The Hidden Life of Trees

[cheya]

Check out this fascinating and beautiful review of Peter Wohlleben's book!

Just the review is amazing! Can't wait to read the book!

 

_{The Secret Life of Trees: The Astonishing Science of What Trees Feel and How They Communicate}

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/26/the-hidden-life-of-trees-peter-wohlleben/

[AussieTrees]

Hi cheya,

 

Thankyou for your posting,sounds like an interesting read,will try and get a copy.

 

Recently had to chainsaw about twelve trees from around the house as they were to close.

Missed the house every time one dropped,our golden ash was not so lucky,it was badly smashed,so we cut it off at ground level,pretty sure it will send up new shoots next spring,few trees die after harvesting most regrow.All the same,there is a need to practice detachment,many of the trees have been grown from seed at home,so there is an emotional attachment.

We plan to one day get a wood burning heater,and use the these trees as firewood.

 

A lot of our trees we planted over twenty years ago,as they are now maturing a bit,yes they do communicate,it is still a work in progress,past few weeks on holiday soaking in it all has been great,energy plus,and healing both physical and psychological.

 

Still lots more to learn about the way of the tree.

Best wishes juls.

[Gerard]

I will share my experiences with this amazing sentient beings when next time I use my laptop as it's awkward using a smart phone. In the meantime:

 

"Herein, monks, a monk who has gone to the forest, or to the foot of a tree, or to an empty place, sits down cross legged, holding his back erect, arousing mindfulness in front of him.

 

Also there is more to a tree than it meets the eye.

 

Trees are an essential aspect of practice. Without them your progress in this path will be very limiting.

 

Thanks cheya friend

 

 

Note: hurting a tree in any way brings about very bad karma. Not just trees but the entire natural environment, ie Iceland and elves:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/25/iceland-construction-respect-elves-or-else

 

I recently watched a documentary about Simon Reeves and Ireland and how he was talking to an environmentalist group which was trying to save a small bush from being removed from a highway road work. They said it could bring catastrophe as fairies were inhabiting it. In the end the engineers left the bush alone heeding the advice of the greenies. Lovely story!

Edited May 2, 2017 by Gerard

[Gerard]

Aussie trees, not good sorry you should have left those trees alone.

[words]

Trees are indeed wonderful. Every forest is an enchanted forest. 

 

I'd recommend anyone to befriend a tree. All it requires is love for the tree and openness. Once a connection through that opening is established, just sit by your tree friend and ask it to teach you. Their teaching is subtle and yet very clear, like a silent smile felt through the phone. They find the simplest and most clear metaphors to convey the indescribable. they're also wonderful silence companions. 

 

And you know that once you had a dog, you understand all dogs. once you had a cat, you understand cats. same with the trees. going in the forest after you've befriended a tree is a whole new experience than it used to be before.

[AussieTrees]

Aussie trees, not good sorry you should have left those trees alone.

Hi Gerard,

 

Thanks for your comments,and for caring for trees.

Our love of trees is equal to your own.

 

We plant trees,cute trees,home grown,as there were no trees on our land,no wind break,no birdlife,no fauna at all.

The timber house was recycled and relocated into a hay paddock.

The ancient trees had already been cut long before I existed,this was sad.

 

We planted and planted trees,watching them grow,watering them,nurturing them,mowing grass from around them,until today the trees are big,guessing some would be 50-60 feet tall with tons of wood.Our only mistake was to plant them so close to the house.

 

We now live within a forest,many birds and bird nests,possums and other native animals also have found a home,and we all live in peace,the older the trees become the more they communicate,they are truely magical beings.

 

Every year we spend many hours raking leaves and debri,burning off in preparation for the fire season.This is an enormous task,the trees replenish my energy as I rake and toil,it can be the most profound activity/mediation.

 

As it is our house will burn to the ground if subjected to a summer fire.

In the process we burn tons and tons of rubble,the native trees are very flammable,they have a volatile oil content that burns readily,the leaves also collect just as abundantly in the roof and guttering.

