Meditate with a Tree

Originally posted by Kat.C Well, you've got me 'stumped'

Nah. You're just barking up the wrong tree. I think you really ought to just leaf this alone until you twig to the reality of the situation. And that branches off so many directions! If you're really pining away for some tree meditation, you should get away a while, for rest. When you get back, maybe we can get to the root of the matter.

Oakay? Hope that rings true with you ...

Chuck
(aka short-timer: 20 days and a wakeup!)

Originally posted by Bruce Baker Any more people out there with more references or tree power experiences?

Just be careful. There have been numerous reports about people (especially unexperienced young men) who died after absorbing too much tree energy too fast.


Moral: don't drink and drive.

Originally posted by LOEP Nah. You're just barking up the wrong tree. I think you really ought to just leaf this alone until you twig to the reality of the situation. And that branches off so many directions! If you're really pining away for some tree meditation, you should get away a while, for rest. When you get back, maybe we can get to the root of the matter. Oakay? Hope that rings true with you ... Chuck (aka short-timer: 20 days and a wakeup!)

Normally I wood get right into something new, but I'm no sap and I'm knot inclined to ignore
the advice of those alder and wiser than me. I doubt I'm going out on a limb when I say you're probably an expert in this matter so I bough to your superiour knowledge. I hope when I'm ready to experience new growth, and chip away to the heart of this matter, you will help me climb to new heights while keeping me firmly planted in reality.

We go from talking about absorbing the natural energy of nature to HUMOR, and I am not sure who has the head of wood?

Well Pinochio, my little woodpecker's snack ...

Maybe it is time to ring the bell and let the class go home?

Anyway!

Tree humor aside ...

Aren't we talking about the same natural energy from nature that O'Sensei encouraged all of his students to embrace by the observing the substance of his simple life, farming?

You know, I was thinking about the simplicity for the Ki/chi question I had posed for ball of Ki energy, and one story was moved to the simple explanation of moving a salt shaker on a table by picking it up and telling the reporter this was an example of Ki energy.

Now, if we translate that into the simple terms of all living things have movement because of life, then we observe the symbiotic links of our existence with other forms of life, it might not be so far fetched that we must share some form of life energy with trees or plants or life on planet earth?

We are elements of planet earth. We absorb nutrients, and have habitats that respond favorably to plants and other forms of life we call food, plants, or animals? We live withing the same environmental conditions for these plants?

The hair on the back of your neck stands up even though you can't see danger, why? Some chemical trigger, or is it energy, a kind of radar?

We can make tree humor, or we can try to find out beneficial ways to extend our lives, and make our lives better? Sometimes all the practice in the world isn't worth spit if you don't know where you are going or what question you are asking?

Experience?

Perception?

Aikido was some foreign devil Japanese fighting art that didn't hold a candle to boxing in the 1950s, but today we know it is something different?

Don't get me wrong, there were some clever tree humor jokes in the posts, but isn't there another post area for humor?

So, if you could help me out here with your experiences with this particular subject ... that would be great.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Bruce Baker [b] Now, if we translate that into the simple terms of all living things have movement because of life, then we observe the symbiotic links of our existence with other forms of life, it might not be so far fetched that we must share some form of life energy with trees or plants or life on planet earth?

I for one believe this but I really have not defined exactly what I believe. I think at the moment I just have an awareness of such things. I cannot put my thoughts into words.

(Of course maybe this energy is just oxygen, we all share that! )

Don't get me wrong, there were some clever tree humor jokes in the posts, but isn't there another post area for humor?

It was only amusing here because this is a tree thread.

Originally posted by Bruce Baker We can make tree humor, or we can try to find out beneficial ways to extend our lives, and make our lives better? Sometimes all the practice in the world isn't worth spit if you don't know where you are going or what question you are asking?

This from a guy who wrote in response to someone asking about ki breathing:

Is that anything like learning to breath with yoga, or trancendental meditation, and can I eat meat while practicing .... or should I eat vegetables until I say 'YES, GREAT MUSTARD..."

Also:

Humor ... another trait of good Aikido.

Why is it that you get angry, condescending, and self-righteous when someone does something that you do?

Oh, right. You're a closed minded hypocrite with really, really, really bad reading skills and a "bad memory".

Andy, I'd take mle's good advice and not bother to feed the trolls. They only come back for more, and in this case, patronize those who fed them in the first place and believe themselves enlightened for eating up what's given them, and cry out threats to crawl back under the bridge for a reaction.

Sarah

P.S. Yeah, I'll bet a lot of people have been requesting the ignore feature. Sigh . . .

just wanted you too know bruce that I live in NJ too And that this is the best state, be proud

Excuse me for bringing this up but ...

For those three or four people with negative posts to this thread ....


