"in the universe there is a huge tree which nourishes all unborn souls"
Aztec belief
Just a few days ago I was sitting on top of a pear tree meditating. Looking down under me, I watched my two horses and donkeys chewing and enjoying the sweet pears that fell down to the ground. It seems sitting up there, you could look at life from a different perspective. Sometimes very little is needed in order for us to look at the world with brighter, more clear eyes.
Letting my animals eat from what mother nature has to offer gave me a feeling of deep satisfaction. Just as a mother watching its child swim for the first time, I felt happy since they really enjoy eating fresh fruit. And what could be more fresh than pears directly from the tree?
While meditating up on the tree I imagined myself being one of the many pears. I could visualize for a while a pear tree full of people. On each branch, instead of a family of pear I could see a family of people. And then the bigger branch included the bigger family, and so on. This way we create a whole society of pears. A tree full of people. Everyone with different shapes and forms. Some are sweeter than others. Some are more mature than others. Some grow old quickly. Some stay young for all their lives. But in the end we are not that different from each other. Just like a tree of pears, we humans are quite similar to each other. Some stick out a little bit more, some hide away behind the leaves. But we all connect somehow. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have similarities. Things to share with each other.
Once we stay on the branch with our pear family life is generally easier. It is when we fall down, become mature, that we need to take responsibility for our own lives, everything gets a bit more complicated. For some people it can be the freedom they always wished for. And for most sooner or later they create their own little family - on a new branch with other small little pears.
Sitting in a comfortable position on the tree, I was listening to the song of the balm cricket and meditating about some people that live close to me. I could see how people seem to become more and more individualistic. It almost appears that we are living in a narcissistic era. Society is hedonistic: focus is to have fun, always, in every situation.
I read that in order to develop a good self esteem you should avoid narcissistic concepts such as impatience, constant acknowledgment, focusing on yourself and your own goals, stay away from negative feedback, comparing with others, and fixate with your own appearance.
A healthy self esteem should be based upon letting go of your own self, your own ego. Dedicate yourself to others and their needs, achieve vision that are not only about yourself, reward effort and learning plus having an immense patience. At the moment when I was sitting up on the tree shaking the tree so that the pears fell down to the ground, these feelings appeared. I believe that many having babies can have the same feeling - when you dedicate yourself to the baby you feel better.
Part of my meditation was also about acceptance. I am reading a book on the subject, which makes me contemplate. It is not easy to accept a lot of things in life. I often realize I try to avoid thinking things or feeling in certain ways. But my book says I should not try to avoid it. It says I shall just open up the doors to my inner self, let the thoughts be there, let the feelings come and go. Just as clouds on the sky. Not try to change them or influence them. Just let them be. Thoughts and feelings are just that. They are not real as long as you do not act them out. If you manage to see them as human constructions, not as a copy of reality, you can more easily invite them in, let them come and go, not keep them, and not change them. Just accept them.
In many Buddhist contries, and also in ancient China, you don´t use the expression "I am sad", "I am happy" or "I am angry". You would say "There is a sadness", "There is a hapiness", or "There is angriness". You are not your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings just live inside you for a little while. And you can choose which feelings and which thoughts feel good to live with inside of you. Thoughts that are constructive for you in some way.
Just as waves in the sea, both positive and negative feelings come, culminate and fade out. How many times do we not wish to stop, change or inhibit the uncomfortable feelings? Sometimes it works, but most of the time not. What we can do is to "surf" on the feelings just like a pelican surf the Pacific ocean waves - to have them and to be in them - but without acting upon them or lie floating upon them.
There is so much suffering in this world. We can choose to not suffer. If we accept more what happens in our life, in ourselves, all around us. The things that happen around us may not create suffering just because it happens. It is the way we look upon them that create the suffering.
Next time you feel anxious, you should try to sit up in a pear tree, see the world from a different point of view and try to immagine being a small green pear. Sweet and innocent. Just existing.
