Sprouting Roots

I often muse about trees and their amazing resilience. They survive intense winds, rain, snow, hail and even lightning strikes. They do not complain, they simply bend with the energies present. There is a phrase in the song, Simple Gifts, that goes like this: “When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed.” This is the  tree-nature of our wisdom mind. We have the capacity to bow in reverence and bend in resilience no matter what happens. When we surrender our mental babble into the simplicity of our emptiness nature, we become tree-like; deeply rooted in our spiritual unfolding and flexible in the winds of change.

As the seasons of our life shift about, we need to ask ourselves, “Am I doing the things I am guided to do according to my natural tree-like nature? Am I working to grow strong and tall so I can provide shade and protection for the benefit of others? Am I willing to sacrifice myself through falling and decaying when the time comes, so I can feed the next generation?” Nature teaches us these things if we listen, but we have to put in the work.

Growing strong and tall happens only when we know our land and adapt to the soils. Where are we growing, where are we going? When I was wandering about, trying find a place to ‘land’, I realized nature had always been my land—and was under my feet all along. But I needed to embrace the teachings of the natural world in such way that I could embody them in some form. I needed some roots. 

The search to embrace the lessons under foot took me through many spiritual traditions because the one I grew up with seemed to have lost its connection to nature. I had to find another soil to nourish my growth. After following many interconnecting paths, they all seemed to point in the direction of indigenous nature wisdom and Buddha’s awakening. I discovered the marriage of the two in the Vajrayana approach.

Now, as I continue to adapt to the soil of Buddha’s wisdom mind as mirrored in my own awareness, I find it is indistinguishable from the dirt under my feet—and I seem to have sprouted roots. I am often inspired by the portrayal of Buddha when he attained his awakening. He simply touched the earth.