Prayer for the Tree

This beautiful story will show how much the physical and energetic life is always seen as belonging together.

At the edge of our property right by the ocean, we had inherited a beautiful place of prayer, two little temples, overshadowed by a large fruiting tree, which was always dropping little sour purple plumbs during the months of November through December on our temples,  the close by Jacuzzi and walk ways, and had become hazardous as kids loved to climb the tree.

However, kids form the neighborhood loved it and I also felt very happy for the children to have a place to play, gather food and learn survival skills, which kids happen to like to practice. None of us grown ups really wanted to disturb them.

But the tree turned everything it fell on into a grimy purple, and had also become a place of harsh play, where less heart-full kids where throwing the nasty purple colored fruit at one another to create stains on the other children’s clothing, accompanied with all the noise that children love to make and actually was also a hazard,.

I felt it was time for a change. A few days before coming to this decision I had tried to ignore my recurring visions of falling children, and I prayed that no harm would come to the children. This finally was the year I wanted to replace this rather messy tree with a flowering tree to preside over the little temples that a lot of local people, mainly the fishermen in our neighborhood, used for daily offerings.

I informed our land signer, a great Balinese man, our architect, as I could not plan or do anything alone here in Bali. He knew that he had to consult the Seer to hear whether the tree could be cut down, and if yes, on what day.

The day he was going to ask the Seer if the tree wanted to be cut down, fortunately or not, his nephew of about 10 years of age, fell from high up out of this very tree.

I marveled at the amazing coincidence of this event which happened just before our architect was going to consult the Seer. I felt  that permission to cut down a fruiting tree would usually not be granted, albeit being a very sour and messy one, as this very tree was also the shelter for a shrine, where all neighboring Balinese come to do daily offerings (mind you, all in the stone throw of 25 yards away, were I was trying to sunbathe) But now, the day I made it known that the tree had to go, and believe me, I usually am the last one to hold to any tree before I give my permission for it to be cut down, this very day the nephew or our architect fell about 15 feet flat onto the ground and was knocked out for about 5 minutes. Thank God, nothing too serious had happened to the child, other to serve as a reminder that something more dangerous could happen.

Our architect told the Seer the story about the child falling form the tree while seeking advice on whether the tree could be cut down or not. NOW her verdict was, THE TREE CAN LEAVE! It can be cut down. There was also an unspoken law that no human should be higher or above the  roof line of the two little temples. The climbing above the height of the little temples threatened the holy balance of humans who are to live in subjugation to the more holy laws of spirit.

After having gotten permission by the Seer to cut the tree down, our architect, came to visit the tree one last time, together with his wife and his parents to spend an hour meditating with the tree, doing a small ceremony, in order to help  the tree realize its new future and help its spirit leave.

It was so very touching to witness this little ceremony, which tied the spiritual life together with the physical life, the plant life with the human life. It was very very beautiful and I felt at HOME here in Bali, with a people who live and think like I do. Here  in Bali you will still find an entire culture where most all members of the country still know how the physical life is intertwined with the spiritual, with the energetic life.

The Balinese are the only people still alive and functioning in a Western World  that I know of, who have kept the spirit of things alive. Love and respect is in the air everywhere.n |The unspoken wisdom of  I AM YOU AND YOU ARE ME is still fully alive here in Bali.

I LOVED the time I sat in meditation with the family of our architect, who took care of this ceremony, and I did what I have found natural to do, which is to feel that trees are beings and they too need to be honored and can be communicated with.
In the West we tend to use our mind to decide, to change, to make things happen. We have strong minds and strong egos.  Many of us don’t take time to feel, to sense the right time, to perceive the bigger picture.

When we meditate, when we start to live in harmony with the energetic world we start to become sensitive to the perfect rhythm, a choice that regards the whole instead of only the part, and we develop a sense for a perfect time for action.

Let’s all do more of that.