Symbiosis
The trail to Proxy Falls (I’ve not been able to discover the indigenous name) is a wonderland of micro-life. The path makes its way through the rich soil of old-growth forest and basalt fields that host an unimaginable mix of mosses, fungi, algae, and lichen. I get down on my hands and knees to get more level with the botanical display at my feet and realize I’m not as familiar with this biota compared to the larger plant community they support. It matters little that I can’t identify the various species—their beauty suffices.
My mind wanders through little networks of mycorrhizae erupting as mushrooms. Mosses have their own little towers of sporophytes, spore-producing features rising like tiny alfalfa sprouts out of dense green carpets. Lichen takes on many forms, appearing as crusty, leaf-like, hairy/shrubby, overlapping shingles, powdery-wispy, and jelly-like. (My curious mind later discovers each of these forms has a scientific moniker: crustose, foliose, fruticose, squamulose, leprose, and gelitanous.)
Lichen is a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria. Since fungi has no chlorophyll, it teams with algae and/or a form of bacteria that gathers light from the sun to make carbohydrates to feed the fungi. Conversely, the fungus ‘mines’ minerals to benefit the algae. This is where the term symbiosis has its roots—literally! This mutualistic relationship appearing as another vibrant life form is fascinating. Maybe we humans will one day do the same.
Continuing on the trail, we come to both lower and upper Proxy Falls. The word proxy, or substitute, refers to the fact that the water that creates Proxy Creek flows down from North Sister Volcano and disappears underground; a creek substituting as a spring. It then remerges out of the cliffs to appear as cascading falls; a spring becomes a creek once more. As I sit at the base of the upper falls, I notice the water has no outlet; it simply disappears into a pool, the ‘drain’. Then, I assume, it morphs into an underground spring once more. Water is very fluid in its appearance!
Compassion flows in the same way, taking whatever shape is necessary to be of benefit. Sometimes it springs out from nowhere, although it has its source from a never-ending flow of loving kindness—bodhicitta. If there are no obstructions, water flows by the urging of gravity. Even if an obstruction arises, water finds a way around, over, under, and sometimes through—it flows even when we do not see it. Human-made dams, however, are a bit of a problem—but time will eventually erode the hardest obstacle.
This mirrors how the mind can create a seemingly impenetrable blockage made of afflictive emotions. We find our way through by embracing all life in such a way that the flow of love becomes unimpeded, and get ourselves out of the dam way! May we all learn to act cooperatively in the flow—and create a wondrous symbiotic way of being. Our innate kinship with natural phenomena teaches this Dharma, the native wisdom of our original, unbound mind.