My fellow trees

[hagar]

Ahh, yesterday I laid down and took a nap under my favourite birch tree in the autum sun with my son.

 

When I laid down, I was exhausted and had an oncoming flu.

 

As I woke up abit later, a sweet calm had entered me. Lying there looking at the leaves, I felt refreshed and at at ease. Then it dawned on me that my tonsils were no longer hurting, and all signs of the flu were gone.

 

I thanked the tree, and thought what wonderful creatures they are.

 

A healer I once knew told me that it's good to stand underneath birch trees.

 

What's your experience with trees?

[rain]

Boomboom heart. My absoulute favourite place on earht is underneath a giant old birch tree on the island at the coast. I have a "chair" that I climb into, and under the branches above the ground I enter absolute happiness. That old creature has been hit by lightening and looks rather weird without a big stem in the middle and the roots are eating the lawn. This tree makes all bad things evaporate.

[.broken.]

What's your experience with trees?

 

I was standing in the wuji stance, about to begin my taiji form, in front of a line of trees once. I started to hear silent whimpers. It was clear that they were watching me. After I finished my form, I stayed nearby and strange things happened. I started to receive insight on many aspects of my life. Quietly, I focused on my breath and more flooded in through my root and crown chakra.

 

Simply beautiful.

 

I thanked them, though they remained humble.

 

Yours truly,

James

[Stigweard]

On a couple of occasions, whilst engaging in freeform Taiji, I have felt the trees around me join in the dance share in the flow of energy.

 

And there is nothing quite like hugging a tree for half and hour or so to drain off any negativity.

[Gerard]

I love trees, but the old ones and especially oaks and beeches. They are very wise and old souls.

 

 

 

 

900 years old beech tree located in Bavaria, Germany.

 

 

They have the perfect balance of Yin and Yang, which explains why so many animals seek refuge in them.

 

If you can hug one of those old trees, you will feel the energy transfer into you.

 

 

I wish I could do circle walking around any of them.

 

 

 

 

Trees are wise, they know how to flow with the Tao

 

 

 

 

Namo Amitabha.

[hagar]

Wonderful, thank you guys,

 

My master says that you can tune in and exchange energy with your favourite tree wherever you are. The inital connection is always there, available.

 

h

[Yoda]

I had a lovely experience practicing under a birch tree right next to a small river the other day. Definitely want to go back. I just got a book on 'tree magic' about one guy's experience meditating with different trees and researching tree lore. I'll write up a report if it's good.

[minkus]

Isnt aspirin, one of the most used drugs in the world made from a component originally found in birch trees ? not saying there is a direct link but it sure has healing potential !

 

In any case glad you got rid of your oncomming flu Hagar

 

 

What i often do is sit with my back against a tree and imagine the tree is an extention of my spine, works pretty well. The roots have major connection with the yin from earth, the leaves have major connection with the yang from heavens. After a while energy flows natural, you will look up at the branches and leaves of your big wooden friend and be in awe.

 

Such a small small human, such a big big tree

 

Cheers !

[soundhunter]

I've just started the Ringing Cedars books and while I'm still trying to sort how I feel about them (anyone else here reading them?) the relationship the main character, Anastasia has with plants is wondrous. Especially old Lebanese cedars. Here on the West Coast the native people revered cedar trees and would only harvest fallen ones, or the bark in non destructive ways, killing cedar trees was considered a gross sacriledge.

 

I haven't heard trees or felt them like that, but my favorite meditations are on drops of tree sap sparkling in sunlight, far more colorful and light filled than any diamond, but so very temporary because before long tehy dull to an opaque creamy yellow and sparkle no more. There seems to be no way to capture this glittering rainbow sparkle, it can't be put on a ring, words can't capture it, I doubt a picture or video really could, as soon as one tries to pick it up to examine it it loses the perfect orbness that allows that beautiful sparkling. It can only be enjoyed right there on the tree right there in the moment, and it for whatever reason, captivates me and provides an inspiring focus for me to look at while I still my mind. My oldest daughter gets excited when we're in the woods and she finds a sparkly drop of tree sap now, and always calls me over to look at it with her.

 

[rain]

Edited September 25, 2008 by rain

[doc benway]

I am an unabashed tree hugger.

 

I recently spent a few days in Olympia, Washington and was immersed in an ocean of big, beautiful firs peppered with Japanese maple. Walking among the closely clustered trunks of these big old firs was amazing.

[zanshin]

Trees are about standing still in the flow. I find it hard to stand still and quiet for an hour meditation, they are an inspiration- patient and abiding.

