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@adamcrossley said:
Just came across this in The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching. (I know, I’m reading it very slowly...)
If a bodhisattva needs to manifest being, if he needs to be born in this world, he will be born in this world. There is still life, but he is not caught in ideas of being, nonbeing, birth, or death. [...]
The leaf has the appearance of being born and dying, but it is not caught in either. The leaf falls to the earth without any idea of dying, and is born again by decomposing at the foot of the tree and nourishing the tree.
So I guess it’s what many people have said here: no illusion, no awakening. The leaf is the same as an enlightened being [...]
It reminds me of more words of Venerable Nhất Hạnh's to do with leaves:
One day as I was about to step on a dry leaf, I saw the leaf in the ultimate dimension. I saw that it was not really dead, but that it was merging with the moist soil in order to appear on the tree the following spring in another form. I smiled at the leaf and said, "You are pretending." Everything is pretending to be born and pretending to die, including that leaf.
The Buddha said, "When conditions are sufficient, the body reveals itself, and we say the body exists. When conditions are not sufficient, the body cannot be perceived by us, and we say the body does not exist." The day of our "death" is a day of our continuation in many forms. If you know how to touch your ancestors in the ultimate dimension, they will always be there with you. If you touch your own hand, face, or hair and look very deeply, you can see that they are there in you, smiling. This is a deep practice.
The ultimate dimension is a state of coolness, peace, and joy. It is not a state to be attained after you "die." You can touch the ultimate dimension right now by breathing, walking, and drinking your tea in mindfulness. Everything and everyone is dwelling in nirvāṇa, in the Kingdom of God. A farmer looking at his land in winter can already see his crop, because he knows that all of the conditions are there - land, seeds, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and so on - except one, warm weather, and that will come in a few months. So it would be inaccurate to say his crop does not exist. It is already there. It needs only one more condition to manifest.
When Saint Francis asked the almost tree to tell him about God, in just a few seconds the tree was covered with beautiful flowers. Saint Francis was standing on the side of the ultimate dimension. It was winter. There were no leaves, flowers, or fruits, but he saw the flowers.
(Venerable Nhất Hạnh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, started at pg. 151)
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Yesterday I was watching a documentary about ancient forests and the deep connections we have with them. In it there was a woman scientist who talked about the similarity between the interconnecting fabric of trees and the forest floor, and a human brain. She said that all the moulds and fungi that make up the forest floor and connect the trees to one another were a lot like the synapses in the human brain... it makes you think, perhaps trees are not sentient but maybe the forest as a whole does think, in its way. So perhaps enlightenment is a possibility.
The communication of one tree to another via the structure @Kerome mentions is remarkable. Trees talk to each other ... The forest is alive, a sentient being ...
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
If you sit in a woodland clearing, and obliterate the habitual noise, discard what you can hear, if you listen. Listen. You CAN hear the trees speaking to one another.
And I'm not talking about the breeze wharbling through the branches. I mean, they speak.
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
@lobster said:
The communication of one tree to another via the structure @Kerome mentions is remarkable. Trees talk to each other ... The forest is alive, a sentient being ...
An interesting TED talk in which Suzanne Simard talks about her career, the forests and how she investigated this...
Comments
Imagine that you are a little acorn or a nut.
One day you may shelter a Buddha.
Live for the day you are a tree ... or in one ...
"Don't worry if the going's tough,
Or the rewards are few,
Remember: Once, the mighty oak
Was just a nut - like you."
It reminds me of more words of Venerable Nhất Hạnh's to do with leaves:
(Venerable Nhất Hạnh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, started at pg. 151)
Yesterday I was watching a documentary about ancient forests and the deep connections we have with them. In it there was a woman scientist who talked about the similarity between the interconnecting fabric of trees and the forest floor, and a human brain. She said that all the moulds and fungi that make up the forest floor and connect the trees to one another were a lot like the synapses in the human brain... it makes you think, perhaps trees are not sentient but maybe the forest as a whole does think, in its way. So perhaps enlightenment is a possibility.
The communication of one tree to another via the structure @Kerome mentions is remarkable. Trees talk to each other ... The forest is alive, a sentient being ...
If you sit in a woodland clearing, and obliterate the habitual noise, discard what you can hear, if you listen. Listen. You CAN hear the trees speaking to one another.
And I'm not talking about the breeze wharbling through the branches. I mean, they speak.
Ah ha.
Tree speak, branches up who knew?
An interesting TED talk in which Suzanne Simard talks about her career, the forests and how she investigated this...