When trees talk

Trees have no mind. I know, cause I talked to them this morning. They are what they are, who they are, without the extra baggage. They are themselves and everything else, God as it expresses itself in nature. Trees do not have to struggle and overcome obstacles to get enlightened, to wake up, to realize who they really are. They are nothing else but who they really are. So what do they do, one might ask? They are what they are already, does anything change for them, or do they just … blissfully exist? Did you, those of you who practice some form of spirituality or another, ever wondered what happens after you get “enlightened”? Not being trees we do have to struggle a bit, we do have to look for ourselves. Having developed mind we now have to look beyond it to find what trees naturally are, to find ourselves. This seems the ultimate goal, I know it was for me. During my years as a zen student I could not but notice the fact that in all the “educational” stories of students and teachers, famous buddhas, barking dogs, broken arms, poems written on walls, an end always comes when the student understood. When he saw. When he became enlightened, when he became himself. The trees already are themselves, so what do they do now? They become more and more themselves. They develop. Being who we are, being aware of who we are is not the end of the story – it is the beginning. When we realize who we are, when we wake up to our real nature – this is when the adventure begins. When we are no longer merged and intertwined with our mind and all it’s ideas about what to do, and how to be – this is when we can begin to become more and more ourselves. Trees are God. This is not something that they have to discover, this is what they are. But this is not all that they are – they are all one, all nature, unlimited and without separation, and yet they are unique. Not two trees are the same, they all have their own kinks and twists, different shapes, different colors. Over the long years of their existence they develop … not so much a personality as a uniqueness. They develop their own way of expressing who they are as God. So they not only are God, but they take responsibility for being God, they take ownership of being God and they develop their own, unique relationship to reality, they develop their own expression of what it is to be who they are, of what it is to be enlightened. So do humans. We are part of nature and so it works just the same way for us: waking up to who we really are is just the beginning. Once we become aware of it we can grow and develop our own uniqueness, develop our own relationship to reality. Just like trees, just like everything in nature, we are who we are in our own way. Not two trees are the same. Not two humans are the same. Maybe this is why all the stories always end at the beginning 🙂