Have you checked out the Books some of us referenced, or talked to someone outside you particular circle of friends or acquantences about O'Sensei's teachings or checked out the chi/ki energy within the human body?

Most of us who refer to these things don't make a religion of them, but as evidence proves or disproves them to be true, it is interesting to see if those who came before us either got it right in their descriptions of strange phenonmenon, or got it wrong?

You see what you want to see, and believe what you want to believe, but to know it is real or not is only ascertained if you know what the other person is talking about?

Well I have I guess two things to which might relate to this. First I do always feel more alive and in touch with the energy of the world when I am in a forest or really walking in a park for that matter. Secondly after meditating one night (one of the only times I have had a really deep meditative experience). I woke up the next morning and set out walking to class. I had the most over whelming desire to touch the trees that were around me. I felt there energy and the life that was around me and I wanted to be a part of that.

Marty

Originally posted by Bruce Baker ...Seriously, any of you have experience or have teachers who meditate/teach KI who use trees or nature to reenergize?

Relating to nature has always been a part of far eastern philosophy. However I don't take such a serious view when it comes to meditating with trees. Consider this:

Originally written by K. Kashiwaya, Chief Instructor, Ki Society USA Perhaps for some people, "Universal Ki" implies a sense of the mysterious, the supernatural or even the occult. Even some people claim that they are the only ones who can use or understand Ki. We understand Ki in a much more common or practical sense. For us, everybody has Ki, since it comes from nature, not only a special kind of person. We are able to demonstrate, through the Four Basic Principles, that we can apply the use of Ki to our everyday life.

I work in forestry and i spend a lot of time in the forest. Four days a week the nature around me and i can feel it...Sometime.

When i walk cross the forest, i can feel a deep energy from there, quiet but real. it's like a peaceful sensation which tell me: take your time...sent the harmony between air and ground. the trees look like a element between two world, a element in harmony between them. when i'm in the forest, it's like if trees doesn't want to talk me. It seems to ignore me. I think it's possible to sent the energy which come from a tree. In général, i think it's possible to sent the energy of all life.

So, if all of that is a hallucination, it not my problem...it's a good exercise to be cool and relax.

Originally posted by Sylvayikum I work in forestry and i spend a lot of time in the forest. Four days a week the nature around me and i can feel it...Sometime. When i walk cross the forest, i can feel a deep energy from there, quiet but real. it's like a peaceful sensation which tell me: take your time...sent the harmony between air and ground. the trees look like a element between two world, a element in harmony between them. when i'm in the forest, it's like if trees doesn't want to talk me. It seems to ignore me. I think it's possible to sent the energy which come from a tree. In général, i think it's possible to sent the energy of all life. So, if all of that is a hallucination, it not my problem...it's a good exercise to be cool and relax.

Well said.

Well, I just got back from a trip to Northwestern Pennslyvania, it was pretty enlightening as far as the people either were always outdoors, or they were tearing down the forests to make their little part of heaven formed in their own dreams image. My ancestors were basically farmers, loggers, and hunters from one horse towns. There was more open land than I remembered from visiting two years ago?

I guess that is something we all do, destroy the forest, the living habitats of those nasty wild creatures, and insects that annoy our lives? Funny, the pieces of grass that grow in the cracks, or the trees that force their way into the soil and raise the sidewalks or pieces of concrete, they do it ever so slowly while we rush about and plan to cut and use those trees for wood products, or get them out of our way.

We are masters of our universe, and that which we can not control, we destroy. Not a very Aiki lifestyle, is it?

Of course, seeking the lessons of a totally mad teacher, such as the personage of O'Sensei, is only impropable if it becomes socially correct with your friends or over a few drinks with your boss? Incorrectness is hidden, or not talked about when it relates to money. Finding the actual balace of your life within the universe is merely the physical relation of getting the most money with the least amount of difficulty, this becomes the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, our dream fantasy of Aikido ... or does meditation and in a sterilized empty room give you more peace and energy than resting in a garden?

The mindset, the social rules of advancement do not always correspond to our own goals of enlightenment, do they? Maybe we should examine the basis of theraputic rest in settings of nature and see if this particular practice is withing that arena? I think it is?

I think that going to the Bahama's for vacation, or snow skiing in the mountains, and even going for a drive in your car to get away from the city all qualify a crackpot practices as they are all attempts to get in touch with nature's energy by different means?

Of course if they are not crackpot methods of getting in touch with natures energy ... mmmm?

Maybe we should get a clinical study going with one group meditating with trees, and the rest in a sterilized white room?

Want to bet who has the energy of nature and who falls short?

Kind of like learning to do Aikido with your inner strength, not just your muscles?

I believe the inner strength is a form of self hypnotism if you want the scientific trigger to use this energy ... but if it works, you might as well use it, eh?

Let me put it this way ... I feel a whole lot better when I meditate outside under the tree, than doing it in front of my computer?