In My Aunt’s Garden (Adam, Eve & A Snake)

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So, in coronavirus lockdown, we had to drop off some essential groceries to my octogenarian aunt, who lives alone and is not supposed to leave her house.

Happily, it was a gorgeous afternoon, so the delivery took place in her rather marvelous garden.

In the sunshine, pleasantries were exchanged; social distancing was applied.

These flowers caught my eye as we chatted.

Two pretty flowers, and a snake-like Australian orchid of some type getting between them, recreate a very old biblical story where good things go badly wrong …

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P.S: To any Australian readers, I am not insinuating anything!

P.P.S: I’m so glad we don’t have any real snakes in New Zealand! They creep me out…

 

 

 

Zen Gate At The Snake Temple

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 Gate At The Snake Temple, Penang, Malaysia

“In Zen they say: “Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions”. What does that mean? Let go of identifications with your mind. Who you are beyond the mind then emerges by itself “.

– Eckhart Tolle, from ‘A New Earth’.

We love our opinions and our right to have them .

To hang on to them, defend them, fight others over theirs.

We sometimes identify with our opinions, forgetting that they are not actually us.

I think of opinions I have held strongly, then later discarded.Who I am didn’t actually change.`

Some thoughts and opinions I have are kind and beautiful; others, like the snakes who inhabit the Buddhist temple where I took this photo, are just a bit twisted and scary!