Taking Nature's Point of View, "Being" a Tree
You can know what another living Being's life is like because you can imagine or intuit looking out through their eyes, feeling their roots or wings, or hearing their inner song.
For example, when you come from a tree's point of view, you are acting as if you are BEING the tree.
When you take a tree’s point of view, you can understand what it is like to stand all day with arms raised, to be busy all night drinking water and moving resources around, to have breeze and birds in your hair, and to live within a supportive community of others.
This is a non-linear process. You use a combination of sensory awareness and intuitive openness to gain information. Some people like to call it "talking" with Nature, but this is different. When you come from another's point of view, you are no longer focusing on yourself. You are focusing on their reality.
The key point is that you let go of your attachment to being human for a few minutes. Let go of needing to use your logic or access all of the information you have stored inside...take a deep breath...and allow Nature's reality to sink into you. You are finding out what that living Being's life is like.
Why Would You Do This?
Perhaps I should ask this question first: "Do Nature Beings have a point of view?" In other words, are other Beings sentient?
The existing cultural framework of beliefs (the paradigm) would answer that only humans are sentient. That is the old thinking.
There is an ancient belief arising anew. All ancient and indigenous peoples honor the life and the wisdom of Nature. So, by accepting that a Nature Being has innate intelligence and therefore can have a point of view is crucial to PARTNERING. As long as you accept this, you can move on.
So we'll ask again, "why would you take Nature's point of view?"
Answer #1: Because compassion arises; truly effective action is possible.
When you understand what another living Being's life is like, you understand why they are the way they are.
It's like the old saying, "Walk a mile in their shoes."
And so, you can intuit what they need and want in life. They can tell you directly what will help them.
If they give you permission to help them (and it is only polite to ask), you can take action that actually works--not a shot in the dark.
Answer #2: In Order to really PARTNER, not dominate.
Even with the best of intentions, you can't be someone's partner unless at least 4 conditions are met. Without these, there is only domination, control, and superiority/inferiority in any relationship.
- The 'other' wants to be in the partnership.
- You and they are equals.
- You can communicate in mutually satisfying ways.
- You understand what their life is like and what they want and need. They similarly understand yours.
To address the first point, trees, plants, and all Nature Beings really want to be in partnership with people. How can we say that? We've asked them. They've told us.
Going the rest of the way to partnership asks that you personally take on the challenge of coming from the living Being's point of view.
Here are some examples of why intuitive access to understanding is needed:
- Finding out what kind of preferences a wild animal has for food or shelter allows you to facilitate that in a way that actually works for them. It's not a guess or someone else's advice or "how we've always done it."
- Learning about the interacting workings of an ecosystem --yes, from the inside out-- allows you to have a level of knowledge that just scientific observation can't attain.
- Feeling whether a tree's circulation is functioning properly, allows you to bring forth a new healthy network pattern of functionality for them. (I explain "new healthy network pattern" at About Us>>Our Missions.
Answer #3: Because it's the only way that will actually work in order to turn around the ecological damage on Earth so that humanity can continue to inhabit Her.
What humanity has been doing for the last 500 or so years hasn't worked for Nature. It's all been about exploitation. It's time to give back. Or else, the planet will continue its existence without humanity.
Luckily, the old paradigm ideas (domination, control, and superiority) are on their way out. There is an idea whose time has come which will sweep humanity's consciousness. It's Partner With Nature.
