The Speaking Tree - We Need Nature

NAYASWAMI JYOTISH





A yogi told me this story , “I was walking in the jungle with a companion, when I tripped and accidentally gashed my leg very badly . Although we knew it would be dangerous to stay the night, I was unable to walk, and the situation looked bad. My companion, who had been trained as a healer, raised his hands and slowly began to turn in a circle. After some time, he went to a tree, picked some leaves, and made a poultice. As soon as he applied it, the bleeding stopped, and we were able to continue. He explained that he was unfamiliar with the herbs in that area and was asking the plants for help. The tree had offered its leaves and, if needed, would also have transferred its life force to me.“The yogi (Swami Gyanananda) concluded by showing me a faint scar that looked as if it were many years old, although only two weeks had passed.
This story is both true and a metaphor for our relationship with nature. Our lives depend upon the other inhabitants of our planet. They give us the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat and the medicines with which we heal. There are more microbes in a single teaspoon of soil than there are humans on the earth.
Scientists have discovered that even our bodies are not only our own: they contain a microbiome with 10 times as many cells from microbes as from human cells.
Life is not possible without this symbiotic relationship.There is also, beyond the merely physical, a connection of consciousness, which we can deepen if we choose.