MIRRORING NATURE
In the Portuguese coastline, close to where I grew up, people face west gazing the Atlantic ocean at the end of the day. In stillness, they contemplate the sunset. Everyone is waiting for that moment when sun touches the water.
I do the same. And finally when the sun sets foot in the ocean, there is a pause. Slipping out of time, a sense of wonder, colour and gentle warmth ripples through me. It is as if the sky fire I see mirrored on the surface of the water finds also a reflection in me.
This has happened before — when looking out to the world , I feel myself to be the world looking out at itself.
Mirroring is something natural to us.
For instance, during childhood, communication and learning are largely dependent on a healthy mirroring dynamics. Children often imitate the facial expressions and gestures of their parents or caregivers. Parents as well, tend to repeat what they observe in the movement and emotional tones of their children. By imitating what ones see, we internalise the other. At the same time, the other can better internalize oneself via reflection. Thus sensations of empathy and mutual understanding are born.
Mirroring, within this context, it’s a bridge that confirms relationship: something needs the reflection from the other, so that to be better felt, recognised and seen. One and the other are not separate realities but inter-dependent and complementary.
Reflections can also be more than images. They may travel as the echo of sounds, knowledge or stories. Wether it’s received by sight, feelings, hearing or knowing, that means one thing: a meeting has occurred, and because of relating through mirroring everyone can be better themselves.
Not seeing our own faces except via reflection, reveals for example the inherent necessity of mirroring. Mirrors, as we know them, did not always existed. Before the invention of the reflective glass, the only way to perceive our own image was through the natural world — specially the calm waters of the lake or the receptive and fluid eyes of another. In the current times, despite the abundant existence of mirrors, cameras and selfies, and the fact that humans centre very often attention in their own faces, we still feel profound limitations in the understanding of who we are and our place within the web of life.
It happens that we are often limited to anthropocentric reflections: of humans or even others similar to us, such as animals. But what if the images or echoes reflected in the relating aren’t like us at all? What if we look into the mirror only to find an unfolding leaf, forked roots, a meandering river, a crooked tree, compost, green moss, a constellation of stars or a still mountain?
We are generally attracted to what looks like us, such as other humans or animals. Just like us animals have two eyes, two ears and one mouth that wants to eat. Moreover, our arms and legs hold an evolutionary kinship with paws, wings and flippers. But it’s dislocation that we are mostly familiar with when facing the mirror.
Under danger, the animal instinctively runs away. When it catches the smell of a delicious meal or a seductive companion, it comes closer. The solution for both situations is achieved in movement. If we do not find what we look for in here, we can go there. If we encounter something we don't like in there, then we always can go somewhere else. The mutual recognition between us and other animals resides in this uprootedness.
But plants are so strange! Anchored to the place where as seeds they came to germinate, they cannot meet or avoid something through movement. In this way, plants need to find a solution to every challenge they find without leaving the same place. An apparent unthinkable task for us humans!
Biologist Stefano Mancuso, author of ‘The Revolutionary Genius of Plants’ refers ‘whilst animals react to changes in their environment by avoiding them through movement, plants respond to an ever changing environment by adaptation so that to meet it.
Because of such strangeness, it’s easy to alienate ourselves from the green life of our world. Plus as a distant observer we tend to analyse, objectify and reduce this living beings into commodities and resources, making up the exploitative and destructive culture of today’s western society.
By nature, we are social and relational creatures and once and then we need to fortify ourselves by way of recognition and true seeing. We seek for natural environments and when when we do, we just may find in the mirror the reflection of a still tree, a wave or a blooming flower.
GREEN ALCHEMY
Because plants are attached to the place where they once took root, they have developed an amazing scale of self-defence, collaboration and reproduction recognize.
Very often unnoticed by us, trees face daily a great variety of aggressions: climate challenges, threats from drillers, rodents, pasture animals and many other undesirable invaders. Thanks to science’s modern efforts we understand today only a small fraction about battle techniques, seduction and chemical communication of the green kingdom. Bearing this in mind, who dares to proclaim that plants just stand there and know nothing about defence or community?