 

Maintenance and safety has required that some trees had to be removed,reluctantly this has happened,and as the trees grow bigger and bigger,more trees will have to be removed.

 

At some point in the future we will thank these trees for providing us with warmth during the winters.

It is the most primitive practice of any society,we are no different.

 

Tree removal is a sad act,always done reluctantly with a tears in ones eyes and soul.

That just the way it is.

[AussieTrees]

http://yoganonymous.com/tree-hugging-scientifically-validated-natural-healing

[Stosh]

Trees never lie until they fall

[cold]

Cryptomeria japonica or Sugi is widely grown in China as both an ornamental and for forest product(s). As the name implies it is a native of japan but as wickepedia states "Sugi has been cultivated in China so long that it is frequently thought to be native there".

It can reach a height of 230 feet and 13 feet in diameter.

The Japanese have employed the practice of coppicing Sugi for the harvest of timber for centuries.

[Stosh]

Cryptomeria japonica or Sugi is widely grown in China as both an ornamental and for forest product(s). As the name implies it is a native of japan but as wickepedia states "Sugi has been cultivated in China so long that it is frequently thought to be native there".

It can reach a height of 230 feet and 13 feet in diameter.

The Japanese have employed the practice of coppicing Sugi for the harvest of timber for centuries.

Thats really a good idea , ,very sustainable, you never have to strip the area, and the wood doesnt have to be cut so much to get it to size.

[Gerard]

cold,

 

And where is the wisdom in your words?

 

Look what the Japanese have become for offending the forest for so long. One of the most deluded, industrialised, depressed and stressed nations in the world.

[Taomeow]

Let me tell you another ayahuasca story, which of course you are free to believe or not.

 

At one point, She asked me, "do you want me to, as they say where you're from, 'expand your consciousness'?" She has this wicked sense of humor, and couldn't just let the triteness of this cliche slide -- so She said it, not in a pompous way assorted self-appointed gurus say it, but in a way that made me question the whole idea.  Are you sure you know what "expand" means, it implied.  What "your" means?  What "consciousness" really is?..  That was pretty much characteristic of all our exchanges -- She made me examine under the microscope every notion I ever had...  But, OK, She was still waiting for an answer, and I got it that She got it that there was much irony to the question.  Still, I said "yes."  

 

She then asked, "how far?"  "I don't know...  what are my options?"  She said, "as far as it can go in the universe is one.  This whole planet, another.  Or just to the edges of this forest."  I didn't have to think about it, I knew by then that I should always ask Her for less or it will always be too much.  "To the edges of this forest," I said.  She immediately connected me to everything in the mighty rain forest of the Amazon.  

 

The punch line?  Turned out it didn't matter if I said "this whole planet" or "as far as it can go in the universe," it turned out to be the same thing.  The forest is connected to everything else.  There's so many methods of communication -- underground roots great and small and never-ending, waterways, animals and birds and insects and microbes and aquatic creatures, voices, seeds, assorted fields of electrochemical impulses, enzymes and thermal signals and visible and invisible light and fields I couldn't identify but could perceive in that state, pheromones, biochemical sports (sic) -- sometimes bordering on warfare, but with rules of engagement carefully observed (the rule is, live and let live -- only let die when it doesn't disrupt the overall chain of life, in fact, only when it is impossible to maintain the chain of life without something dying when it's its turn) --

 

but above all it's communication going on nonstop, it's like a superinternet...  everything in communication with everything, and ayahuaska provides a kind of DNA-based wifi that reaches as far as life itself -- all of the planet and all of the galaxy and possibly all planets and galaxies in the whole wide multiverse.  The information goes everywhere.  Everywhere there's life, or was or will be, everybody knows what we're up to.  Everybody knows how we treated our forests.  It's broadcasted far and wide -- beyond space and time -- into eternity.

 

So that sage who said, "think as though your every thought is written in fire in the sky for everyone to see, because in reality, it is" was not wrong.  I would only add, "act as though your every action..."

Edited May 4, 2017 by Taomeow

[cold]

Gerard,

 

You ask the wisdom in my words?

 

Hmm... first and foremost I was not judging the customs of another culture...

