{"id":2450,"date":"2012-01-03T12:21:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T17:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2012-01-03T12:21:51","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T17:21:51","slug":"phosphate-free-dishwashing-detergent-and-post-holiday-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/01\/phosphate-free-dishwashing-detergent-and-post-holiday-clarity.html","title":{"rendered":"phosphate-free dishwashing detergent and post-holiday clarity ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We don’t use phosphates in our dishwasher. They cause algae bloom<\/a>, and lower the oxygen in water, suffocating fish if the bloom is excessive. But their replacements — phosphate-free detergents<\/a> —\u00a0 transform your originally clear and\/or white dishes into cloudy, powder-covered trophies of environmentalism.<\/p>\n

I’m making peace with that. But I had this epiphany today, as I made a blueberry smoothie in the new blender. Trust me, it has to do w\/ beginner’s heart :).<\/p>\n

Pre-holiday, my husband bought me a new blender — breast-cancer pink,\u00a0in honour of my sister’s survivorship. (We were still<\/em> using the blender from our wedding!)\u00a0 The new\u00a0 blender jar\u00a0 is a lovely clear polycarbonate — so clear it’s like looking through mountain air. It almost disappears between the pink lid and the pink base.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m washing it in the sink, right after emptying the dishwasher of the phosphate-deprived glassware, each piece clouded and fogged w\/ powdery residue. And I stop, as the whole Buddha-in-the-dishes realisation hits me. I know, it’s obvious. But somehow, seeing the crystal clear blender makes it real, tangible: with the accretions of life in the fast lane, too much work, and not enough outside breathing, I’ve become clouded.\u00a0 The holidays, w\/ their Amazon wish lists and lengthy to-do notes and laundry and dishes and cooking and wrapping and mindlessness have only exacerbated it all. Like the glasses given to me — once transparent, now pitted and fogged with salts — I’m dimmer and far less clear.<\/p>\n

So I’m trying to figure out what the environmentally correct spiritual equivalent of phosphates is.\"\"<\/a> There’s a Tibetan parable, about a stone picked up by a monk. He shows it to his student, then dips it in water. For a moment the stone’s colours bloom: mica and garnet in the metamorphosed schist. But as the water evaporates, the stone dulls, and returns to dull grey. Maybe all I need is something as ordinary as water. As gentle, as powerful. Something to bring me back to my original nature. Like the breath, followed to its resting place :). Or the contemporary koan of a blender jar, phosphates, and our inner Buddha nature…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t use phosphates in our dishwasher. They cause algae bloom, and lower the oxygen in water, suffocating fish if the bloom is excessive. But their replacements — phosphate-free detergents —\u00a0 transform your originally clear and\/or white dishes into cloudy, powder-covered trophies of environmentalism. I’m making peace with that. But I had this epiphany today,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17,1],"tags":[11,1181,257,1187,255,1245,1198],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britton-gildersleeve","category-buddhism","category-uncategorized","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddha-nature","tag-buddhism","tag-following-the-breath","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\nphosphate-free dishwashing detergent and post-holiday clarity ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We don't use phosphates in our dishwasher. They cause algae bloom, and lower the oxygen in water, suffocating fish if the bloom is excessive. 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