We can get closer to the chemical world of plants via the nose. Like plants, we live in a sea of molecules, spores, pollens and pheromones. A plant doesn’t need to dislocate so that to cross distances. She uses in this case, the air and wind as means of transportation.
Try this way to stand still or to seat comfortably in a suitable place. Preferably the woods, forest, park, your backyard or a balcony with plants. Keep your eyes softly open and offer them rest. Bring your attention to the sea of air around you. The air that moves the leaves of trees and plants. The air that touches your bear skin. The air that slides in and out of your nose. Simply notice your breathing. With every inhale you bring into your body green alchemy: oxygen, pollens, spores and smells. Note how air currents bring this all close to you. You don’t need to go nowhere. And then, when you exhale, you give to the world what your cells had release in your blood. What your nose bring in and out it’s an essential part of the other and yourself. We breathe ‘essence’. Devote ten minutes sensing this reciprocity: you breathe for your environment and your environment breathes for you.
COLECTIVE RESILIENCE
Our society privileges longevity. But who can actually inspire us in understanding such wisdom? When one healthy oak or beech are only in their adolescence, the great majority of animals is already old or dead. Throughout their lives, every tree looses branches, being that shortly after, new branches grow again. Whereas an animal concentrates vital functions in specific organs, plants are modular: every part is equally important, replaceable and renewable. Even if a storm or fire has destroyed the tree above ground, the invisible part of the root can remain alive. Thus after a while, new sprouts can be born. The Pando grows in Utah, in the United States of America. Pando is not one tree but a forest of quaking aspens, with more than 40 hectares. All the 40.000 trees share the same root system, from which they sprout, grow and die for more than 14.000 years. This system in considered to be one of the oldest organisms alive in Earth. Isn’t this a excellent example about collective resilience?
The practice is simple. Find the right environment: a quiet place in the city park, a balcony with view over a tree, a living room with some plants, the woods. Stand with the arms resting along the sides of the body (known as wu chi zhuang posture). Slightly bend your knees. Soften the eyes and let your gaze spread to the periphery. Try to contemplate the environment around you, without grasping. In our daily relation with the body, the eyes and the visual sense, receive much attention. The same happens with the hands. Consciousness tends to stick to those parts we use the most. And also to those places where strong sensations such as heat, cold, pressure, tingling or pain emerge. While some parts of the body can grow stronger under attention and use, others get weaker. Resembling the popular saying: the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
Keeping the posture, let your eyesight include a tree or a plant. In her, there is an equal distribution of responsibilities and benefits above, among all the leaves, and below among all the root tips.
The primal radial and symmetrical organisation also exist within our bodies. Just take note of your six extremities: two arms, two legs, head and tail radiating around the navel. And the symmetry between left and right. Take note of your body weight and let it align with the vertical downward flow of gravity. Take your attention down to the feet. How are the feet receiving your body weight? Gently adjust your posture so that each foot bears equal weight, settling gradually into a 50%-50% stance. In the life of a tree as much as in ours, the perfect radial symmetry can be compromised. Let’s simply behaviors the internalize habit of using one leg or arm more than the other. Or more the eyes than the feet. So be patience if your body keeps on returning into an uneven posture. Most of all do not force a outcome with your will power. Simply allow adjustments to happen by way of body sensations and spontaneous micro-movements.
It’s the essential vitality, manifesting generalized in all parts, that we want to cultivate with the chi kung practice. Within the wu chi zhuang posture, rub softly the tips of the fingers against each other. Then rub gently the soles of the feet on the ground. Back to stillness, feel the sensations of vitality that emerge in the hands and in the feet. Afterwards and with a constant practice, you can perceive energy or chi sensations in your face, arms and legs. Maybe also in your chest and belly. Gradually, the whole body awakens and revitalises. But the adventure of mirroring a modular plant or tree can go even further. The practice of standing chi kung offers access to neglected or forgotten areas of the body, the personal “terra incognita”. Little by little the whole body is reconnected via intention, respiration and micro movement. Reflecting this way, the image of a healthy and mature tree. Accordingly to the Chinese martial tradition, this is called collected power. Or collective resilience.
