Koan #15...

By Vichara

Koan Monday…”The seeds of the past are the fruits of the future”. We have all heard “you have good karma” or “oh, that’s just bad karma”. Buddhism teaches that wherever you are now that is created by our previous choices, creating a sort of cosmic justice. If you have done good things then good things happen and if you have done bad things, well…you know. Take a moment to reflect on the good and bad choices that you made. What can you learn from these previous situations? What seeds have you created and what fruit will they produce in the future? Nobody likes to see weeds growing in their garden so endeavor not to plant these seeds in your garden or anyone else’s garden. Karma is not just something that will take time to effect us it can also be immediate. So be careful of the seeds you produce and keep your “garden” free from weeds.

docile • \DAH-sul\ • adjective
1 : easily taught
2 : easily led or managed

Example Sentence:
"Quite docile and harmless was Billy, and it was pitiful to see how hard he tried to learn, as if groping dimly after the lost knowledge which had cost him so much." (Louisa May Alcott, Little Men)

Did you know?
Docile students can make teaching a lot easier. Nowadays, calling students "docile" indicates they aren't trouble-makers. But there's more than just good behavior connecting docility to teachability. The original meaning of "docile" is more to the point: "readily absorbing something taught." "The docile mind may soon thy precepts know," rendered Ben Jonson, for example, in a 17th-century translation of the Roman poet Horace. "Docile" comes from Latin "docēre," which means "to teach." Other descendants of "docēre" include "doctrine" (which can mean "something that is taught"), "document" (the earliest meaning of which was "instruction"), and "doctor" and "docent" (both of which can refer to college teachers)