 

I was offering a ray of hope to Aussie Trees who wrote: "pretty sure it will send up new shoots next spring,"

 

My profession / vocation is agriculture (the cultivation of plants primarily for food is my main employment).

 

Some people not all by any means believe that farming was:

Created by women.

Is the basis for civilization.

Modern or chemical agriculture is safe.

 

Slash and burn was a technique was / is a take off on wild fires. Thunder hit a tree brush etc. a fire started and the soil was renewed.

 

Being a bit judgmental here now all that's natural is not always pleasing, but that's just my bias showing.

[Gerard]

Yes dear Taomeow, it is how things really are. Everything is interconnected and we all are containers of the whole

 

The more we advance in the path the more we realise YOU and I are the same. There is no difference really, only the way we experience/view reality.

 

As Rumi wisely said:

 

You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the mighty ocean in the drop.

 

Cold friend,

 

Humans interfering with Nature to their own interest is unacceptable but it has always happened unfortunately especially since it left behind the agricultural systemI. This humble man has been approached few times while meditating by nature spirits asking/begging me to fellow humans stop harming trees and altering Earth's network of lay lines as a result of road work...same goes with mining, blowing up hills for construction reasons, building huge dams altering the course of rivers and causing geographical changes, and so many other environmental offences. Every time this happens I am almost in tears because I cannot go to the authorities to report this problem:

 

1. First they wouldn't care

2. Secondly I would be put under psychiatric care

 

Trees are wonderful and very gentle beings that scream when harmed in any form.

 

Thanks for reading this

Edited May 4, 2017 by Gerard

[gendao]

On 5/4/2017 at 5:31 PM, Gerard said:

Yes dear Taomeow, it is how things really are. Everything is interconnected and we all are containers of the whole

 

This humble man has been approached few times while meditating by nature spirits asking/begging me to fellow humans stop harming trees and altering Earth's network of lay lines as a result of road work...same goes with mining, blowing up hills for construction reasons, building huge dams altering the course of rivers and causing geographical changes, and so many other environmental offences. Every time this happens I am almost in tears because I cannot go to the authorities to report this problem:

Yup, that's why I said WEIRD overpopulation is the problem...because look what it is constantly causing:

Quote

Wildlife-rich lagoon heavily polluted, threatened by building boom

 

The most biologically diverse waterway in America is seriously ill.

 

The Indian River Lagoon is repeatedly being choked by oxygen-robbing algae, its surface increasingly dotted with thousands of dead fish, manatees, birds and other creatures — and a study by the Associated Press discovered that the problem is getting worse.

 

The culprits: farm runoff and an influx of people that have sent lawn fertilizer and other pollutants into the lagoon, which runs 156 miles along Florida’s Atlantic Coast. Environmentalists are distressed to see the lagoon’s rich variety of life threatened, as wildlife was in the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico.

 

“It’s the death by a thousand cuts,” said Bob Knight, an environmental scientist with the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute who has studied Florida’s waters for 40 years.

 

Since 2000, more than 1.5 million people moved into the six counties along the lagoon and three Orlando-area counties that drain into Lake Okeechobee or directly into the lagoon. Roads, driveways and parking lots have allowed runoff to make its way into the lagoon more easily, but the waterway has also been harmed by discharge from wastewater treatment plants.

 

The lagoon’s ongoing woes threaten the region’s $2.5 billion recreation, fishing and tourism economy.

And yet, not only do WEIRD Baby Boomers religiously DENY that this is THE PROBLEM...they actually pretend that the only real solution (any reduction in our population & lifestyles) is an absolutely dire, "huge sex problem/fertility crisis/demographic time bomb/economy shrinker"...LMFAO!!!  Without even a SINGLE mention of ANY positive effects!

Quote

Japan's huge sex problem just hit a 67-year low

 

Ever since 1950 when Japan began tracking its population of children, the number has never been as low as it is today.

 

New data from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry finds the population shrank by 170,000 kids from this time last year, to a new low of 15.71 million, The Japan Times reports.

 

This is the 36th consecutive year the population has dropped.

