Page 27 - ECOlogic Book

It’s unusual to find someone, even in the city, who has not known the
companionship of a tree at some time in their life. My earliest tree-friend
was the pin-cherry Tree from whose branches I watched other kids in their
“frivolous” pursuits below. I know now that my harsh judgment of them was
a defense against their rejection. The pin-cherry tree offered me a comfort
and acceptance that at that time, I didn’t feel from members of my own
species.

Often, when I walk alone in the woods, I feel intensity in the palms of my
hands that I don’t feel at other times. I’ve come to believe that trees have
some organ of perception that alerts them to my presence, and that the
intensity I feel in my heart and hands when I’m in the woods is some form
of communication between me and the trees. Am I making this up? I don’t
know. But I do know that I’m different when I come out of the woods than
when I went in. Better.

In Inner Silence, Andres Da Passano suggests a way for us to develop a
sense of union, “a syntony – identity of tone” with trees. (This can be done
with rocks and other beings as well.) It requires an emptying of the
personality, an opening to the “other” in its essence, which the human must
in humility acknowledge he or she does not yet know. You must ask the
tree what it’s feeling, seeing, hearing, how it sees your world. Da Passanno
tells us that older trees have a great capital of memory. Sculpted by the
thought forms that have surrounded it since sprouting, the tree remembers,
and it’s possible for humans to tap into that memory.

Da Passano suggests that you meditate with your back against the tree’s
trunk until you’re completely relaxed, then imagine that you’re embracing
the trunk as you send loving thoughts to the wise being whose
consciousness is in the branches above you.

Reverence is the key here, the key Da Passano says, which, “opens the soul
of all beings, Visible and invisible”. Reverence, he says, is a bridge, - the
common spiritual denominator between us. It cannot be faked. The tree
will be happy to discover your loving consciousness down there by its trunk,
and will respond with love. Bask in the joy, warmth and protection that will
surround you.

Then, if you wish, ask the tree a question you’ve been trying to resolve. The
answer will be immediately evident to you. Don’t expect the answer to
come through language or imagery. This order of communication is quite
different,” says Da Passano, “it is becoming” the answer to your question,
absorbing it instantaneously into your individuality . . . We grow into the
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