Meditation Of The Tree

There are lots of types and methods of meditation, some of them complex or requiring a longer period of time to be practiced.

• However, there are also some very simple meditations which are just as efficient, like “The Meditation of the Tree”.
• For this meditation you need to educate and develop your visualization power. Visualization is the ability to create precise and clear mental images, these should be as precise as physical reality. It is an invaluable creative process.
• An architect first creates a mental image of the building he wants to build. He “imagines” the building, transposes this image into a plan and proceeds from there. The completed building depends entirely on this initial image.
• Firstly you need to re-educate the faculty that you used during your childhood, that is, to be able to represent situations and objects in your inner visual field. This meditation technique can be really helpful.
• Some classical meditation methods require as preparation the evocation of a sequence of images, most of them archetypes, in a strict order. The goal is to lead the aspirant, step by step, into more and more profound levels of consciousness.

THE TECHNIQUE
Assume a meditation position and keep your back straight; keep your body still and as relaxed as possible. Breathe slowly and regularly. Now imagine that it is a sunny, September day and you are next to a forest.

Imagine you are walking on a path that takes you under an oak. You notice acorns spread on the Padmasana (the lotus pose) in the forest.
ground. Pick one of them up. Then visualize yourself in

Now create in your inner visual field a clear image of the acorn. You see its long shape with its two tips, a sharp one and one covered by a pod. Visualize yourself keeping the acorn in one hand and studying it.

When the image is very clear, imagine yourself digging a hole in the ground and you burying the acorn there. Then remain still and silent, watching the forest. Watch the fall of the oak leaves that cover the ground creating a carpet like effect.

Dark clouds begin to gather and the rain starts to fall on the trees. You could also imagine a bird on the bare branches, a rabbit going into its hole near the oak, a squirrel jumping from one tree into another.

You can imagine a sunset and a sunrise. Although fascinated by this inner show, the mind must be also focused on the image of the acorn planted into the ground which is now soaking with water.

Visualize the first frozen branch and the glassy blue sky above the forest. Winter is coming. Snow flakes fall down covering the leaf made carpet.

The acorn is still in the frozen ground, closed in its shell. Imagine the winter scenery with the sun shining on the snow and the tracks of the birds and small animals. Finally spring is coming.

The sun rises high into the sky and the snow melts. The water flows under the snow that slowly disappears. The sun dries the decaying leaves left on the ground. The birds sing and rejoice at the return of spring. The ground becomes loose and a mysterious transformation takes place inside the acorn.

The germ develops and finds its way into the light while the frail roots anchor into the ground. The sun heats the acorn and a small shoot is coming out to the surface. Then the buds of the trees open and the little offshoot proudly shows little green leaves.

It is not important that this succession should be similar to true botanical reality. What is important is the clarity and intensity of the image.

YOU CAN SEE THE FUTURE WITH THE HELP OF THE PRESENT
Now imagine the little oak growing. Its trunk is as big as a pencil. Then it gets to one and then two meters height. This process continues and it doesnt stop in the future autumn or winter.

• Now imagine the oak growing as much as possible. When it is big enough see the acorns growing on its branches, the approach of the autumn and the fall of the acorns onto the dead leaves.
• Take an acorn in your hands and study it like in the beginning of the meditation. The cycle is now finished and so is the meditation. Become aware of your physical body, move your fingers, open your eyes and stand.
• Imagine all this without making any comments. You can feel in the acorn the existence of a future undeveloped, invisible but potentially present oak. Notice the universal life manifesting through the oak and the acorn.
• Realize the fact that both the acorn that you are holding in your hand and the oak are a visible expression of the invisible oak hidden into the acorn.
• If the acorn was buried 10 m further, the oak would be made up of completely different molecules and atoms, but it would still be an oak and not a beech.
• Perceive the invisible force, the vital dynamism lying in the acorn in an un-manifested form that transforms it into an oak which, in its turn, will produce new acorns etc.
• This exercise is useful for developing our ability to create realistic inner representations and it for purifying our mind.
  
• This is possible by being aware of the cycle of life and of the cosmic cycle that is represented by contraction and expansion. The contraction of the oak in an acorn and the expansion of the oak from the acorn.
• Indian philosophy asserts that any expansion must be preceded by a contraction. The Cosmic Lifes dynamism is obviously present in the fundamental cycles from the reproductive process of each species through its component individuals.
• Life on this planet is millions of years old! Each new manifestation is just as young and full of life. Each individual is a representative of its species, which, in turn, expresses itself through each individual.
• A constant practice of this type of meditation confers us a state of inner freedom by becoming aware of the relationship that each of us, as an individual, has with the whole of mankind.
• In the beginning, this feeling might be unperceivable. But we will gradually notice much more serenity, an increased psychic dynamism manifested through a state of inner joy; the awakening of your intuition in certain areas, of your creativity, a better concentration and memory.
• Slowly but surely a certain psychic maturity will begin to develop. For this you need to practice this method daily, in a state of detachment from its results.
• This attitude that characterizes the Karma Yoga system is the best way to accelerate the manifestation of the results.
  
• This meditation will allow our being to integrate aspects of the macro cosmos in our earthly life. The human being is a particular manifestation of this Universal Life, but it is still solitary to it; the physiological and physical roots are situated in a past, which is common to earthly life.
• Man has evolved at the same time with the entire vegetal and animal life on the planet and thus a strong connection has been created during these millions of years.
• After practicing this type of meditation for a while, we will not perceive a tree as an object outside of us, but as a kindred soul.

For this exercise we can use any tree or plant that has a seed. In India, the image of a banyan is used as its seed is very small and the tree is enormous. But, as the banyan is harder to be visualized by a westerner, we have chosen the oak.