up in our gardens and the weeds would find themselves rotting in our green bins.
Now I am not here to tell you that putting care into cultivating a beautiful garden is somehow. Rather, I am calling our attention to the power of our opinions. As humans, we are prone to constantly making judgment calls based on what Rev. Atsushi calls “our own convenience”. In his essay, from which I reproduced the quote above, he was writing specifically about a plant called mugwort - yomogi in Japanese. What’s neat about mugwort is that it is both an herb of some value and an invasive weed that can quickly overwhelm a garden. One minute you are cultivating it to make herbal teas and even mochi and the next, you are ripping it out of the ground to keep it from choking out your other plants. This is the ‘convenience’ that Rev. Atsushi speaks of. When we want or need it, the mugwort has value to us. When we don’t, it becomes something bad to be discarded.
But what of the mugwort itself? It is never anything but what it is. It does not aspire to be anything more or anything less . . . just to live in the moment. It is not at all like us humans with our need to judge and discriminate based on our own needs, likes, and biases - always wanting the things we deem to be good at the moment. For the mugwort, there is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. There is just growth, life, and death.
Here I would like to share more from Rev. Atsushi’s essay. At this point in the piece, he puts himself in the mugwort’s place and imagines what it might say to him as he struggles to pull from his garden. He writes,
“Ha, ha, ha. All that you can see is what is above the ground. We, however, are spread out and connected together like a net below the surface of the ground where you cannot see. And flowers, you know, do not bloom because they are seeking someone’s praise. They just bloom. Living their lives to the fullest, taking it to the utmost. You humans, however, live by the principle of “one’s own convenience.” To plants that produce flowers, you tell them how pretty they are, choose names for them, acknowledge them, and take good care of them. On the other hand, for those [plants] which you feel are a nuisance, you do not bother to give them names, but instead lump them together and call them “weeds” and forcibly yank them out. Even the same plant, you make the decision of whether they are good or bad according to your own convenience, and rob them of their life. In view of that, it is not just to flowering plants, but you are doing it here and there as well, are you not? Do you not think that you humans are petty, selfish creatures?”
So to go back to the passage I opened with, those words are both an admission of Rev. Atsushi’s own imperfection, as well as a statement of gratitude in his knowing that despite his human failing, Amida’s light continues to shine upon him without the same kind of discrimination. In fact, I believe there is even a subtle hint of jealousy towards the mugwort, and flowers in general, in his words.
In our Sunday services and in our Dharma classes, we often talk about causes and conditions, and the need for true entrusting in the compassion of Amida Buddha. While these concepts may not always seem clear in discussion, we need look no further than our yards and gardens to see these lessons in action and on bold display. The flowers and the weeds we see all around us, grow and bloom because of conditions beyond their control - sunlight, rain, and fertile soil. They simply exist from moment to moment, entrust themselves to these other powers. Is this not the very essence of what we in Jodo Shinshu call Shinjin? The effortless blooming and growth of the flowers and the weeds is truly a beautiful and powerful metaphor for letting go of self-power. If we too want to grow and bloom, perhaps we should take a cue from our friends in the plant world and just let go of what we cannot control.
Isn’t this, after all, the message of the Pure Land masters all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha himself? That we, like the flowers and the weeds, should come to trust in this other power - this tariki as we call it - rather than relying on self-effort? This is Amida Buddha's saving power, Amida’s benevolence, and it does not discriminate or judge. In the infinite light of Amida Buddha’s compassion, we are the flowers and the weeds and we are one and the same. The garden of the Pure Land is open to all, without the threat of those green bins we see in this samasaric world. We are reminded of this daily. We need just to look around ourselves, to the flowers AND the weeds, and remember that the Dharma is always being spoken. We just have to stop for a moment and listen . . . stop - and if you will forgive me for rewording the cliche - smell the roses and the weeds.
Let us remember to always hear and receive the Dharma around us and to reflect on Amida’s benevolence every time we are making judgments based on our own human convenience. Name Amida Butsu!
* Please note that Gleanings on the Pure Land, Volume 1, is available for purchase from the Jodo Shinshu International Office.
