September 3rd

Tree

Did you measure to attain your height?
Did you use geometry to radiate your limbs?
Did you lament storm-torn branches?
Did you inventory your leaves for the sun?
You did none of these things, yet man in his cleverness
Cannot match your perfection.


When will we give up the artificiality of our tiresome lives and cleave instead to what is natural? All the achievements of man are only monuments to overwhelming pride. There has not been a single man-made item that has been a necessary improvement to the earth. Did we need the Great Wall of China? Did we need the pyramids of Egypt? Did we need the Colossus of Rhodes? Did we need mechanization, steam power, electricity, nuclear power, or computer technology? All our achievements have been for the sake of our exclusive comfort and gratification. We have only advanced the mad tangle of supply and demand that we call civilization. We don't need all this "sophistication" in order to live with Tao. Our involvement in society blinds us to this fact. We ignore the natural order of our own bodies and minds and close ourselves to the point so that only sex and drugs are stimulating enough. We lament that we are lost and alienated. Ironically, the answers are right nearby. If you just go to the nearest tree and contemplate, you will easily see the secret to natural living.


Personal Interpretation

 The monuments we build do not help us achieve the state of being wherein we can experience Tao. We must reconnect with nature and rediscover simplicity to accomplish that. Why not find a tree and meditate beneath its branches? It is truly a work of art, a wonder of the world greater than any on the list of seven that we have devised. It takes what is offered, extends its branches deep into the earth, reaches upward while remaining bound to the the land of its birth. It lives and dies and is reborn again. It does not fight against the natural order but embraces it. If we truly want to know peace, we should do the same.