Look around you right now; the room you are in, the clothes you are wearing, the shape of your body, the places you dwell, how did this all come to be? Consider the relationships of your life as they are now. Consider your bank account. They did not suddenly appear as they are now. Nothing does. There is a slow build from inception to manifestation and then a journey of maintenance once things are manifested. The quality of energy and intentions underlying the inception and maintenance of things has everything to do with how they unfold and how long they last and how well they serve us. All form grows from energetic seeds; seeds of vibration. But often we are looking only at what is right in front of us and not considering the streams of energy that brought them to us as they are. As my teacher Abraham Hicks says, “Things don’t come out of the blue. They may come out of the oblivious, but they do not come out of the blue.” In other words what is manifested today is a result of energy streams planted long ago that were allowed to flow and grow. Often we are oblivious to the energy seeds we plant and then we act surprised when they sprout in our living room!
In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, we are asked to be gardeners of our mind where inception seeds are planted. We are told we must work at the level of seeds. What does this mean? It means we must become sensitive to the energetic impressions of our choices; they are what plants the seeds. Have you ever cheated someone and later felt dirty and ashamed? That impression of yourself making that fear-based choice is a seed that gets planted in your mind. Have you ever gone out of your way to help someone and later felt sweetly satisfied about it? That impression of yourself making a compassionate choice is a seed planted in your mind. Just as the variety of seeds in a gardener’s collection, these various seeds in our minds will sprout into specific “plants” (manifestations) depending on the quality of the seed. Just as a carrot seed always grows a carrot plant and a corn seed always brings a corn plant. Seeds planted from choices made in fear and the illusion of separation, will sprout into future manifestations of fear and separation (aka pain). And conversely seeds planted from love, unity, compassion, abundance, will sprout into plants that bear similar fruit.
Working at the level of seeds means we are forward focused. Seeds planted long ago that have grown into complex problems would take herculean forces to change; like trying to change the direction of a freight train in motion. There is just so much momentum. Imagine a car at the top of a steep hill. You put it in neutral and push it over the edge. If you got in front of it right away you might be able to stop it. But if you were at the bottom of the hill as it barreled down gaining speed, you would be ineffective in stopping it. It would crush you. Better to work a the level of seeds. Our power lies in the future of our mind garden. A good gardener does not stand in a field of failed plants and yell at them or curse the earth. He tills and fertilizes the soil and decides to choose his seeds more carefully as he moves forward.
Patanjali tells us that “Seeds are planted by the things we do”. Again, the energetic “flavor” of our choices are the seeds we plant. So observing ourselves making choices aligned with our truth, our natural joy, compassion and unity is the best way to plant good seeds. The more good seeds we plant, the less we need to worry about the bad seeds planted by bad choices made in our past. As good seeds accumulate, they overpower the bad seeds, there is no room for the bad seeds to sprout when our garden is flooded with good seeds. But remember, seeds planted today do not bring fruiting plants tomorrow. There is a divine timing here. A good gardener would not demand that his corn seed immediately bring him ears of corn to eat. He puts the seed in fertile soil then lets God do the rest.