Growing Orchids Starts with Cultivating the Mind: A Treasury of Orchid Care Insights
OrchidsGrowing insights:Growing orchidsstarts with cultivating the mind (Repost)
Recently, browsing the major orchid exchange forums, I found that all kinds of flame-war posts triggered by interests, likes and dislikes, and gains and losses were everywhere, which made my own mood become very restless, quite a bit removed from my original intention when I first started growing orchids, and I felt deeply confused and hesitant.
Today, on duty at work, I dug out a few magazines and books from when I had just started learning to grow orchids, and casually flipped to some reflections I had handwritten on them. Scenes from many years ago surfaced before my eyes again, and the knot that had been troubling me for many days suddenly came untied: in the end, for all these years I had only been thinking about how to improve my orchid-growing techniques, but had forgotten to cultivate my own state of mind. How could this not be like practicing qigong and going astray and suffering qigong deviation?
The Sixth Patriarch Huineng's enlightenment verse: Bodhi is fundamentally no tree, and the bright mirror is also not a stand; fundamentally there is not a single thing, so where can dust cling? Orchids originally grow in mountain valleys and forests. Humans created orchid culture centered on petal-type theory, endowed them with a heavy cultural character, and handed down so many timeless lines using flowers to express aspiration. Although we do not possess the Buddhist roots of wisdom, we can absolutely do our best to maintain an ordinary mind and let growing orchids become our own process of Zen contemplation and awakening.
Treat the turbulence of the orchid market with equanimity. Everyone calls themselves orchid growers, everyone aims to cultivate themselves through growing orchids, and no one is willing to hang "getting rich from orchids" on their lips every day. Little do they realize how few people, when they first started growing orchids, were not motivated by both a hobby and a recognition of the orchidflower'seconomic attributes, except that some dare to admit it and some do not. When the orchid market went crazy, everyone rushed in, and a large group of people made money; when the orchid market crashed, an even larger group of people suffered heavy losses, and some even lost their entire fortunes, so the whole society cursed orchids loudly. Everyone might as well look back and think: was anyone ever holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy flowers and grow orchids? It was all voluntary, only the starting points and original intentions differed. So please put down these arguments over gains and losses, and look back on your own original intention for growing orchids; I believe everyone will feel much more at ease. It can be said that it is not the orchids that are moving, nor the orchid market that is moving, but our minds that are moving. I will not make a living by selling orchids; it is merely a hobby for me. Let the orchid market surge and storm as it will, what has that to do with me?
Treat success and failure in growing orchids with equanimity. Who among orchid growers can guarantee that they have never once killed an orchid, that every leaf on every pot is perfectly tipped, and that every root has a crystal tip? So do not be too confident and complacent about your own level. Cultivating orchids is a field of learning, a profound mystery that every orchid lover contemplates for a lifetime. Where there is success, there is bound to be failure. Doing well with one pot does not mean you do well with every pot. When I post online, I also pick the ones I think are well grown to show off, and basically keep the poorly grown ones hidden from view. At the same time, when you encounter failure in growing orchids, you must never see through the vanity of the world, cry out that growing orchids is hard, and even abandon orchids and walk away. Instead, you should make a comprehensive analysis and consideration of your own growing environment, the source of your seedlings, your growing habits, and whether you have been one-sided in listening or stubbornly biased, and correct one problem each time you find one. When next year this problem is truly solved, and you watch your beloved orchids send up new shoots and bloom, you will find how intensely your sense of achievement and happiness arrives.
Treat exchanges among orchid friends with equanimity. When people number a hundred, they come in all shapes and colors; when people number a thousand, every type is present. Even a dragon's nine sons each have their own peculiar gifts, let alone this great army of orchid friends from all corners of the world, from different regions and different backgrounds. The internet is a double-edged sword. It builds a platform for orchid friends to exchange and learn, constantly adds fresh blood to the ranks of orchid lovers, and promotes the flourishing of orchid culture. But precisely because of the illusory nature of the internet, some remarks that people usually dare not speak or say will naturally pop out. It may be human nature, or it may be a momentary impulse like blurting things out after drinking (I have done this myself). Thus arguments over differing views are unavoidable, and in the end they turn into a smoke-filled battlefield of flame wars. If everyone could understand: we are all people of common ground with a shared hobby of growing and cultivating orchids, coming together is a kind of destiny, and all maintain a kind of grace and restraint, how harmonious the forums would be. Mencius said: “There are things one does not do, and only then can one do things”. My understanding of “not doing” can be letting go, being willing to give up, and daring to yield. But if some scoundrels who do not love orchids at all and care only for money stir up trouble and sow discord among us, then that is no longer an internal contradiction among orchid friends, but has risen to the level of a major matter of principle. I believe everyone will “do what should be done”, rise up together to attack them, and take pleasure in driving them into the eighteenth level of hell.
Treat growing orchids and life with equanimity. In this world, above there are parents, below there are children, and in between there is a spouse and relatives and friends. I must always keep firmly in mind my social attribute: responsibility. Whether one lives in primitive society, feudal society, capitalist society, socialist society, or the future communist society, this is an unchanging basic moral requirement of what makes a person human, and one must find a balance between life and growing orchids. Therefore, we may treat growing orchids as a lifelong hobby and a way of cultivating ourselves, but we must never invest in orchids and speculate on orchids to the point of losing our entire fortune. There are many such lessons, so there is no need to say more.
Always cherish a peaceful and ordinary mind. Whether you are a tycoon in the orchid world or a novice like me, if you can be an ordinary person, handle ordinary matters, and speak ordinary words, then you possess a healthy state of mind. Otherwise, with too heavy a mind and without a peaceful attitude toward things, burdened by fame and deluded by desire, you will live very tiringly.