Into The Forest


To`na Wanagi
 Share

Recommended Posts

The grandfather watched as the young boy/man was obviously restless to experience more than what his village had offered him, so he asked him "Grandson, what is it that bothers you?"

The boy/man said, "Grandfather, I think I am now a man and I wish to go out into the world and discover the mysteries of life. Can you tell me grandfather, where I will find these things?"

Grandfather said to him, "Go into the forest, down in the valley near the river. There you will find all the answers to your questions. But take care to watch all things around you for within them you will learn many lessons."

The boy/man hurriedly gathered his things together and set off on his vision quest. He walked for several days until he reached a high place overlooking the valley below with the broad river winding through it. He could not contain his excitement and rushed down into the valley where he came upon a huge tree blocking his path.

The boy was gone for a long time and grandfather waited patiently for his return. When finally the boy/man came around the lodge and saw his grandfather sitting there motioning to him to come and sit beside him. "Grandson, you have been gone a long time. tell me what you have experienced and learned."

The boy/man related all he had seen on his way to the great forest and told his grandfather of the great tree that stood in his path. Grandfather asked him, "What did you do?"

The boy/man declared, "I took out my hatchet and cut it down!"

Grandfather asked, "And what did you find?"

The boy/man said, "I found another tree beyond it so that I still could not see past the tree. So I cut that down too! And every time I cut down a tree, another one stood in my way. So I cut, and cut, and cut, until I came through to the other side."

Grandfather asked, "And what did you see?"

The boy said angrily, "Nothing! I could not see the forest anywhere! I could not see the forest because of those trees!"

Grandfather shook his head slowly, his eyes full of sorrow, stood and walked away. For he had hoped his grandson would have opened his eyes to the truth that the answers to his questions were within him all along and he did not have to take such long journeys to discover what was always right there. He looked at his granson and said, "You are not yet a man. Hear these words...."Swa di'e syok, neh kuh, swa ya do waht; swihsaak', neh kuh, na swa'gah; swah ho'ah e'syooh, neh kuh, neh da swa'de ho'on dyahs."

His grandson asked, "What do these words mean?"

To which grandfather replied, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." And judge no tree unworthy for it too is just a part of the forest."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you To'na. Some things about this wonderful story stand out to me. Being unable to see the forest for the trees is the manifold ignorance of our present dysfunctional society.

"But take care to watch all things around you for within them you will learn many lessons."

I like "watch"---"within them" and "learn." The quest is not just for a one time "vision" but for developing an entire visionary life style of interfacing with the essence of the elements in the immediate environment. That's what becoming a "man" (or woman) with vision is all about.

The boy/man hurriedly gathered his things together and set off on his vision quest. He walked for several days until he reached a high place overlooking the valley below with the broad river winding through it. He could not contain his excitement and rushed down into the valley where he came upon a huge tree blocking his path.

He had a concept which blinded him through distraction and so, he failed to watch----failed to discover the essence----and did not learn anything because he was focused on a complete fantasy instead of what was right there in front of him. :chococat_h4h: hmmmm..... this is getting mighty close to home.

The boy/man related all he had seen on his way to the great forest and told his grandfather of the great tree that stood in his path. Grandfather asked him, "What did you do?"

The boy/man declared, "I took out my hatchet and cut it down!"

It was in his way so he just got rid of it. Sounds like a certain (throwaway) culture with which I am very familiar. In fact----we learn to declare war on whatever we think stands in our way.

Grandfather asked, "And what did you find?"

The boy/man said, "I found another tree beyond it so that I still could not see past the tree. So I cut that down too! And every time I cut down a tree, another one stood in my way. So I cut, and cut, and cut, until I came through to the other side."

Grandfather asked, "And what did you see?"

The boy said angrily, "Nothing! I could not see the forest anywhere! I could not see the forest because of those trees!"

Grandfather shook his head slowly, his eyes full of sorrow, stood and walked away. For he had hoped his grandson would have opened his eyes to the truth that the answers to his questions were within him all along and he did not have to take such long journeys to discover what was always right there. He looked at his granson and said, "You are not yet a man. Hear these words...."Swa di'e syok, neh kuh, swa ya do waht; swihsaak', neh kuh, na swa'gah; swah ho'ah e'syooh, neh kuh, neh da swa'de ho'on dyahs."

His grandson asked, "What do these words mean?"

To which grandfather replied, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." And judge no tree unworthy for it too is just a part of the forest."

Grandfather sounds a lot like Yeshua here but the last line he adds is really the capper. "Judge no tree unworthy because it too is just a part of the forest."

