To the Trees
Just as few birds are able to stay aloft forever, it is difficult for us to remain above thought forever. Eventually, we must land. At some point, not seeing Heron anywhere in the water, I looked up, and there the teacher was, sitting atop a tree that towered over the slow-flowing stream. How I was inspired to look up right at that tree right at that time is a question I cannot answer, but there she was, preening her feathers, just taking care of herself.
Trees reach into the sky, opening up to receive the radiance of the sun—they are built to bask. Basking is their primary function, and in basking, they give immeasurably to all manner of life with shade, with soil security, homes for insects and creatures, and oxygen for all. To humans they also provide fuel and material for building everything from a bridge, to a toy, to a home.
Trees respond to the warmth of the sun, bringing out leaves in season, but unlike Heron, they bask primarily for light, not heat. Trees are that part of our mind that reaches up to understand the highest and most ethereal forms of spiritual truth which offer a way to understand meaning, life, and purpose.
This is a place important for us to spend some time so that we can nourish and provide for the other areas of our life. If we live without any sense of meaning or purpose, contentment and peace will be illusive. With a clear understanding, or even perception of life’s meaning and purpose, Love, no matter where we are or what situation we find ourselves in, we know what to do.
Catching spiritual light, we also come to know a reality that is transcendent of all the problems we face on earth. Love is the essence within all that is, and love’s own wisdom is the order and design that all the universe. This love and wisdom are uncreate and are transcendent of space and time. When love adopts a specific form in the natural universe, with unique characteristics and colors, then that specific form of love necessarily has an eternal life. The soul of each thing is its essential, eternal purpose of love. Each thing reveals some aspect of timeless wisdom.
When we love someone or something with gratitude and a desire to bless, Divine Love finds a new unique form within us with its own wisdom. That form, being of love, comes into eternity. In a sense, therefore, every time we engage in an act of selfless love, we serve as a midwife for the birth of an angel. That angel will forever be with us and aid us forward.
When a person dies, all the forms of love which they have ever participated in or given birth to are collected into whole which adheres seamlessly as one human form, one image and likeness of divine-human love. That is the angel we each become.
With such a worldview, it is impossible to feel completely hopeless. It is impossible to feel useless. It is impossible to feel that life is meaningless.
Different trees have different shaped branches and leaves, representing different ways people reach up and out to know meaning, to access answers to the deepest questions in life. Some reach up straight and tall, straight towards God. Horizontal reach towards others is an afterthought. Such people often gather in faith-communities. They can be prickly with judgment, austerity and a desire for conformity. They are like a grove of pine trees.
Others spread their branches wide, as if to know and understand what lies around them, just as many people gain meaning by seeking to understand and empathize with other people. They want to offer shade and comfort to people who are life-worn and weary. In this lateral effort of love, they also grow tall and receive the wisdom of the sun of love, without necessarily focusing on meaning-making.
Establishing meaning and purpose, either in the heart or in thought, is essential. Heron spends a lot of time in trees during the warmer months. That’s where a bonded pair rears their family.
The Teaching:
Spend time resting your mind on the higher truths that brings
peace, contentment, and joy.
Take care of yourself there.
The Song of Tree
Turn your mind upward, my Child, young to wisdom.
Reach up to know that true Light which nourishes your soul,
Which feeds your spirit with good things.
Dig down into the soil of the past,
Of mistakes and sin,
Of sorrows and pain,
Of love and joy.
It is all the anchor for your resolve and strength
to reach upwards towards Spirit.
Know the truth of your own delusion
that you might grow up out of its soil,
and breathe, and know Light.
Bring forth thoughts that catch Divine Light,
And let these leaves, be the healing to your soul,
The healing of the nations within, and the nations without.
Let the beauty and wisdom of your life give shade to the weary.
Let your branches, your activities, your ambitions,
reach out strong to touch the lives of others, to bless them.
You will be a being of beauty and blessing.
Let yourself bear sweet fruits of loving-kindness and service.
You are stronger than you know,
More beautiful than you know,
More precious than you know.
Let patience be your companion.
Is a tree born from a seed in one day?
In turning upwards towards Spirit, towards Oneness,
Just in existing you breathe life to all that lives.
Your being itself is blessing.
All is good,
All is blessing.
You and I, and all, We are One Tree.
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