Episode 43

You are Part of a Great System

If you’re a city dweller and you walk into the forest, you might enjoy the fresh air, the serenity, the beauty of the plants. Even so, you might be somewhat detached from them. Being from a modern civilisation, you might be so removed from what’s around you, that you see the trees as objects, rather than living things.

Of course, when a monkey, a shaman or hunter-gatherer walks in the woods, she has a very different experience. She can’t help but notice the life around her, acknowledge and respect it.

A friend used to say, trees are a genuine public service – providing oxygen, regulating the temperature, and increasing rainfall to promote more life. Plants and trees are a part of a system… our system – the system to which we belong.

When we walk around and notice trees, we can consciously respect their presence, and life.

Hosts & Guests

Kurt Robinson

Transcript

Welcome truth seekers and happiness lovers. Welcome!

I was just thinking about this story my friend Bob told me more than a year ago about how he was working near his home and when he goes to the cafe or corner store he usually sees a group of birds, I don’t know sparrows or something near a fence and he would say hello to them

And then one day passing by again he saw them and there was a new one with them, there was like 5 instead of 4 or something.

It seemed like they were being unusually quiet that day and he walked past and said hello.

As he was walking off one of the old ones chirped at the new one and Bob said it was like they were chirping at the new one to say “See, told you. Told you that guy was cool.”

Makes me think, I mean you don’t have to believe that story. But it makes me think of this interview with Master Shaman Hamilton Souther.

And it was telling this story about taking the sacred medicine ayahuasca and he said he was communicating with the trees in this deep trance and the trees were having a little giggle because when the monkies come out into the jungle, they know we’re here.

They acknowledge our presence, they are aware of us not just as part of the environment like a road or something or dirt in the ground, space or something. They’re aware of us as other beings.

And again you don’t have to believe this story that trees are talking to Souther but the point of this story is if you go out walking on the street and you see those trees, you can acknowledge them. This is a sort of mindfulness meditation and keep in mind that as you walk along you are having a kind of interaction with these living beings.

My friend Lourdes used to volunteer at one of the forests they were trying to replant in Guadalajara. And when we went down in there she would give this tour and she would say “what’s the difference between a park and a forest?”

And she would say “These trees aren’t just parts of the background, they’re actually public services, real public services. Almost altruistically giving the service, regulating the temperature and providing oxygen and shade.

All the things they do for us actually increasing the rate of rainfall and things because they extract water from the ground and it goes up into the sky.

There’s a whole ecosystem going on there but if you walk past a tree on the street you might not even tip your hat at it.

You don’t have to tip your hat at it, it’s not the point of this. You can acknowledge it. You can acknowledge these things that are part of a greater system, part of our system. A system in which you are already a part.

Acknowledge the things around you, acknowledge your presence in this system.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of this system, being a part of this world and cosmos and finding your own piece of the puzzle to slip right into.

Thank you for having a great day, I’ll talk to you soon.

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