Tree Meditation

Here is a tree meditation.

Now I’m going to take you on a journey into Nature and share with you a meditation I enjoy doing with our long-lost cousins, the trees.

You might find that you are called to meditate with the waters in a stream or river, or maybe to the clouds in the sky, or perhaps to the breeze – whatever calls to you in the moment in Nature, you can always drop in and merge with it in a meditative state.

Please imagine with me that you are out in Nature.

This is a conscious practice for you to ground and center yourself in calmness using these five tools at the ready: the earth, the heavens, the trees, your breath, and your attention.

Sit quietly on a bench or chair, or step down onto the earth itself, settling in there for at least twenty minutes. Set yourself up to enter a session of ‘being-ness’. Put your attention on your sitting bones and allow your weight to rest on each of them equally. Lengthen and straighten your spine, reaching from the top of your head to the very sky itself as you extend vertically.

Imagine that the earth is welcoming you and allow yourself to sink fully into it, no longer feeling as if you must work against the forces of gravity.

You are now physically centered: your base is connected to and dropped down into the earth, your spine is open and straight.

You are a conduit between the earth and the heavens.

Imagine a line going from deep in the exact center of the earth straight up to the base of your seat, up through your spine, and then extending out the top of your head and skyward into the heavens.

You have attuned yourself to Great Mother Earth and Great Father Sky. So long as you open your inner ears and inner eyes, you will hear and see what they are saying to you.

The surrounding tree creatures play their role so well.

Standing still, going nowhere, pulsing with life, they speak a deafening silence.

You gaze out to the trees in front of you with eyes somewhat out of focus.

And as you gaze, you are aware of your breath.

The earth, tree, human, sky – we all share this air – this medium of energy.

Sit quietly and breathe, in and out, slowly.

You feel your attention drawn to one particular tree in the moment.

Begin a silent communion, as your eyes meet and center on the tree’s presence.

You are in a space of no particular thought – just perception and listening intently.

The trees are experts at ‘being’ exactly who and what they are.

They are our teachers. They remind us that we are indeed human beings, not human do-ings.

As you move through your day and get busy and perhaps even allow yourself to feel harried with all the ‘doings’ in which we entangle ourselves, our friends the trees remind us to rest a moment and center into this place of being.

There is no hastiness here, no busyness, and no sense of urgency.

So, we remember exactly who it is that we are – we are ‘being’ in this moment.

The earth holds us always.

Sky looks over us always.

We are held between these two forces.

They embrace us as we move through the Great Wheel of Life.

And the trees remind us ‘to be’ exactly where we are and who we are, in this moment.

In every moment.

And as we keep our attention on being, we find that sweet spot of incomparable joy in life sitting squarely in this present moment.