Existence and Meaning

Last modified on: 08/08/06

I was Tree

From The Avatar by Poul Anderson:

I was a birch tree, white slenderness in the middle of a meadow, but had no name for what I was. My leaves drank of the sunlight that streamed through them and set their green aglow, my leaves danced in the wind, which made a harp of my branches, but I did not see or hear. Waning days turned me brittle golden, frost stripped me bare, snow blew about me during the long drowse, then Orion hunted his quarry beyond this heaven and the sun swung north to blaze me awake, but none of this did I sense.

And yet I marked it all, for I lived. Each cell within me felt in a secret way how the sky first shone aloud and afterward grew quiet, air gusted or whooped or lay dreaming, rain flung chill and laughter, water and worms did their work for my reaching roots, nestlings piped where I sheltered them and soughed, grass and dandelions enfolded me in richness, the earth stirred as the Earth turned among stars. Each year that departed left a ring in me for rememberance. Though I was not aware, I was still in Creation and of it; though I did not understand, I knew. I was Tree.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Living Mandalas

In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is an intricate painting made with colored sand, created in meditation, and destroyed shortly after its completion to signify the impermanence of life. Mandalas can be seen everywhere in nature. Every leaf is a mandala. The tree creates the leaf, complex and beautiful, a work of art. Then it falls to the ground and disintegrates. The tree creates leaf after leaf, each one destined to disappear. Instead of mourning the death of every leaf, we see each leaf as simply one instance, one manifestation, of leaves everywhere. We can appreciate and revere a single leaf, but we know it is only one manifestation of leafness, or leafhood. Are humans like leaves, living mandalas?

Koan: Cats and Dogs

She commands her dog to sit, and he understands. Not only does he understand, he abides with enthusiasm. He sits, and she smiles and gives him a hug. His fur is warm, full of love. She notices her cat scratching the end of the sofa and yells, "Stop!" Pausing, staring blankly, her cat acknowledges the outburst and resumes scratching. The fabric is soft and felty.

If you crave "truth," you'll seem to find it. If you stop seeking, you will be more open to recognizing what is false and what is unknowable.