Being a "man" is nothing like the so-called "superhero" of today's throwaway culture who boldly slashes and burns and kills whatever he deems to be hindering him----but-----a real "man" is one who pays attention to the interconnectivity of the inner essence and strives to learn from it. It is the difference between the ignorant and the wise.

And-----all of us have been on both sides of this. So-----may we pay attention and learn from whatever comes to us.

namaste

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He wasted the trees. Should have used them for shelter, a bridge to cross the river or firewood to keep warm and cook with. Sounds like the boy didn't learn anything growing up, who's fault would that be? His parents? The school? Grandfather?

I do enjoy this lesson, thank you for sharing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe----"Useless, useless, blind stupidity to do such poisonous mindless violence to oneself! My heart breaks! That murdersome and ignorant fool has NO IDEA about what a tree is!"

When the city came to uncememoniously plow down the row of beautiful Locust trees next to our house while joking and cursing----in order to widen the road----my dear wife SingingWolf wept. She could hear those beautiful trees shrieking and screaming.

"They could have at least apologized," she sobbed.

It is the whole rapacious anti-life attitude of this totally demented culture of error which refuses to recognize sacredness and only lives to focuses on consume consume consume.

We can be thankful for one thing. This Pakman mentality will soon eat itself because it is totally mindless and suicidal.

namaste

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He wasted the trees. Should have used them for shelter, a bridge to cross the river or firewood to keep warm and cook with.

Yes. And if he had showed some reverence and just said "thank you," the trees would have fully agreed and felt good about it----having been rendered up into a higher service of the Creator to serve the human being whose eternal destiny is to become the caregiver and steward and protector of our Mother Earth and every one of her children.

We will get there yet----it is inevitable---but----why wait? Why bring anymore useless suffering into our world? All it takes is restoring the sense of the sacred and some heart consideration and thoughtfulness. This is nothing more than having respect for the web of life including ourselves.

namaste

Edited by nestingwave
Link to comment
Share on other sites

He wasted the trees. Should have used them for shelter, a bridge to cross the river or firewood to keep warm and cook with. Sounds like the boy didn't learn anything growing up, who's fault would that be? His parents? The school? Grandfather?

I do enjoy this lesson, thank you for sharing it.

The boy learned it from observations of the world of humankind and its self-absorbed, self-centered spirit.

Remember, it was grandfather who was teaching him the right way. "Grandfather" is the metaphor my people use for wisdom. "Father/Mother" are metaphors for discipline and nurture. The school is a metaphor for the earthly creation around us, which is supposed to be considered sacred.

I very much appreciate all your insight. Have any of you ever been cut down for being who/what/where you are, or have been?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 1993/94...when I first got my property up in Willow Creek...of more than 400 trees on my 7 acres, yes very thick...I had to thin out about 80 dead and dying spruce, 6 oak and 15 redwood. I cleared about a dozen spruce before I would even think about occupying the house due to proximity/fall. The neighbors thought we were "some sort of weirdo's" (and boy did they let us know) as I had my friends from Hupa* (Indian rez) come and do a "tree clearing/property cleansing ceremony"...it was after all... Native Land long before I held claim to it...several elders and about ten younger members came with their full dress, flutes and drums, feather fans, sage, baskets etc etc....AMAZING thing to witness! They did the drumming part, then a long dance and then a flute offering...I get chills now just remembering...it was nearly an all day process of which we ate, sang and danced amidst the trees...and ate some more! A day I hold dear to my heart and will never forget.

They not only asked the trees permission for this to heal the land, but "turned it over" to our care. I did a full on Runic/Nordic cleansing of the house before we moved in 9 months later and even incorporated several aspects of what Gray Eagle had taught me.

Not only did I procure about 35 cords of burnable wood for our wood stove (only heating in winter) the land came back with a vengeance. Our garden produced at least double what the neighbor "expert" (he had every bag of stuff available from the plant/feed/hardware store) did with our using only nominal, organic fertilizers/mulch, lady bugs for aphid control etc. Thick corn rows fence to keep deer to the corn, not garden! The forest, about 5½ of our 7+ acres was greener, fuller, far more vibrant than the surrounding properties. We might have been "weird", but our land was the center piece of Trinity road in a mere 2 years.

Yes, respect the land, and as importantly others, and it's amazing the results, the future and the Continuum that comes from being a part of it All!

Blessings of Peace,

*These are the good folks I met and grew to love through my studio...working with the kids/courts to cover crapola tattoos so they could find work...that I mention from time to time.

edit: I should also mention...the "people", if one could call them that...left 5 cars, about 8 or 9 engine blocks and trannys, leaking oil etc, piles of metal, over 200 bags of trash strewn everywhere...in the end 10 twenty yard dumpsters of trash and junk on the land. Dirty hypo-needles and ramen noodle cups were as thick as a carpet around the house....they had started fire-pits over nearly every inch of about 2 acres filled with trash and cans and...and....absolutely disgusting....but also why I got 7.5 acres along the Trinity River for a mere $30k...the owner did not want to have to clean it up so me played "Let's Make A Deal"!!!...Monty would have been proud, but not as proud as we were when we got to enjoy the land, fish from the back deck and eat from our garden.

