Taking Out The Trash
We all accumulate trash, and we have to dispose of it. In order to dispose of it, we have to be aware of our waste and learn the proper methods of what to do with it. I’ve spent most of my life living abroad, and I’ve seen that many people are not educated about how to deal with rubbish. It adds up in our environment, and we all have to suffer the consequences of our lack of awareness and the absence of proper waste management systems.
In Australia, where I grew up, it is very clean because, as children, we are heavily indoctrinated to dispose of rubbish properly. There are consequences, fines, and laws that enforce that indoctrination. As a result, many children, if they see trash, will pick it up—even if it isn’t theirs. Imagine if we lived in a world where everyone did that. Mother Teresa said, “If everyone would sweep their own doorstep, the world would be clean.”
Now, nations aside, what I’m really talking about here is the mind. It becomes so full of rubbish, day in and day out, accumulating all sorts of nonsense. In your house, you don’t just take the garbage out once; no, it’s a regular occurrence. So it is with our inner landscape. It needs some landscaping; it needs some cleaning. We must learn how to deal with the dirt, how to sweep our front doorstep, how to recognise what is trash and what is treasure, and how to sift and filter the mind. Parts of it may be recycled, some may be general waste, and some may even be green waste that can be used as fertiliser.
That means if you have a spiritual awakening, you’re not done. Just because you have a realisation that sparks you to clean up your house, or an awe-inspiring moment of discernment where you are able to distinguish between what is real and what is false, what is trash and what is treasure, it doesn’t mean the trash won’t sneak back in or build up again. It doesn’t mean leaves and debris won’t collect on your doorstep. That’s not the way it works.
Some people become so aware of what is consumed in the mind that they maintain and clean as they go, like a chef who wipes down the bench after each task, who takes care of things as they arise. This is like someone who hangs the clothes up when they’re done, who tidies by being attentive to the habits that clutter the mind. We all have habits that clutter the mind.
This is why we continually return to ceremony. Not to get high, not to look for visions—but to take out the trash. To refresh and remember to take care of our mind. To clean up our perspective so that we can see ourselves and each other clearly. To clean the whole world by learning to take care of our own doorstep.
Excerpt from Walking the Forest Path: Volume 1, available in early 2025.
