It is true that death and life are everywhere. Even within us our cells are dying and new ones being born. Our bodies are supposed to be fully replaced with new cells over a period of a year, so they say.
When we walk on the ground we are probably killing millions of tiny creatures. When we purchase a car we are responsible for killing all sorts in the making of that car etc etc etc.
So we go through life like this in a mode of survival and this mode requires quite a lot of killing.
The development of inner silence and awareness though, changes our perception of our environment.
It is this, in my view, that results in us living the so called "normal" life, but in a way that is more harmonious, more compassionate and more loving.
This is reflected in the way we interact with the people around us, with the greater reverence for people, animals, plants, the environment and basically everything that crosses our path. It is a reflection of the reverence and love we have for ourselves.
They say the development of "ahimsa" (non-violence)is the natural consequence of spiritual practice and I can see this happening more in myself as time goes on.
There is a greater awareness of the violence of many of my actions, which could be a simple remark to someone, the blast of a car horn, forgetting to reply to a phone call, even being defensive about posts in this forum[8D]
This sort of awareness is the simple fruit of practice and makes living the "normal" life more harmonious, in my view.
I believe it is this sort of awareness that has led to my concern about the tree cutting.
The real question for me I suppose, is whether there is a real need for the the tree to come down and whether I can work something out where I can live in greater harmony with nature in this regard.
The tree also represents all the other things in my life that require this reverence.
When I look at myself, I am a lumbering robot doing the bidding of my conditioned mind, most of the time.
I will always have to "carry water and chop wood" but hopefully not in such a robotic way as before.
quote:
WHen in doubt question beliefs. Always. In fact, just plain question all beliefs, no matter how obvious they seem, until nothing is left, and then go into that nothing.
That's nice Divineis,thank you, what I get in that nothing, is the tree and me are the one love, I need to take stock of that.
