The Tree Probably Does
Story by: Ida Lawrence
I’m going to begin with the image of a tree because there is plenty of symbology around that image: I’ll rest my back against it for a bit as I put these thoughts together. Our tree will symbolize inexhaustible life transforming, and since it is also said to span dimensions, we’ll visit that possibility as well.
Pressure and response: interesting to think about in times of change… and change isn’t coming on slowly anymore. It can certainly be seen in our personal lives. Outcomes of past choices, whether wise or foolish, conscious or unconscious, have been arriving on doorsteps with increasing speed. On the positive side, the pressure of change can cause the response of growth… if you’re into it and up to it.
When we change our perspective from personal pressure to worldwide pressure, it can become nearly overwhelming… so rapid, so destructive is the decline of this world. Is the global picture something we can bring into a conversation without becoming either angry or despondent? We’re going to try.
In the consciousness movement we work to know self. Part of that self-knowing comes through observing how, when under pressure from the outside, we may revert to conditioned and programmed responses inside. Through awareness of our conditioning and the system’s programming, we take up the task of replacing these patterns with ones that are more refined and liberating.
My thinking on this process was triggered recently when talking with my godson… our in-house Qi Gong practitioner. I’ll just quote him, and you’ll see the correlation:
“The body is a sensory and counter-pressure mechanism. When the External pressures demand a response there is an internal counter pressure that responds. A very basic example is an automatic response… when it’s hot (external pressure) you sweat to cool down (internal counter-pressure). Through the practice of Qi Gong you can control the counter-pressure.”
He went on to say that you begin with one energy circulation and practice it daily. After three months or so your work on the circulation becomes automatic… you will have a new switch inside, in response to a certain pressure. You can then move on to the next practice.
What the circulation of energy achieves is the ability to clear, clean, flow and store energy and do things with energy. What the Qi Gong master can do with energy is pretty incredible. There are videos online of masters who can start a piece of paper on fire just by projecting energy from their hands.
Stored energy can be used both to heal and to harm. And there is more, but it’s not for everyone. Most practitioners take years to get to heal or harm and that is where they stop. The ‘more’ has to be learned from a teacher who has taken the path.
Whether it’s mythology or history, stories tell of people giving their lives while learning the possibilities of energy; experimenting with the outcome of different practices. While only a few masters may know the ‘more’, a presumption can be made that it is the very real trans-dimensional metaphysician’s doorway. In today’s world, such doorways are being used.
Let’s move on to external pressure and internal counter-pressure in relation to our thoughts and emotions. Thoughts and emotions are energy too, and we can certainly create new pathways for them once we know what we’re dealing with. As I mentioned, we are conditioned and programmed to respond in a certain way. Unlike the body’s natural response, for the most part these responses are not what we were born with. Yet, like the Qi Gong practitioner, if we want to re-train these learned and programmed counter-responses we have to study, observe and feel.
Among the tools to increase awareness, re-train thoughts and emotions, and raise the energy from a dense state to a more refined state, are written lessons, specific meditations, guided meditations, physical disciplines, and therapies. Many people have been doing this work for years, and they are the ones offering tools on how to transform the fear response, as well as the anger, sadness, self-pity, hostility, weakness, indulgence and so on. So much could be said about this, and we’re just touching on things today.
We’re going to return to the tree again as a symbol of inexhaustible life transforming within a system. Have you wondered how many trees there are, i.e. how many self-contained and interrelated energy systems there are? The body is one; and the earth itself is one; the universe; the multiverse. I’d better add… and on and on.
If we as individual human beings can re-train our conditioned and programmed thoughts and emotions and raise our energy to a more refined level through a kind of ‘consciousness Qi Gong’, how about the collective consciousness of human families… can that be re-trained, or the global collective consciousness? Can a significant number of us go for transformation and liberation? If we do, can it lead to a way out of the current control system?
I’ll let you play with that, but to me, the whole thing looks like the fractal tree. And if that is true, we can say that the truth of the small is the truth of the great: for every confinement, no matter how seemingly inescapable, there has to be, built-in at the origin, an avenue of escape… because the avenue of escape exists on a small scale. We already pointed to it with the master of energy and the metaphysician.
Now let’s go to the global consciousness. We know that it is confined within a system of control… some call it a matrix of control. It seems the ones who run things have very well locked us down. When they put on the pressure, we provide an automatic counter-pressure. Normally it’s fear and compliance, sometimes it’s another reaction… argument, anger, rebellion, sorrow… but always within the confines of our conditioning and programming.
An earlier observation about pressure (when it increases, counter-pressure increases) points out the positive side: on the positive side, the pressure of change can cause the counter-pressure of growth… if you’re into it and up to it.
The intensity of global change and the downward force of it does bring the opportunity for growth. Can we intentionally be like the tree… inexhaustible life transforming? We can look into it at least, and whisper to ourselves… this may not turn out as badly as we expect.
Humanity is awakening, and the collective response to external pressure is amazing to watch. We can see energy moving, we can see the system watching and trying to manipulate it… and failing more and more often. So let’s never close the door to the possibility of liberation. We must keep on observing the movement, re-training our own conditioned responses, rejecting the programming, envisioning the change we want, and raising our energy. Our change makes a difference to the whole.
Who knows the doorway out… the tree probably does.
from: http://spiritofmaat.com/magazine/november-2013-the-heart-of-darkness-edition/the-tree-probably-does/