[Guest artform]

We share a great kinship of spirit. Often I ask others to think of themselves as a biological entity, more as a forest or a coral reef, or even a single tree; host to much other life. We are individually and socially hosts to myriad creatures without whom we could not exist: our soup can's load of gut bacteria and our millions of separate life-form mitochondria, with their own DNA, as just two examples. Without them no food conversion, no energy production in our cells; we wouldn't exist.

 

We personally are fortunate to have a property completely surrounded by tall trees and to have a giant maple in our east gardens, under whose vast swaying umbrella of branches we shelter and sit, hosting friends and family. All remark at the wonder and the peace of that place.

 

For years I have talked with our trees and others. Following native cultures, I particularly talk with them at pruning time. They are not mute, just different. The GAIA principle is communication amongst all forms of life and the evidence is growing. We are all woven into that, not separate "objective" observers. Having planted and continuing to plant many more trees brings great joy. You can feel it in your bones.

 

arboreal ecstasies all

 

artform

Edited September 25, 2008 by artform

[.broken.]

I just got a book on 'tree magic' about one guy's experience meditating with different trees and researching tree lore. I'll write up a report if it's good.

Very keen to hear a report, whether you deem it to be good or not... after all, one man's meat is another man's poison

 

I have read about many mystics from all over the world who would meditate in trees. Like trees, they have their roots in the Earth and their heads up in the Heavens. May I ask which book it is?

 

For years I have talked with our trees and others. Following native cultures, I particularly talk with them at pruning time. They are not mute, just different. The GAIA principle is communication amongst all forms of life and the evidence is growing. We are all woven into that, not separate "objective" observers. Having planted and continuing to plant many more trees brings great joy. You can feel it in your bones.

This reminds me of a story my father told me. There was a tree doctor in circa the 1930s in Holland who spent much time diagnosing and find solutions for the many pests, diseases and nutritional deficiencies that developed in the our beloved green and brown giants. In one of his books this tree doctor told of a row of trees that were infected by a particular beetle. The beetles found their way on to one tree at the edge of this row. They multiplied in number and spread from one tree to the next. By the time the beetles had reached the last tree in the row, they could not feed off it for it had become immune. Theory goes that the message spread from one to the other and the last one had the most time to build up whatever defences were necessary.

 

Spread the joy my friend If we ever meet I'd love to introduce you to guerilla gardening!!

 

From self to self,

James

[sirius]

hey, that`s fantastic what you all wrote about your experiences with trees! i love trees, too. once a member of the german "anthroposophische gesellschaft" told me that rudolf steiner, the founder of this society, had written down little "poems" about several trees. these poems are still used today - for example do the steiner people recite them before eating their meals. these "poems" are about the ash tree, the cherry tree, the oak tree, the elm, the maple tree, the birch and the ...what`s the english word for "buche" - i don`t remember, sorry. the interesting thing is that steiner connected every tree with a day of the week, with a planet, with a metal and with a syllable. and every poem wants to point that every tree has his own very special character, his own virtue - something that the human beeings could cultivate in themselves, too.

it`s a pity that i posess these "poems" only in a german version. although my english is not that good i try to translate the little text about the birch tree:

 

friday A venus copper

 

the copper venus is speaking

through the virginlike birch

that has weak roots and drinks a lot of light:

o, human being, cultivate your soul in fragility,

admire lovingly the beauty of the world.

 

that`s it for the moment. i have to do some zhan zhuang exercises now! for example standing like a tree!

 

happy standing!

 

sirius

[Spectrum]

trees emit a "transmission" just like any other individual point in the whole

 

keep your eye on the donut and knot on the hole

[hagar]

trees emit a "transmission" just like any other individual point in the whole

 

keep your eye on the donut and knot on the hole

 

Funny.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

 

As for the technical side of this, which always seems abit trite to me, Oak is good for the reproductive system, and the kidneys, hazel is good for heart, fir is good for liver and pancreas, birch for the lungs, and if I remember correctly ash is not very good at all. But don't quote me on this.

Better find some trees and figure it out yourself.

 

My own strongest experience with trees are with fir trees.

I love them, and I completely understand why they are som cherished in Taoist lore.

 

I lived in the forest outside Oslo for a while, and on top of a little waterfall, there was a little slab with a pine tree . It had a long sleek trunk and was divided in two from ground up. Maybe it was actually two trees.

