Wood from the Trees

It’s always black and white with you. Yes and no. True or false. Fact or fiction. Everything is a competition. But at last you have realised that co-operation is an alternative to all that competing. But I must tell you that even that wider distinction of competition or co-operation is just a myth. For a forest, these distinctions don’t mean very much. What you think of as truth today will be myth tomorrow. And tomorrow’s truth will likewise change into myth and then be forgotten. Some of you sit amongst my trees. And if you are wise you listen closely and hear the big thoughts about the past and the future and the purpose of it all. There’s some wisdom there. The wiser amongst you choose to live among trees, even in tree houses. And here you learn that there are other ways of knowing, other ways of being in the world. You learn that the connections in a forest that you thought took place underground are really extended outwards – even outwards into space. You learn a greater wisdom from this. You might even learn to live like a forest. But you’ve not yet learnt to think like a forest. Yes, I have to tell you that you just get the wrong impression of trees! For instance, in winter, when branches are bare, you think we are sad. Then you think we come alive in spring and summer and you think we’re happy! If you cut down trees you might feel guilty. If you plant seeds or saplings you might think you’re doing a good turn. It’s the same amongst yourselves. One is happy, another sad. One is thought to be doing good, another is bad. Black, white. Yes, no. True, false. Fact, fiction. You need to live amongst trees to know a different way. I will not say a ‘better’ way, or a ‘true’ way, or a ‘correct’ way because, as you’ve probably guessed by now, those distinctions don’t mean very much. Here’s how I might describe it for a human. Every one of you lives by their own myth, or at least with the myth that they currently think of as the truth. So first of all, realise that this is who you are. And secondly, the most important thing – let others own their own myth. This, you’ll appreciate, is a very tricky step. Because it doesn’t mean not having an opinion. It really means just saying what you think and being completely happy, or completely indifferent, as to whether other people agree with you or not. And the final thing to tell you about other people’s myths is that all this doesn’t mean you don’t listen to what other people are saying. In fact, you listen very, very carefully to other people’s myths. You contemplate the myths of others – not just sometimes but almost constantly. If you can do all that then you’ll start to think like a forest. You’ll see the wood from the trees.

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