Edible gardening as an ILP

When listening to Jun Po's recording the other day, I really appreciated his challenge to the integral community in regards to the food we eat and its affect on the environment. At the time, it occurred to me that the nurturing of my edible garden is in fact another Integral Life Practice, providing a full body workout in self, culture and nature.

Firstly the full body workout:

• My Gross Body is exercised in the obvious way as I build and tend to the garden, muscles becoming strong yet flexible all over. The clean fresh air I breathe and the healthy nutritious food I harvest and consume also nourishes my physical body.
• My Subtle Body is exercised through the subtle flows I experience during the flashes of creative insight and the ongoing connection one feels as they tend to a garden through time. I don't know whether it's true or not, but as I eat food from my own or a friend's garden which has been lovingly cared for, it seems to nourish me more and take on a higher subtle frequency.
• My Causal Body is exercised through the meditative states one experiences during some of the more (um) repetitive tasks.

Whilst gardening, the greater the extent that my mind is quiet, the more likely that the evolutionary impulse flows in and through me. The more this occurs, the more beautiful and flowing the garden becomes. An edible garden doesn't have to look like a farmyard. Fruit trees, berries, herbs, greens and flowers, along with a pond and some rocks can be arranged in ways that mimic the patterns of natural systems, and hold similar qualities to the beautiful Japanese zen gardens (not to mention the delicious food).

Gardening also provides a way to make healthy contributions to each of the quadrants. To mention just a few

• UL in the enjoyment and experiences I mentioned above
• UR in the physical exercise and nourishment my body receives
• LL in the connection I share with my young children and partner, enjoying the fun of building a garden together and then sharing a meal from the harvest
• LR in the vast envionmental benefits of building healthy topsoil, turning food miles into food metres and not supporting forms of food growing which as Jun Po mentioned, can be destructive in their nature (doing so however whilst holding a feeling of gratitude for the gift that industrial agriculture has provided, for example, the integral academics I learn so much from most likely wouldn't exist).

The garden is a place where I feel deep gratitute to the evolutionary impulse, and as an expression of the infinite, the garden can at times provide an experience of the three faces of God: the miracle of manifestation, that is, a Big Bang becomes a raspberry before your eyes, the experience of oneness with that creation along with the humility that comes when God's grace flows in and through you.

God Bless the good soil, the plant it holds, the nourishing food it provides, the healthy human body it builds, the compassion and wisdom they grow, the spirit that awakens within them, the blessing their unique self offers this world, Amen