 

Japan's fertility crisis has been many years in the making. As older generations start to die off without younger generations starting families behind them, economists say Japan shows all the signs of a "demographic time bomb."

 

Without any intervention, Japan's economy will only continue to shrink.

 

"We will continue to put efforts into support for child-rearing," welfare minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki told The Japan Times in December of last year.

 

Japan's fertility rate is among the lowest in the world, at just 1.4 births per woman. Sociologists have found populations stay steady when a country has at least 2.1 births per woman. Beneath that threshold, and countries are likely to see their populations start to decline, which Japan has.

 

The trend has also led to another record-low, according to the new data: Japan's ratio of children to the rest of the population is just 12.4%. That marks the 43rd straight year of declines and places Japan's ratio at the very bottom of countries with 40 million people or more.

 

Other countries do face similar problems, including the US, Denmark, China, and Singapore — with fertility rates of 1.87, 1.73, 1.6, and 0.81, respectively — although Japan's case may be the most severe.

 

A 2016 study conducted by a Japanese research firm found that nearly 70% of unmarried Japanese men and 60% of unmarried Japanese women weren't in relationships. This is despite most people claiming they do want to get married eventually.

 

Japan has gone to some great lengths to boost its fertility rate to the goal of 1.8 births per woman by 2025, as set by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

 

For instance, the country is letting men play with dolls to get accustomed to fatherhood. And the government is organizing speed-dating events to help young people meet.

 

In the meantime, the time bomb has forced Japan to recognize the importance of innovation more than ever — specifically, with robotics technology. Without strapping youngsters to do the work, machines may be the next best thing.

Like how...this is actually the GREATEST thing EVER for the rest of our planet?

 

Seriously, WEIRD humans have got to be the shitt*est neighbors on this Earth!

Edited June 27, 2017 by gendao

[Kar3n]

gendao, where do you live? 

 

Do you have a carbon footprint on the planet?

 

You really believe that there are not other bums who love trees and our earth?

 

Are you investing you in saving the world's eco-culture, in your own community and beyond?

 

How many plants and animals do you serve on a daily basis?

 

It is easy to quote text and post pics...

 

What are you doing on a daily basis to help your local community? Or is it just an internet agenda?

 

I am only asking for curiosity's sake.

 

I can not be the only one who wants to save the world and does rather than spout words on an internet forum about how horrible people are.

[gendao]

^ Well, self-education and spreading awareness is a huge first step.  I've been learning about plants for at least ~5 years now, and still find new ones out in the wild every few days.  So, this process takes TIME and is infinite because Nature is...soooo infinite!  The learning curve just never ends!

 

In fact, I suspect the learning curve may be more like this:

Than this:

But, I've also already progressively taken some small steps in realspace too.  Mostly, these are personal lifestyle changes - with a little action in public areas too.
 
Like, I conserve and compost everything I can.
Simply pissing in a bottle saves gallons of water with every avoided flush and can be used as fertilizer elsewhere (win-win).
I obviously don't buy any invasive plants or use toxic chemicals for gardening, either.
I've helped to permaculture and cut down invasive trees in public greenspaces.
I've reseeded and grown seedlings from desirable, mostly native trees/plants to replant elsewhere.

I helped landscape a residential complex using mostly native and edible plants (rather than the "useless," invasive industry standards).
I have even provided input to local public park developers (although I believe my "permaculture" ideas were basically dismissed as "too radical").
 
In short, I try to conserve, preserve, and spread the "good"...while preventing and removing more of the "bad."  But again, just to be able to distinguish the 2 takes a long time.  You have to first learn which plants are native and which ones are invasive foreigners, and then be able to ID them out in the wild - before you can even do anything about them!
 
So, it's not that much yet, but if everyone did a little of this - the net positive change would be measurable.

I can not be the only one who wants to save the world and does rather than spout words on an internet forum about how horrible people are.

What does everyone else here do?
 
