Accessible Gardening: #20 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners, 2 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Good Morning All,

Spoke with Wise Cactus the other day and remembered a very, very important teaching he gave me that morning. He has been whispering much for me to learn and share things that have been passed to him; very, very, very ancient knowledge given by his ancestors centuries ago. I transcribed it verbatim exactly as dictated. Hopefully nobody will be upset by the sharing of this tidbit of knowledge Wise Cactus recited to me.

Verse 73: Courage, Patience and Paradoxes

The world we live in
requires great courage and patience.

Those with great courage, but little patience
tend to kill or be killed.

Those with great courage as well as great patience
will tend to survive.

But the Great Integrity never judges you
for whatever path you happen to take.

The Great Integrity never strives
but always fulfills itself,

Never is commanded
but always responds.

Never is summoned
but always appears.

Never is impatient
but all is done on time.

I told Wise Cactus I didn't understand. He said,

"Because there is great misery and conflict in the world we must acquire great courage and patience to survive. If we have courage and patience in order to survive we will ourselves spiritually to learn the Great Integrity. When we acquire courage and patience we may survive (spiritually) BUT regardless of this the world will always generate chaos and misery until all beings acquire the Great Integrity.

Killing or being killed is not necessary physical but spiritual, emotional and mental in this life.
We therefore develop either patience or courage to deal with these 'deaths'.

If we have only courage and lack patience we endanger others and ourselves but whatever means we use to survive the chaos and disorder of life, the Great Integrity does not pass judgment on us because we are all different.
We all utilize whatever mechanism we can to defend against inherited social conditions and wrongs and injustices.
The Great Integrity (and Wise Cactus) does not judge anyone for their choice because blame, guilt, and shame are alien and toxic to the Great Integrity (and Wise Cactus).

We may be able to transform the world but there are always paradoxes that will exists and remain in it.
Only living in the Great Integrity can we transform ourselves, lives, and respond to that around us naturally without being commanded, or coerced into compliance by the situations around us.
We will fulfill our lives and how we are to live naturally according to the Great Integrity. When we are guided. The Great Integrity does respond to summons but He always appears.

We will accomplish all that we need to do in this life and are required to fulfill naturally and with patience instead of the impatience which originates in our being because we are out of harmony with our lives and the processes of life that occur outside our control or generated by others.

We may chose to harmonize our lives by using patience or courage but we can not have others harmonize our lives for us because we want them to. We want the to choose either courage or patience to please us. That is their choice what method they use.
All we can do is order our own lives and selves and allow the Great Integrity to appear. Remember he does."

Hmm....I thought. I asked Wise Cactus why this was "Verse 73" and what ancient text this came from.

"Little Agave it is from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. It has been whispered to us 2,500 years ago. Please look upon it as something like a book of Psalms. There is as much wisdom here as there is in all religious and philosophical books. All teachers have much to say.

"Tao" means Great Integrity, the universal integrity, wholeness and human's (and cacti and agave) holistic way of being as we were designed to be when created.
Verses 1-37 are the Tao...the path; the road leading to integrity and understanding of the universe and how it works in our lives.
Verses 38-81 are Te is Virtue
Ching is Ancient Text.

It is simply a guide book meant to liberate us of our frustrations in regards to our own 'human' (and cacti) nature and understand what we can and can not control in this life and how to progress on our path as only we can individually despite others and their choices and how they impact our lives."

Ahh...I reflected upon much in my life and friend's lives and thanked Wise Cactus for his meditative teaching.


1.) As always Wise Cactus whispering to me.
2.) The semi feral cats that showed up on my back wall to commune and discuss their own lessons from Wise Lion perhaps?
3.) Cotton being ready to be harvested here. They've been working on it steadily. You see big bales of it in the fields and trucks heading to the ginning place not to far from where Dave works.