 

As I developed a connection to the tree over weeks and days, it greeted me when I came and started to "reveal" insights for me. But they were usually given in form of signs. I remember one time standing with it, it was dusk, and as I felt particularly connected with the language-less communication of the forest, I opened my eyes, and in that moment, completely silent, almost like a ghost an owl flew by just a couple of feet from my face. It's eyes stared at me, and what I felt was inexpressable.

 

h

[sirius]

a really informative book about tree magic is:

 

"tree magic" by steve blamires

 

this book offers a huge variety of possibilities to get in contact and to work with trees.

 

steve blamires is the founder of the celtic research and folklore society (crfs).

 

-

 

my favorite trees are the oak tree and the apple tree. through them i got in a deep contact with nature and with nature religion, with shamanism and finally taoism - which is all connected. so the circle is closing...

 

 

greetings from the green woods of germany

 

sirius

[Ian]

I love trees. Haven't spent much time with birches or beeches, but I know some very nice pine trees in Oxford, a very agreeable sycamore at my Mum's house, and some splendid plane trees in London. And just recently I met some very nice olive trees in Barcelona, including three just outside terminal A of the airport, which, nicely, must have been preserved during construction as they are way older than the buildings.

 

Trees have been a bridge for me. I have found it very difficult over the years to connect with stuff outside me, but eventually, about a year ago, I managed to tune into to streams and trees. A bit.

 

It continues to develop. I had an experience with a pine tree in the parks a few months ago which was like holding hands happily with someone who had no issues of their own.

 

Small tips:

 

Notice the difference in the energy of the same tree morning and afternoon.

 

Try deep abdominal breathing with trees. I've met at least one that joined in.

 

Definitely cultivate a relationship. It's worth going back to the same one. They rememeber you.

 

Having said that, a few trees just aren't friendly. Move on.

[metzu]

My experiences with trees, are many over the years. At one time when I thought christianity was the way, I had this thought that it was actually lightning jesus swallowed and not a dove that came down,when his cousin John baptised him in the jordon, and thunder had been the speaker, so I got this idea I wanted to catch lightning. We had this old tall rag palm tree that had grown wild,thick and tall in our back yard and it had grown way above the house, during storms I would climb out the 3rd floor window, shimmy off the roof onto the tree during thunder and ligthning storms and hang on, as the wind whipped me back and forth praying our fathers'.

I was in my forties when I moved from that house,and stopped climbing trees to catch lightning.

As a child of 5 I once climbed to the top of this tree, and a limb broke and I came plummeting down to the earth, and I just laid there, the kid I was with thought I had died and ran home and told mom. A pallett was on the ground that broke my fall, just scared and knocked the wind out of me.

There was a time in my 50's when I was member of Narcotics anonymous and I would walk to meetings by way of the Jones Falls river, there were trees lining the path I walked, on days I was frustrated and angry, I would pick up fallen limbs, and bang them against trees, untill the limb shattered and became a stick in my hand, and natuarally I felt better.

Oh yes then there was the pear tree at a military boarding school I was going to when i was 9 years old, I had one of the old coke hard glass bottles and I wanted a pear and it was to high to reach, so I threw the coke bottle up trying to knock down a pear. The pear didn't come down and neither did the bottle right away, I looked up and I couldn't see the bottle anywhere, but when I looked down here came the bottle and banged me right on the head.

Hey this is fun, just remembered when I was 5 or six years old, we lived across the street from this great Herring Run Park, trails and trees, swimming holes, and the day after a particularly violent thunder storm, I was walking down the path along the water, and this huge tree much wider then I was tall at the time, had been uprooted and laid across the stream from side to side and this huge turtle was walking across it, I mean this guy must have out weighed me by a hundred or more pounds.

Another time just maybe 10 years ago(by the way I am 68 years old), I know I am jumping around as I recall these incidence in my life. I was circling the huge wooded area that surrounds one of our reservoirs, I had many times stopped on the drive by side to get out by the Loch Raven Dam, on this day I circled the entire area maybe 15 miles around and when I came to the other side of the dam I wanted to climb up and walk out to the end where the water rushed over, there were no steps so I had to literally shimmy myself up this wall to get to the concrete walk way. I made it up and stood momentarily watching the pressure, of the falling water and the dizzing height it was dropping . As I turned around to leave all these snakes were crawling around , As I stood startled and wondering what I should do, I heard this tremendous crash. This magnaniumous monster of a tree had fallen down right across the path I would have been walking by had I not gotten hung up by the snakes. When I scared the snakes away and climbed down the trail leading to the fallen tree, I could barely climb over it to get on with my walk.

