What a fascinating name for this chapter, “Contemplation of a Once-Tree.” Here he takes us on a long walk in winter through a forest and spends the time sharing his thoughts on a dead tree in the woods. It brought up a vision of my first house that I lived in after I got married, it was damp and cold in the winter and hot and unbearable in the summer.
As I read on he shared with the reader two important words in Buddhism anicca and dukkha in English impermanence and suffering. I did not live permanently in that cold old house, but I sure did suffer while I was there. That was, of course, before I began studying Buddhism!
Thus, when the opportunity arrived I left that place and moved to Florida where the winters were like springs in New Jersey. I moved into a brand-new townhouse and the summers were surrounded with every building and every car filled with air conditioning! No more dukkha!
Well almost…. instead I replaced it with too much traffic on A1A in the winter with all those “snowbirds” and vacationers. As I read on I soon came to this line, “In all this immensity and motion our wisp of self becomes ridiculous (page 29).”[1] I started to notice that about myself after I began studying the principles of Unity and New Thought and then moved into the teachings of Buddhism.
I realized that I could make my life as happy or as sad as I wanted to. I could make my days drag on like an endless winter freezing in the cold or melting in the heat of the relentless Florida sun. Or I could simply say “just this.” This choice is mine to make without any judgment, description, story, or emotion. Simply deal with what is…get into an air-conditioned vehicle or building, get a warmer coat or step into a place with heat. Done!
Once a tree—once a person blaming my mistakes in life on everything and everyone but myself, my own thinking, and my own reactions to my own thoughts. At least now I can catch myself when I begin to act like that old dying, feeling sorry for myself “tree,” and take a deep breath and say “just this” and move on!
[2] Nyanasobhano, B. (1998) Landscapes of wonder Discovering Buddhist Dhamma in the world around us. Somerville Massachusetts: Wisdom Publications
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