 
Right now though, the battle is still in the early, ideological stage.  Thought informs and precedes action.  And my views are still totally contrarian to the mainstream dogma (often even repeated here) that denies WEIRD lifestyles/population are the problem, but only free carbon is.  And that in fact, any population reduction is an ALARMING crisis! 
 
Whereas I am countering that WEIRD lifestyles/population ARE the problem and deforestation is a secondary, devastating one to that.  Of which free carbon might then be a tertiary effect of THAT...  So, any population reduction would actually be GOOD for the planet - on multiple levels.

 

Where "carbon" is basically just used as a palatable proxy for "WEIRD people" because we don't really want to directly incriminate ourselves!

Edited May 5, 2017 by gendao

[Taomeow]

I can not be the only one who wants to save the world and does rather than spout words on an internet forum about how horrible people are.

 

You are not the only one.

 

I saved my first tree when I just turned four.  In spring, they planted young poplar saplings in a tiny park next to where I lived, and some idiot with a knife attempted to cut one of them down for purposes unknown, not finishing the job however and leaving a huge gaping wound on the trunk, low enough for me to reach.  The wound oozed dark poplar blood.  The leaves and branches  were going lifeless.  I resolved to try healing the tree.  I got all the medications that I was familiar with from scraping my own knees or elbows, and applied them to the wound -- sterilized it (this discouraged countless little gnats interested in the sap), liberally applied fresh plantain leaves (I would still do it today for my own scraped knee -- perfect healing herb), and then bandaged the trunk with gauze.  Every day, when they brought me home from kindergarten, I would check on the tree, change the dressing on the wound, change the bandage.  I think I was at it for about a month.  

 

One of the biggest thrills was to visit the neighborhood some fifteen years later, after I'd lived elsewhere, and remember that tree and go check on it.  It was now a magnificent, mighty poplar, home to many cheerfully chirping birds, different from all its slender neighbors only in that way high above my head, there was a big bump on the trunk, a scar from that near-lethal wound it had survived with my help.  It felt so good to stand there talking to that tree.

 

 

 

[Kar3n]

You are not the only one.

...

 

It felt so good to stand there talking to that tree.

Thank you.

 

Your loving kindness has moved me to tears.

 

Deep bow and eternal love. 

[Taomeow]

And love to you too, Karen! 

[Gerard]

The chopping down of the massive Amazonian tree can be felt on the four corners of Gaia. It is very sad to see that.

 

Maybe the final image of the Kaiapó child shows some hope for the future because the elder seemed very concerned to me.

 

But is there really hope?

 

How about our Water?

 

We all carry plastic in our bodies.

 

Harm Gaia and you will be harming yourself.

 

Time will tell. 

Edited May 6, 2017 by Gerard

[No One]

From my intel, trees about the size of a person and larger are 'houses' for spirits.

 

Monks in need of timber would request permission from the spirit if they wanted to use the tree and would only cut one down if the spirit agreed and left the tree a few days beforehand.

[Geof Nanto]

[Gerard]

Monks in need of timber would request permission from the spirit....

Only one spirit?

 

I doubt the entire forest will grant permission to chop down a tree for personal reasons/profit/ignorance/etc.

 

Leave them alone, they are wonderful and highly sensitive beings which nourish all livings beings in Gaia.

 

FYI your liver is also a *highly sensitive organ as it is the seat of our emotions.

 

You harm a tree you are harming your liver, your heart, spleen, lung and kidney in that order.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Gerard

[AussieTrees]

Only one spirit?

I doubt the entire forest will grant permission to chop down a tree for personal reasons/profit/ignorance/etc.

Leave them alone, they are wonderful and highly sensitive beings which nourish all livings beings in Gaia.

FYI your liver is also a *highly sensitive organ as it is the seat of our emotions.

You harm a tree you are harming your liver, your heart, spleen, lung and kidney in that order.

Hi Gerard,

 

Plantation trees are grown world wide to use for many wooden products.

This is a renewable energy source that has been in use since discovering fire.

Warm house timber floor,wood fireplace,dugout canoe so many things.

The old growth forest never been cut are rare,some old regrow the forest,these should be protected.

Sadly in Victoria we still harvest pristine environments despite protests.