PLANT BLINDNESS
Someone shows you a photo. In it there is a beautiful park or a forest. And among the vegetation there is a pavilion. A pleasant scenario, but nothing special. And then this person asks you: what do you see in this photo? You don’t think a lot and say: a see a pavilion. Ignoring this way, the luscious and preponderant green. This outstanding phenomenon is called ‘plant blindness’. Botanical green as decorative wall paper. To the ones living in a forest environment, green is not dangerous or a threat. Green does not bite, chases or makes tricks. The green translates the neutrality of shelter. It does not impose, but calms the senses. For this reason, green is indeed the background in which all life is sheltered.
Now concentrate in the red colour. A red traffic light. Red néon advertisements. The Coca-Cola letters. The red flag in the beach. A red correction pen. Red blood. A red angry face. Red lips. Excitation is warm and sympathetic.
The red hemoglobine and green chlorophyll are correspondently what differentiates animal from plant. However their chemical structure is similar, only differing in its nucleus — iron or magnesium. We, animals are red and warm. Green is beautiful, but strange.
It just happens that nowadays, we simply stopped relating to this silent and apparently still existence, as an alive and intelligent entity.
Here’s the practice. As suggested above, search for a place with plants or trees and stand resting your hands over your belly. Relax your knees and eyes. Bring 60% of your weight unto your heels. Try now imitating the attitude of a child: open, curious, without prejudice or theories. In Zen Buddhism this is called ´beginners mind`. Accordingly to the words of buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) “in the beginners mind there are many possibilties, but in the mind of a expert, only a few”. If the beginners mind is hard to imagine, please watch the video about the men who see possibilities for the first time.
Try to observe then a tree or a plant as if it were the first time. Take the attention to the miraculous green of it’s leaves. Notice how leaves relate both with the subtle dimension of air and light and the corporeal stability of the mother tree or plant. Notice transparency. How leaves follow the wind. Or how they ideally occupy space so that to capture more effectively sunlight. If you wish to continue contemplating, but your legs are becoming tired, seat on a chair, on the ground or lean your back against the tree trunk. In alternative, if the soil is not too wet, lay down and see the leaves from their best side. In last instance, chi kung is not limited by any posture or technique. It’s essence is innocence.
TREE AS A TOTEM
Zhan zhuang chi kung means literally ‘standing pole’ or ’standing as a pole’. As far in my understanding, there aren’t historical sources that make a direct association between zhan zhuang chi kung and trees or plants. Master Lam Kam-Chuen was the first to spread via his books, standing chi kung as “still like a tree”. And it was german professor Jiao Guorui who labeled one of the essential attitudes of zhan zhuang as “Stehen wie een Kiefer”. Standing as a pine. Professor Jiao was clearly referring to the example of verticality transmitted by the forest. The direct vertical connection between the support of the earth and the nutritive atmosphere of heaven. One honourable and challenging totem for us, restless animals.
However, this excelent initiative of connecting the zhan zhuang practice with the plant or tree is only the first step.
I grew up in a area of pine tree monoculture in Portugal. There the pine was largely used by the resin and paper industry. The pine cones and branches were also used for the domestic fireplace. Protected from the coastal winds, the pines were mostly straight. A very different configuration from the very same tree’s species that grew in the border of the Atlantic ocean. Curved and twisted by the strong winds, these transmitted another history, another inspiration.
But the pine tree it’s also: the compressed power of a closed pine cone. The scented viscosity of it’s resin. One piece of ancient amber. The cloud of polen in the beginning of spring. The hard grain of it’s wood. The incredible obedience of branches to the winds. The branching pattern of it’s root system, many times invisible to us. It’s sweet and wild fragance. The shadow in the hot summer. And who knows the delicate taste of young pine needles in cooking or the tea? One single pine tree, very often forgotten by plant blindness, can offer so much inspiration.
With patience, sensitivity and discernment, we can become the mirror in which the green world confirms itself. And along the process we enhance our vitality and humanity. The image of “standing still like a tree” and more precisely “standing like a pine”, catalyses a great variety of mutual reflections, experiences and ultimately widens consciousness.
The quiet green as a teacher.