My 6 years there are only eclipsed by the years I spent on Maui and both are a tough call as to which had more impact on my Spirit.

Edited by Atwater Vitki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

grateful is clapping again

as it should be, my friend the vitki! it's about respect, right?

as a woman, I do feel that I have been rendered insignificant simply by virtue of my gender. those who would do so to me personally are usually of little significance and only mildly irritate but the institutionalization of this discrimination has pained me for thirty years, more even

and when others are "cut down" in front of me, I'd like to think that I would always use my voice

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ya know, reminiscing about my place up there today brings up another point about the environment and how resilient it can be.

Every place there were leaky engines and trannys, I marked with flags so the next year I could clean up the spills with the back-hoe. On everyone of those spots the oil or fluid had only penetrated maaaybe a foot into the ground. I dug out everyone and used the oil soaked dirt to line the ONE new fire pit/burn pile for the property. It cost me $125 per 20 yard dumpster for the haul off ($1,250.00 + about another $100 dump fees for the p-truck loads), but I made nearly $800 off the recycling of the junk left so a major cost reduction there.

When I called the County to get the occupancy permit, they inspected nearly every square inch of the place, including soil samples because one of the inspectors had shut the place down when the "animals" (prev. tenants) lived there and knew about the engines etc. Not one spot showed so much as a point on the test strips or in the report from the State the property was given a clean bill of health of course and something the neighbors should have been glad to have come in...but noooo...I still had one, across "Bloody Nose Creek" that carried on about the ceremony we held ...even years later...how it was insulting to his "better senses" and how did he know some of "their voodoo" didn't cross the creek onto his land? Hu-mans! First they call it superstitious "voodoo, then they are worried it "might" do them harm. Fickle, insulting to my better senses, hu-mans!

Geeesh! This would be such a great Planet of it weren't for about 90% of all the danged people on it!

Blessings,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe----"Useless, useless, blind stupidity to do such poisonous mindless violence to oneself! My heart breaks! That murdersome and ignorant fool has NO IDEA about what a tree is!"

When the city came to uncememoniously plow down the row of beautiful Locust trees next to our house while joking and cursing----in order to widen the road----my dear wife SingingWolf wept. She could hear those beautiful trees shrieking and screaming.

"They could have at least apologized," she sobbed.

It is the whole rapacious anti-life attitude of this totally demented culture of error which refuses to recognize sacredness and only lives to focuses on consume consume consume.

We can be thankful for one thing. This Pakman mentality will soon eat itself because it is totally mindless and suicidal.

namaste

I'm with singing wolf!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Atwater Vitki, I agree with your assertation of the 90%. I hope you still have that seven acres what a place to retire too.

Unfortunately no, I don't have it...shall we just say it was a "settlement" with the ex.

I didn't mean to side track the topic so I guess we should get back on track.... :blush:

Another unfortunate in our day and age is people simply do not see the "forest for the trees". Nobody is willing to step back and take a look at what really matters for them to fit into things....themselves.

Like the young man above they are so hell bent on destruction of things, relationships, property, ideals, morals etc etc that they don't even see how their own actions effect others or themselves for that matter. We have become a blame everything and everyone else society for the problems we create. What these types refuse to see, yes refuse to see, is that when pointing at these "other things", three fingers are pointing directly back at Self.

Blessings Be,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahhh.... I see you are a great oak tree...well, you grow much too slowly to be of use to me so we must cut you down.

Perhaps, pine tree, you are what I am looking for? Oh, I see you grow much too fast and your wood is much too weak and soft for my liking. We must be rid of you.

Old hickory, I see you are full of nuts this year and with those nuts you have brought many squirrels into the neighborhood. Truly you must know how bothersome those squirrels can be? Sorry, but you have violated our segregation rules. You know the penalty for that! Excommunication from the forest.

Mulberry, we so much love your fruit....but so do those darn birds and then they poop all over everything, staining as they go. We must not have that.

Crabapple, yes you are very pretty, but only when you are in bloom. Your wood and fruit is no good so you really serve no good purpose here. Self-pollinating you say? Well, you know how we feel about your kind! You will definitely have to leave!.......and on..and on....and on... :bye2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, respect the land, and as importantly others, and it's amazing the results, the future and the Continuum that comes from being a part of it All!

