"TENDING CAREFULLY INTO BLOOM THE SEEDS OF PRACTICE" – an edited
excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche,
July 2007

Let's say you want to plant a flower. Perhaps you go to the store
and you buy a nice pot, soil mixture, and seeds. You read a garden
book about how much sun and water and protection the plant will need,
and you also study what minerals and other nutrients it needs. So
you do your very best to get everything in order like you should for
a successful outcome: a beautiful flower. Once you've done all of
that at the start, though, do you then just forget about the seeds
you have planted? No, you would want to check regularly the spot
where you planted them to see whether any seedlings had sprouted up
from the soil. And once they had, then you would keep checking back
to see if stronger stems and leaves were growing from those. You
would also wonder occasionally, "Do they need water?" You'd continue
to give them your attention until the plants matured and produced
their beautiful flowers in full bloom. You would pay continuous
attention to those plants from the beginning, wouldn't you? It is
important to do that. But you see, many times in relation to our
practice we don't do that. We learn the practice, then simply do it
mechanically, and forget about tending that seed of practice along to
its full maturity. That is not the right thing to do.

When you are trying to see whether or not a plant is growing from the
seed that was planted, the first question you have to ask is, "Where
do I look?" When we are focused on doing exercises like tsa lung and
nine breathings or many other practices, the most immediate effect is
that we feel physiologically and energetically clearer and more open
right afterward, don't we? Many people say, "I just love tsa lung
practice!" What they are saying is, "I feel great afterward!" That
period right after practice is where they are checking for the seeds
of those practices to sprout. They are not saying, "I love tsa lung
practice and how it is changing the way that I work in my
profession. Every month it is getting better and better. I love my
work now. I love people. I'm very productive. I'm able to do so
much and help so much." No, we just say, "I feel great after
practice," in the same way that we talk about how we feel after a
good workout at the gym. If we only notice the immediate effects,
then we are not really focusing on the area where the plant of our
practice is going to be growing, and we will miss attending to it
properly enough for it to really flower. In real terms, the full
measure of these practices should be the way that you are living your
life. If the practices are not affecting your life in positive ways,
then more attention is needed. Plan for the flower to bloom
completely out in one's life, not just to have a great feeling after
meditation practice.

Focusing in the right direction, then, with regard to practice, is
important for developing fully: "Illumination? Sure, I'm pointed in
that direction, but meanwhile the practices should affect my life
through my being clearer, happier, kinder, and more open and free."
That can be a clear goal. Where do I look for this kind of
manifestation, this flower blooming, in my life? I will see the
flower blooming in the places where it previously had not. Just like
looking into our pot to see if the first shoots are emerging from the
seeds we had planted. If nothing is coming up there, then I add the
right amount of water, give it sunlight, and keep on checking there
until the first seedling comes up through the soil. "Oh wow!
Something is coming up! I need to continuously take care of this
plant as it is growing." One day it blooms into full color.

So, keep this metaphor in mind. Practice in this way and try to do
the best you can. Sometimes you might get a little lazy;
nevertheless, just refocus and then continue. Of course, you'll feel
the immediate beneficial effects of the practices, but you'll also
want to see whether the practices are truly affecting your life in a
real sense. I know we all know about this in a general way, but we
haven't really approached it from this more substantial point of view
because we normally don't pay attention in this way; we don't look at
whether practice is affecting our development in the sense of real-
life issues. It's just not an emphasized aspect of reflection or
conversation. However, I feel that it is very important. It is the
approach I take with my own practice in my own life. Is it clear?