Our environment is a reflection of our mind. We are born into a certain environment due to the karma that we created in a previous life. The Buddhist teachings talk about the environmental result of various actions, so we can see that our environment is related to our actions, which come from the mind. How we relate to our present environment also comes from our minds. For example, you can visualise snowflakes as many Chenrezigs or Guanyin Bodhisattvas falling all around you, then dissolving into you, and you become blissful and compassionate like Chenrezig. Or your mind can say, “Argh, I don’t like snow.” Whichever way you think and how you feel as a result of that is completely up to you. Snow does not exist as being inherently awful or inherently beautiful. We experience it according to how our mind interprets it.

The way in which we care for our environment is also a reflection of our minds. For example, once a friend showed me her room. It was completely immaculate — there was completely no clutter, nothing at all. Then, when she had to take something out of a drawer, the drawer was jammed full of stuff! Some of us are like that — we appear tidy externally while internally there is a mess that we need to clean up. For others, their whole environment is a mess. Clothes are everywhere, the floor is dirty, the furniture is dusty, and dishes are piled up in the sink. That too is a reflection of our mind. How much we care about the environment we live in, shows how much we care about the people we live with too. Do we help them live in a pleasant place?

It is important for us to take care of the environment as a symbol of our state of mind. Since we practise compassion, we need to keep the environment around us clean as an offering to all the people with whom we live with. Be aware of your compassionate intention as you move through the day. How do you relate to the environment? How do you relate to the sentient beings in it? Do you expect others to clean up after you? You may not care if your mess is there, but is it kind to leave it there for others to stumble over?

Similarly, take care of your mind. Develop a sense of gratitude for the possessions that you have. Be grateful for all the sentient beings in so many different countries who made the things you have and use. Feel kindness towards those who gave them to you, and then show that kindness in how you speak to others and how you care for our common environment. Treat things well as a practice of mindfulness and compassion. The more you can imagine the environment as a pure land and make it one, the more you create the karmic cause to be reborn in a pure land. Our environment, our mind, our karma — all these things are related to one another.

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