Tree root systems and collective consciousness

Turns out that under our feet is a connected unseen world of communication. Trees and other plants are in constant communication through their roots. They send each other nutrients and when one is hurt or weak, they send them extra love.

When you walk around the forest, it may seem that all these trees are separate, but underground they are all connected and supporting each other in their own quiet way. They gather their strength and life from the sun and use this light to grow and support each other. There is a beautiful metaphor in this because just as we may feel separate as we walk around, inside our head we are connected to a large web of consciousness. Even just our thoughts can have a powerful affect on the whole system. If we can open our mind to a place of receiving from above; light; the divine; love; whatever you want call it- and concentrate our thoughts on this love and healing towards ourselves and the people and world around us, we can make a huge difference to the state of the world.

We did a little experiment today where we closed our eyes and went around the circle sending healing thoughts and prayers to each person, one at a time, silently in our minds. It can be refreshing to remove our thoughts from focusing on ourselves and redirect them to focusing the wellbeing on someone else.

The reading from today is from a chapter in the book The Energy of Prayer by Thich Nhat Hanh about the collective consciousness:

"When we begin to pray, we may not yet be good at it, but we will already be able to generate some energy. Gradually, as we continue to practice the precepts, concentration, and insight, our prayers will have more force, more power.

How can we have wisdom in our prayers? When the energies of compassion, understanding, and mindfulness are present, wisdom is more likely to arise. We do not change ourselves alone, but we change the collective consciousness. That collective consciousness is the key to all change. Larry Dossey, an American doctor and author of Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, has said that our collective consciousness is not like telecommunications satellite. We don't need to send prayers anywhere, because God is omnipresent. There is no need to convert God into some divine telecommunications satellite in the sky. Prayer is unlimited by space or time. What Dossey calls the omnipresent God, Buddhism calls the collective consciousness or the "one mind." This is the store consciousness in which Buddha and we are one.

If there is a change in the individual consciousness, then a change in the collective consciousness will also take place. When there is a change in the collective consciousness, then the situation of the individual can change; the situation of our loved one who is the object of our prayer can change. This is why Buddhists say that everything arises from the mind. Our mind is a creation of the collective consciousness. If we want to have change, we have to return to our mind. Our mind is a center that produces energy. From this powerhouse we call mind, we can change the world. We change it by means of a real energy that we ourselves have created. This is the most effective way of prayer.

In the Buddhist tradition, we know that praying as a community, a Sangha, is stronger than prayer as an individual. One of the Buddha's main disciples, Mahamaudgalyayana, knew that his mother was suffering and this caused him great anguish. Buddha taught him how to take refuge in the strength of the prayers of the Sangha. We have the strength of our own aspiration. We too can send our energy to the heart of the Buddha. But with a Sangha, whether of two or five or one hundred people like us, when we simultaneously practice sending spiritual energy, then that energy is magnified and much more effective.

We pray, but sometimes we may have a situation that is very difficult and we need a stronger energy. The individual energy we can send is already something, but if we have a Sangha that is free and solid then the energy we can send together will certainly be greater. When the whole community prays with us, it can be a significant moment in our lives. We are one of the Sangha who is prayer. Our own undivided attention is a key to open the door of the ultimate reality and the undivided attention of our friends in the practice is an even greater key. When a Sangha of one hundred or one thousand people practices purifying the actions of body, speech, and mind, and unifying body and mind to send energy, the energy generated will be very powerful, and will be able to change the situation which we call karma, the causes and effects of our actions."

Here's a Ted talk about trees talking!