Backyard Zen

Throughout my life I have found peace most commonly in the back yards of the homes I have lived in. I remember my grandparents house in Tucson. What a yard! Picture this: two ancient olive trees grown together. They litter the front driveway with pungent black fruit. Their branches smooth and wide. You can climb up to the roof if you’re brave enough and even over to the other tree. In the back, a sprawling garden, jasmine, sugar snap-peas, a lemon tree spliced with an orange tree whose fruit is lemony sweet and delicious, slugs and geckoes and cooing turtledoves. In my grandparent's garden I had the privilege to spend idle time in nature. To rest and play outside.

It is no coincidence that the Buddha’s first recollections of deep meditative peace occurred outside the walls of the palace he grew up in. The natural world is a site of constant practice. The ten thousand things of the natural world are constant reminders to wake up. If you are lucky enough to have one, backyards can be an amazing resource for contemplative practice and waking up. Like many before me, I have found spending time outdoors and in particular in my backyard garden to be tremendous aid for practice.

If you do have access to some private outdoor space, even as much as a patio or porch, try making some time for explicitly outdoors mindfulness practice. Meditate on a lawn chair with your morning coffee. When you water your lawn or garden, follow your breath and pay attention to the moment. These everyday outdoor chores can be great mindfulness practices for house holders. If you have the space and want to go a step further, try and create a comfortable place for outdoor sitting. It doesn’t have to be a full on shrine or anything, heck, it could even be a tree in a nearby park you’ve scoped out as particular comfortable to sit beside. The important thing is that you’ve picked it out and you can make a point of visiting when you can.

Of course back yards are an immense privilege. A byproduct of private property. A legal boundary that can be traced back to anglo Saxon law. A luxury our economy does not dole out fairly, not even close. Of course back yards are not the only (or even the best) way to forge a relationship with the wild. For the city bound think of parks and long walks, camping trips and hiking. When we see people who sleep outside or who have made temporary homes for themselves, can we see them as not seperate from nature, as brothers and sisters who belong.

As much as backyards are a byproduct of a surveyors grid and our societies deep and racialized inequality, they are also a shared place, a site where we can meet other living beings, human and non-human. Bird baths and bird feeders are one way to invite the non-human into our lives. Gardening a great way to befriend plants and bugs. These non human companions are dharma gates for those with the curiosity to sit with them.

Mindfulness and meditation outside have an open and creative aspect that can bring new life and energy to our cushion. When is the last time you sat outside? We talk about metta this and jhana that, but have you ever meditated on the scent of oranges? Looked up at the skyopening into infinite space and let body and mine fall away? Sitting in the shade of a tree, try breathing into bark and soil. Celebrate the immediacy of the nature world, and the distinctivity qualities it can bring to practice.

Let’s turn our backyards into spaces of communion and contemplation. I say, more art, more backyard projects, more time with the bluejays and carindals. More meals eaten in half light of dusk, and more time on the porch watching the world go by. More backyard zen!