Friday, March 1, 2013

The Tree

Day in and out there are so many things shared in social media, some are really worth a read and some are totally rubbish. Things that are rubbish for you might be a ROFL pic for someone and things that are so sentimental to you might be totally rubbish to someone else. So it depends on the individual to choose things, and comment. No no.. this post is not going to be like this, it involves three tree parables or stories that I came across in the last few weeks whic enlightened me ;) I thought it would be great if i share it with you. First things first,  thanks to Jai Praveen & Trini for their tremendous help.

Life is full of problems and the best part is, even if you don't have any, you are most tempted to create one for the time being. The human brain has been doing this so long, and it continues to work in the same pattern. It was interesting when I first came across "System Idle Process", and the irony is, the human brain is also functioning in a similar fashion. It goes in search of one trouble as soon as the problem-queue is empty. There used to be a story about a traveling peasant illustrating this fact. While traveling from a village to another, he becomes very tired and decides to take some rest beneath a tree. While taking rest, he was initially worried about the remaining distance to cover for the day. He was famished for food and sleep, and so he was dreaming, "what if I get some good food at this place ?", by the time he was thinking about it, the food appeared right in front of him. He looked around but he was not able to spot a single soul anywhere. And since he was prepared for the treat, Oh Sorry.. Since he was so hungry, he completed that food within minutes. As he finished his lunch, his mind started to think "what if we had a cot beneath this tree so that i can take some rest before i make the next move". Again, as soon as he thought of it, that cot appeared right in front of him. This time he was obviously bemused by that cot's materialization out of nowhere. He then slowly sat on the cot just to check if it was real, and yea it was real as well. After lying on that cot, he started thinking how are these things appearing, what is behind all this magic. By that time, his idle mind finds a new trouble, he thought "what if i think of a tiger, that comes out of the forest similar to this cot which might attack me for real !?!" and yea, the tiger appeared right there, and tore him apart. That's how our mind functions, actually this story is about the "tree" they used to call it karpaga viruksham, it gives you whatever you ask for, and the underlying truth is, the tree is within you. Whatever you think forth has the power, each thought that you manifest has the frequency to materialize. So we are advised to think with positive vibes.

While talking about this tree, i remember one other saying that also involves a tree, related to handling problems in life. If there is a poisoned tree in your garden, and there are three ways of approaching it. The first method is the default method, cut and uproot that tree because that is potentially dangerous. That uprooting or clearing it away is termed as the precautionary step taken by an ordinary person. The second approach involves some kind of compassion, they say let us not clear this poor tree, but since others may not know about this poisoned tree, we can put a fence around it. So that we can protect the tree and the trespassers. The third method is totally different from the other two, the reaction looking at such a tree is like this : "Wow a poisoned tree, Perfect ! Just what I was looking for, now what medicines can I bring out from its poison". These are the three different approaches they say, running away from the problems, ignoring them at some point and the last one is taking the positives out of them. The last one involves a lot of understanding, if he/she is so caught up in their own point of view then they will lose sight of a larger and wiser perspective. So that answers the main question of "how have we met disappointments in our life ? with what perspectives have we faced them ?" 

We have been given so many opportunities to understand & learn from those difficulties, it's like the divine trying to communicate something to you through them. But then we have been constantly ignoring or failing to get what has been conveyed to us. Now take a look at the last tree story related to this, "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”. (Luke 13:6) This passage talks about the resources spent for a certain fig tree which was expected to bear a fruit, but that has consistently failed to give what it was supposed to give. And so the owner decides to chop it off as it was wasting his valuable resources. But then the keeper, who was taking care of the tree intercedes and gets what’s called the "grace period" for the fig tree. A parable can be interpreted in various methods, but the point to note here is, the keeper was with the tree during those barren period, he is with the tree for this intercession period and he will be with the tree during that fore-coming grace period, he has never lost his hold / hope on that barren tree. Guess I have made my point.. Have a great month ahead !!