This is excellent, brother. With this simple recognition----comes abundantly thriving life. This is what awakening to our full consciousness is all about.

Until then, we are at odds with ourselves and we are the adversaries of the entire Universe (including ourselves) because the unfolding, upliftment and expression of Life's infinite potential is the prime omnipresent intention which is endemic at the very First Source of the entire Great Creation. All of it. This is the Universal Purpose and it exists from the quantum and even sub--quantum levels. The conscious recognition and practical application of this "Continuum" (your co-creation) represents a complete transformation by the renewing of our minds. It is a shift from linear to holonomic thinking----it is the unfoldment of our DNA----and it opens up all transdimensional possibilities. It is our Cosmic Destiny and it is unstoppable by any force of violent ignorance no matter how virulent or powerful.

It is the emergence of the long predicted "golden age" of peace on earth and goodwill toward men----and a large part of it is our initiation into a marvelously thriving galactic society----which has already been our experience in the very distant past before we allowed ourselves to become consciously disconnected and took the plunge into amnesia in order to dwell on a planet of forgetfulness----and gradully experientially discover what it might take to recover our lost memories about who and what we really are and what is our relationship with the Great Creation and our First Source.

That long enterprize is now at its final end. :doh::derisive:

namaste

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahh...the mighty Yew tree must be it. Good for bows for hunting, wood for crafts, boats and other things. Even your wood is good for burning to keep us warm! We must have ONLY yew trees in the forest! Right?

Wrong. :lol: But-----of course-----you already know that. heheheh. I think you vikings came here to America before anyone else and struck up a conversation (or two) with the natives? Sign language? Didn't your captain Eric the Red come here even before the Irish monk Brenden the Navigator?

Of course none of that is politically correct. We are only allowed to accept "consumer progress" like Columbus and his well financed murdersome "christian" colonialism.

I'll bet you could make all the bows and arrows and VERY sturdy boats out of Yew trees that might be required. :derisive: But-----if I was a bloody Englishman I would be saying, "Lord save us from the wrath of the Northmen!" :crazyeyes: Why can't you vikings be peaceable like them Eskimos?

I tell you what. Let's build a sturdy boat out of Yew wood and sail north to the pole and find the entrance to Agartha! Or Valhalla? My my those viking boats (actually ships) are masterpieces of craftsmanship. I have a vague memory of having been aboard one of those incredible ships long long ago----or maybe it was an amusement park. They do lend themselves to....... adventure. And----militaristically speaking they do tend to make one feel....uh... invincible?

There you are as the one--eyed viking beserker (Kirk Douglas) swinging a huge blade and screaming "OOOODIN!!!" No---not really---you're a tiny bit more.... uh..... "civilized".... than that? Then again----I'd be steamin mad too if Tony Curtis' falcon had eaten out my left eye!

Sorry for the uncalled for stream of consciousness. :chococat_h4h:

namaste

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My daddy became a jypo logger in eastern Washington at the age of 16. In those days, in that area, a logger's tools were a two man crosscut saw and a double bit ax. When I was a little tad, he told me the Legend of the Tamarack and that story has remained with me my to this day.

Many, many years ago, when the forests were young and Coyote and Beaver were many, Tamarack was the most resplendent tree of the forest. In those times past, Tamarack's green needles and straight, tall trunk were its shining glory, especially its fine needles. Tamarack's fine green needles remained green throughout the autumn and winter, just as Pine, Fir, Spruce and Cedar's did. After a time, Tamarack became haughty and believed himself to be better than all the trees of the forest. He felt he was King! It came to pass that one winter settled upon the land that was unusually cold and bleak. The winds blew harsh and cold and the snow piled deeper than any of the forest had ever seen before. Coyote burrowed deep into the snow and made a lodge to protect himself and his family. Beaver packed mud over the top and in the nooks and crannies of his lodge to protect from the howling winds. Snow bird, who seemed to always forget to fly south for the winter, sought refuge in Tamaracks wonderful branches. Tamarack was horrified that a bird would dare to winter in his branches and told Snow Bird to leave. Snow Bird begged Tamarack to allow him to stay but Tamarack held fast and refuse Snow Bird shelter. All the while Great Spirit was watching. When Tamarack shook Snow Bird from his branches, Great Spirit became angry and cursed Tamarack. Great Spirit told Tamarack that because he would not provide shelter for Snow Bird in Snow Birds hour of need, that every autumn Tamarack's resplendent needles would turn brown and fall to the ground and Tamarack would remain naked throughout the winter and no bird or animal would look upon him for shelter. To this day, Tamarack remains without needles each winter.

Just as "Into the Forest", this is a parable intended to teach kindness to all living things.

Peace

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Amulet locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share