Aztec belief
Just a few days ago I was sitting on top of a pear tree meditating. Looking down under me, I watched my two horses and donkeys chewing and enjoying the sweet pears that fell down to the ground. It seems sitting up there, you could look at life from a different perspective. Sometimes very little is needed in order for us to look at the world with brighter, more clear eyes.
Letting my animals eat from what mother nature has to offer gave me a feeling of deep satisfaction. Just as a mother watching its child swim for the first time, I felt happy since they really enjoy eating fresh fruit. And what could be more fresh than pears directly from the tree?
While meditating up on the tree I imagined myself being one of the many pears. I could visualize for a while a pear tree full of people. On each branch, instead of a family of pear I could see a family of people. And then the bigger branch included the bigger family, and so on. This way we create a whole society of pears. A tree full of people. Everyone with different shapes and forms. Some are sweeter than others. Some are more mature than others. Some grow old quickly. Some stay young for all their lives. But in the end we are not that different from each other. Just like a tree of pears, we humans are quite similar to each other. Some stick out a little bit more, some hide away behind the leaves. But we all connect somehow. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have similarities. Things to share with each other.
Once we stay on the branch with our pear family life is generally easier. It is when we fall down, become mature, that we need to take responsibility for our own lives, everything gets a bit more complicated. For some people it can be the freedom they always wished for. And for most sooner or later they create their own little family - on a new branch with other small little pears.
Sitting in a comfortable position on the tree, I was listening to the song of the balm cricket and meditating about some people that live close to me. I could see how people seem to become more and more individualistic. It almost appears that we are living in a narcissistic era. Society is hedonistic: focus is to have fun, always, in every situation.
I read that in order to develop a good self esteem you should avoid narcissistic concepts such as impatience, constant acknowledgment, focusing on yourself and your own goals, stay away from negative feedback, comparing with others, and fixate with your own appearance.
A healthy self esteem should be based upon letting go of your own self, your own ego. Dedicate yourself to others and their needs, achieve vision that are not only about yourself, reward effort and learning plus having an immense patience. At the moment when I was sitting up on the tree shaking the tree so that the pears fell down to the ground, these feelings appeared. I believe that many having babies can have the same feeling - when you dedicate yourself to the baby you feel better.
Part of my meditation was also about acceptance. I am reading a book on the subject, which makes me contemplate. It is not easy to accept a lot of things in life. I often realize I try to avoid thinking things or feeling in certain ways. But my book says I should not try to avoid it. It says I shall just open up the doors to my inner self, let the thoughts be there, let the feelings come and go. Just as clouds on the sky. Not try to change them or influence them. Just let them be. Thoughts and feelings are just that. They are not real as long as you do not act them out. If you manage to see them as human constructions, not as a copy of reality, you can more easily invite them in, let them come and go, not keep them, and not change them. Just accept them.
In many Buddhist contries, and also in ancient China, you don´t use the expression "I am sad", "I am happy" or "I am angry". You would say "There is a sadness", "There is a hapiness", or "There is angriness". You are not your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings just live inside you for a little while. And you can choose which feelings and which thoughts feel good to live with inside of you. Thoughts that are constructive for you in some way.
Just as waves in the sea, both positive and negative feelings come, culminate and fade out. How many times do we not wish to stop, change or inhibit the uncomfortable feelings? Sometimes it works, but most of the time not. What we can do is to "surf" on the feelings just like a pelican surf the Pacific ocean waves - to have them and to be in them - but without acting upon them or lie floating upon them.
There is so much suffering in this world. We can choose to not suffer. If we accept more what happens in our life, in ourselves, all around us. The things that happen around us may not create suffering just because it happens. It is the way we look upon them that create the suffering.
Next time you feel anxious, you should try to sit up in a pear tree, see the world from a different point of view and try to immagine being a small green pear. Sweet and innocent. Just existing.
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