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Weeds and the Eyes of Knowing

Posted October 20th, 2009 by Linda Hollier

Coming to a standstill in traffic this afternoon as a result of road works up ahead, I made a conscious decision not to be perturbed but instead to look around me and see what one would not normally notice on this route.

Looking back at me from the side of the road was a variety of different weeds!

Having recently read Charles’ post about the eyes of knowing  (expounded upon so beautifully in, and a reminder of Wilber’s “The Eye of Spirit”) I attempted to look at the weeds with these eyes.  The traffic was going nowhere and there was time.

With the eye of flesh I saw just what the eye of flesh sees in its instinctual and pre-rational fashion – in this case, all sorts of little plants growing at the edge of the road.  Some had tiny white flowers which were barely noticeable, others purple; others had long stems and yet others corrugated leaves.

The eye of mind was quick to set in and I began wondering about the origin of the word “weed” (which I had to look up when I got home:  it comes from the Old English wēod meaning herb, grass and weed) and if maybe these “nuisance plants” had not been unjustly viewed throughout history.  Just because humans did not want a particular plant in a particular place, did this make the plant inherently bad? The term is certainly a subjective one as when the “weed” is growing where it belongs, it is no longer a “weed”.  Rationality and the thinking mind were at work.

The influence of my culture and upbringing brought biblical texts to mind but I did not pursue them, as further thoughts flooded my mind.

Memories of cosmos exploding after it rained and the beauty they provided arose. I recalled us planting them in our garden once, despite the fact that they are considered by many to be a weed.

“Weed” is made up of “We” and “ed” and I thought of how people all over the world are currently being educated in and made aware of the collective.

One thought after the other continued to flow (as they always do) and I had to make a conscious choice to move onto the next way of seeing.

With the eye of Spirit there was only beauty  -  beauty in otherness, beauty in the unnoticed;  simple Beauty.

The traffic eased and the moment had passed.

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Weeds - an expression of the flow of the cosmos

Posted October 28th, 2009 by Campbell Wilson

Hi Linda

If we consider that the cosmos has an evolutionary impulse towards greater and greater complexity, and view weeds through this lense, it's amazing how beautiful they can look, not just to the eye of flesh, but also to the eye of mind.

I work in the field of sustainable agriculture, and it just so happens that more often than not, the weed that proliferates in a certain area is one of the best plants for building beautiful healthy topsoil (hence beautiful healthy plants, hence beautiful healthy people) in that place. One of my mentors prefers the term hard working immigrants rather than weed.

Through these eyes we can begin to work with the tools nature has provided, and as I do so eye of spirit kicks in and with that I feel the fire of loving energy welling inside me and the deep gratification that comes with working with Spirit's flow.

God Bless the weeds (and all the other hard working immigrants)

Cam Wilson, Australia

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Re: Weeds and the Eyes of Knowing

Posted October 20th, 2009 by Balder

Thank you, Linda.  What a lovely spontaneous meditation!  An invitation to all of us to stop and see with new eyes.

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Beautiful

Posted October 21st, 2009 by Anne Tyler Lord

--Linda,

Thanks for sharing your beautiful (in many ways) mindful contemplation.  The middle of the flowers look like eyes staring back at us.  I like the way your associations flow.  

I am thinking further about how the "weeds" represent all of the things in the world we think are undesirable that we try to eliminate.  We have become such a culture of pesticides - kill 'em and toxify the Earth.  This is literally true in physical reality for plants, land and people.  

It is true in the violence we inflict towards others in verbal interchanges.  Many people try to eliminate and kill any ideas contrary to their own - the way of first tier.  As we grow, we should seek to hold the perspectives in our awareness, then speak directly without negativity pushing out violence with the message.

And, this is true for our own undesirable attitudes and beliefs.  We often try to kill what we don't want, rather than allowing it to be, to flow through, to watch it "where it belongs"  then it will go somewhere else next - just like your mindful meditation on the flowers/weeds, 

Thanks,

 Anne Tyler Lord