Thank you for this post, it was great remembering and sharing those neat experiences

Joe

[hagar]

My experiences with trees, are many over the years. At one time when I thought christianity was the way, I had this thought that it was actually lightning jesus swallowed and not a dove that came down,when his cousin John baptised him in the jordon, and thunder had been the speaker, so I got this idea I wanted to catch lightning. We had this old tall rag palm tree that had grown wild,thick and tall in our back yard and it had grown way above the house, during storms I would climb out the 3rd floor window, shimmy off the roof onto the tree during thunder and ligthning storms and hang on, as the wind whipped me back and forth praying our fathers'.

I was in my forties when I moved from that house,and stopped climbing trees to catch lightning.

As a child of 5 I once climbed to the top of this tree, and a limb broke and I came plummeting down to the earth, and I just laid there, the kid I was with thought I had died and ran home and told mom. A pallett was on the ground that broke my fall, just scared and knocked the wind out of me.

There was a time in my 50's when I was member of Narcotics anonymous and I would walk to meetings by way of the Jones Falls river, there were trees lining the path I walked, on days I was frustrated and angry, I would pick up fallen limbs, and bang them against trees, untill the limb shattered and became a stick in my hand, and natuarally I felt better.

Oh yes then there was the pear tree at a military boarding school I was going to when i was 9 years old, I had one of the old coke hard glass bottles and I wanted a pear and it was to high to reach, so I threw the coke bottle up trying to knock down a pear. The pear didn't come down and neither did the bottle right away, I looked up and I couldn't see the bottle anywhere, but when I looked down here came the bottle and banged me right on the head.

Hey this is fun, just remembered when I was 5 or six years old, we lived across the street from this great Herring Run Park, trails and trees, swimming holes, and the day after a particularly violent thunder storm, I was walking down the path along the water, and this huge tree much wider then I was tall at the time, had been uprooted and laid across the stream from side to side and this huge turtle was walking across it, I mean this guy must have out weighed me by a hundred or more pounds.

Another time just maybe 10 years ago(by the way I am 68 years old), I know I am jumping around as I recall these incidence in my life. I was circling the huge wooded area that surrounds one of our reservoirs, I had many times stopped on the drive by side to get out by the Loch Raven Dam, on this day I circled the entire area maybe 15 miles around and when I came to the other side of the dam I wanted to climb up and walk out to the end where the water rushed over, there were no steps so I had to literally shimmy myself up this wall to get to the concrete walk way. I made it up and stood momentarily watching the pressure, of the falling water and the dizzing height it was dropping . As I turned around to leave all these snakes were crawling around , As I stood startled and wondering what I should do, I heard this tremendous crash. This magnaniumous monster of a tree had fallen down right across the path I would have been walking by had I not gotten hung up by the snakes. When I scared the snakes away and climbed down the trail leading to the fallen tree, I could barely climb over it to get on with my walk.

Thank you for this post, it was great remembering and sharing those neat experiences

Joe

 

Joe: Thanks for sharing those stories! Seems like you've had a relationship with trees all your life. Very reassuring! And they are little short stories all by them selves...And they have some strong messages as well.

 

On a retreat some years ago, a fellow practitioner came across my master, just by coincidence, meditating on a branch of a tree in the park outside our practice hall...in full lotus.

 

Ian:

 

I also noticed some striking trees outside the terminal in Barcelona.

Great post.

 

h

[Mal]

you will look up at the branches and leaves of your big wooden friend and be in awe. Such a small small human, such a big big tree

 

That's the feeling I always love, looking up through the branches at the sky and just feeling so very small.

 

I have 2 trees that I focus on when I practice kung fu. A gum tree on a nearby hill that stands out and is proud and strong. And 180 deg from that one is a huge mango tree in the neighbors yard. I stare at that when I'm catching my breath

 

Cool stories everyone great thread.

[joeblast]

I'm a fan of trees...

here's my younger brother in alaska next to this bigass tree they found in the woods. lots of devils club in those woods.

 

[metzu]

I'm a fan of trees...

here's my younger brother in alaska next to this bigass tree they found in the woods. lots of devils club in those woods.

 

Nice tree

[Birch Tree]

I love trees. Especially birch trees--they are my favorite (obviously). We planted a beautiful little birch tree in our back yard a few years ago. It is nothing short of lovely--and it has been a joy to watch it grow and mature.

 

We also have a 90-year old maple tree that just died this past fall. We are going to invite some friends over and have a party to celebrate the life and death of our majestic maple tree friend.

 

There is definately something spiritual about trees.