Pat Lee
By Wade Wilson
Pat Lee was my friend. He was one of the first people I met when I started coming to the Fredericton Shambhala Meditation Center five or six years ago. Right away I knew Pat was a good guy and that this was a good place to be.
Recently at Pat’s “Departure Ceremony”, I smiled when I read his quote in the printed hand-out. “Shambhala opened other facets of my life, among other things I learned to love mowing lawns.”
A few years ago I noticed Pat’s old van was at the Center almost every time I showed up for the Wednesday Night Open House. He was always working in the garden and I would say hello and have a little chat with him before heading inside. I started arriving early, just to have those little chats and was disappointed if Pat wasn’t there.
One day I asked him if he needed any help and he said I could mow the lawn if I had time and felt like it. So the next day I rode my bicycle out to Serenity Lane and cut the grass. I had several decades experience pushing lawn-mowers and always looked at it as a chore. The first few times I mowed at the Center, I figured I was helping Pat out and doing a little volunteer work. But as it turned out, he was helping me.
One evening, sitting on lawn chairs behind the shed, Pat told me that gardening and mowing had become part of his practise. It was a way to contribute to the community, but it also could be a spiritual experience. He said he practised walking meditation while mowing the lawn and an otherwise mundane task became a joyful experience. He suggested that I be more mindful of the present moment, observe my physical and mental feelings and recognize when my mind began to wander and bring it back to this time and this place.
I made an effort to follow Pat’s instructions and lawn mowing took on an entire new meaning for me. A few weeks later, I confided in Pat that although I appreciated the Shambhala community and the opportunity to practise meditation in a group setting, I was really a “closet Hare Krishna”. Pat got a big kick out of that and suggested I try chanting the Maha Mantra while mowing the lawn.
A week or so later I came to the Center and Pat was working, I mean practising in the garden. So I fired up the mower and began to cut the grass, all the time chanting like a madman: “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.”
As I pushed the mower past the garden, Pat looked up, flashed that great smile of his and gave me the thumbs up! Now I chant aloud or to myself when I wash the dishes, scrub the floors, fold the laundry, walk the dog and many other ordinary little every day activities.
This past summer Pat’s illness prevented him from spending as much time as he would have liked in the garden. He was concerned about the lawn and the garden at the Fredericton Shambhala Meditation Center. I told him to focus on his health and the grass would get cut and the garden would be looked after. Cutting the grass was the easy part but it soon became apparent that none of us would ever be the gardener that Pat was.
We are all going to miss Pat and his recent departure from this material world got me thinking about:
The Buddha’s Five Remembrances
- I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
- I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.
- I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
- All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
- My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.
Pat lived life to the fullest and stood on solid ground. He got things done and he embodied the Buddha’s fifth remembrance.
I hope when this long New Brunswick winter comes to an end, our Shambhala community can come together, get out in Pat’s garden and carry on his work, whoops – I mean practise!
Pat Lee was my friend. He taught me how to mow the lawn.
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