satt_focusable wrote:My point made an implication that everything may be in a consciousness.
I apologize for the supreme flaws and shameful incorrectness of my previous posts. Your comment here(!) has reminded me of the truth . . .
Many cultures (my own ancestors from Latvia included) believe that trees are, in fact, people. Hence many surnames in my family tree are named after ... trees. My own last name means Cherry Tree. My grandmothers means Small Oak. My cousins have names that harbor Rose Tree, Pines, and Alder. They are planted by happenstance along the meandering creek of time.
It is quite a reassuring belief that I sometimes indulge during long walks through forests, to think we are one with nature, part of the forest, at home with good friends, anywhere on the planet. We are together. I can stop and have a conversation at any time with a relative, a sapling or a snag, get wonderful advice from a Great Role Model, and feel I really belong.
Not so with technology, eh?
I sit by a creek and wonder. When my time comes I have no doubt that I will not crowd into a cemetary, but instead walk off into the forest perhaps 5 miles or 500, and simply rest against a tree. Like a tree, death is a changing not an ending, a contribution to the rich environment that springs forth new life. So I smile.
I do believe trees have conscious thought. They cry, feel anger, outrage, compassion, support, enthusiasm and have all manner of experiences *in their own way*. They recognize their surroundings and respond to thousands of relationships.
Trees hold memories and experiences that span hundreds of years ... such deep wisdom they carry. Such patience and fortitude, always reaching for the sun, always for the sugar in life. They've weathered far more than any human ever will, smelled and tasted with senses the air and elements from thousands of miles away. Such calmness in their uplifting limbs, constantly bringing what is good into the world. Such power in their mild daily persistence.
They've spent an entire lifetime just sitting and appreciating. And breathing! How many monks or gurus have sat as long in perfect meditation?
How fragrant it is to share breath with a tree. Trees support the animals and plants around them any way they possibly can, sharing the earth, water and air so well, that others may live better. They love when creatures rest in their branches, cling to their bank, shelter by their trunk, or feed from their bounty. They take joy in so many things! Ten thousand pine cones with a hundred seeds in each, and still they try, because it only takes one success for all that energy to be worthwhile. And when pushed hard, they bend to their environment and keep holding on.
What wonderful role models!
Growth is why it's called a Grove. The greatest teacher in my life, more than any human, has been the massive Douglas Fir standing in my front yard. Just by standing. Simply standing, growing, and giving. How can any person ever compete with that? It makes me want to sit for a few hours each day so I can live. And firmly hold all the people I can find to love.
So, to say "If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it..." is clearly false right from the start. There is always someone there to hear it, and the noise is like a sigh.
The tree itself listens, as does it's companions and all the animals and plants nestled nearby, down to the last insect and bacteria in the ground. In the woods, no one and nothing is ever alone.
That's why we call this place Home.
