Temple, Mantra, Poem, Prayer

"Sometimes I come across a tree which seems like Buddha or Jesus: loving, compassionate, still, unambitious, enlightened, in eternal meditation, giving pleasure to a pilgrim, shade to a cow, berries to a bird, beauty to its surroundings, health to its neighbors, branches for the fire, leaves for the soil, asking nothing in return, in total harmony with the wind and the rain. How much can I learn from a tree? The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer."

Satish Kumar, editor Resurgence magazine
though this quotation is likely from one of his books

With so much I can (and want to) write about Kalachakra, the most important experiences are too subtle for my own capacity to express in words. Plunging back into ordinary reality I suddenly became afraid that I could lose what was powerful for me. If only because it was hidden under the avalanche of everyday distractions and obligations.

The trees that had just begun to show buds when I left for Canada were draped in tiny shivering leaves when I returned. Now they are full and green.

I'm spending as much time as I can embraced by trees. Remembering. And trying to become more like them.

Comments

[Anita]

That's such a beautiful quote about trees, and your image of spending time embraced by trees is beautiful also. I'd never heard of Satish Kumar before and I loved that quote so much I looked for information about him on the internet and ended up ordering one of his books, Path Without Destination. I was hoping the quote would be in this book (because I love reading things in their whole context), but of course I realized the chances of that were slim, and besides it will be some time before I can sit down and read the whole book. But in just a short amount of time browsing through it, I came across another quote about trees. It's in one of his chapters about pilgrimage. He visits a Tibetan monastery in Scotland, and it's lovely to read how they settled there: "The hills are a source of inspiration to many religous people....Whenever the lamas needed clarity and upliftment, they went to the mountains. Some of the lamas who were displaced from the mountain monasteries of Tibet during the Chinese invasion of the 1950s came to Scotland and searched for a landscape with the same soul. They found it here, in Eskdale in the Lothian hills...."

When he's describing his tour around the property, he says: "As we walked and talked we came to stand under a tree;I immediately felt the close connection between trees and Buddhism. The Buddha received his enlightment under a tree....Ashoka, emperor of India and a passionate follower of the Buddha, instructed every citizen to plant five trees a year, to look after, nurture and respect them, not only as a means of food, wood, and shade but as a source of inspiration and enlightment." Thank you for letting me know about this beautiful writer (and person) whom I'd never heard of before! I'm looking forward to learning more about him.

Now that some time has gone by, I hope you'll be able to write something about the Kalachakra. If you want to, that is. I would really love to hear about your experience, even if it's only a few small details. I know what you mean about the difficulty of expressing in words such subtle experiences. It's almost impossible to capture and communicate certain kinds of experiences. I certainly don't know how to do it. But I've found in my readings that sometimes a more outward, physical description is perfect and ends up expressing some of those hard to pin down things. When I saw the movie The Sacred Wheel, I didn't understand a lot of what it said about the Kalachakra. But my favorite scene was of the monks stirring and cooking these huge vats of milky tea. And I do mean huge. I'd never seen anything like it. At serving time, the younger monks ran back and forth, filling tea pots and bringing them to the older monks, running back with empty pots, refilling them, back and forth several times. So much activity and speed, and yet at the same a feeling of service and joy. It's a scene I'll never forget. I'm sure the people who read your blog would love to hear anything you want to tell us about the Kalachakra. I know almost nothing about it, so any impression or story would be wonderful. But only if it's something you want to write about.