“Is that an apple you’ve got there?”

Hello all,

I’m just hanging around now that the dust has cleared and I have a little free time and I’m watching this series on the science channel called “Planet Earth”. It’s just wonderful I’ll tell you. It’s always amazing to me how connected all life is. Connected to and depended on each other and all are dependant on the earth. Every day there’s what I like to call a “grand ballet” going on all around us. If you look close and careful enough, it’s like a great dance, and somewhere in the distance you can faintly here the sound of the drummer. People, cars, planes, birds, all seem to me to move in relation to each other, connected in their movements and actions. Alan Watts wrote that motion is only perceived in relation to it’s surroundings, nowhere is this more prevalent then sitting outside Starbucks on 14th watching this grand dance of creation taking place as it has for countless ages.

So what does this have to do with any of this you might ask? Well I’m just sitting drinking my triple wet Grande cappuccino and eating an apple when along walks me dear friend Erwin. Erwin: Hey Mike, what you got there? Mike: An apple. Erwin: That’s a fine looking apple you got there bro, can I have some? Mike: Sure!. That’s when it hit me!!!! We can all see the apple, but do we ever see the tree that the apple implies? And how can you separate the thought of the tree from the thought of the apple? This is a simple connection. In learning to make simple connections we can then begin to see our greater connections, and in turn our connections to the greater connections……..Follow?

Here we are trying to learn our connection to the universe and we don’t even (well most of us) see our smaller connections to everything and everyone in our immediate surroundings. We are all part of this “Dance”. If we are truly connected to everything, then it stands to reason that your connected to the chair, the tree (if you have any) outside your window….hell even the window. What we see as independent actions and choices have little independence at their root. Every thought given birth in your mind effects the entire world. Because you have a direct effect on your immediate surroundings, you effect everything in them by your actions, in turn they effect those they come in contact with….and so on and so on………

So what does this have to do with an apple?

Well I’ll tell you. You see the apple is connected to the tree, the tree to the earth. The apple is as much a part of the tree as a branch of a leaf. Inside the apple is contained seeds that in them hold new apple trees. Now here’s where the grand dance comes in. Tree sprouts apples; apples get ripe and yummy; apples fall from trees; animals eat said apples; animals poop out said seeds or open said apples and leave seeds on the ground; new apple trees are born and start the process all over again. If you look close you’ll see these type of things happening all over.

We are like the apples. We are born and in us, through procreation hold the potential for new life; we get married (I suggest you do before the next part anyway) We have babies; we die; the babies start the whole process all over again. It goes much deeper then that, but I think you all get my point. In the same way the apple implies the tree, we imply new life as well. We also imply our connection to the earth and all things around us because we are dependent on said life to exist. In fact we are dependent on death as well because it is as natural a part of life as living.

In learning to see these small connections we can understand on a much greater level then just reading something and nodding, we can EXPERIENCE LIFE! That’s what exploring these smaller connections gives us the ability to do, experience our lives on a personal level close to home, with no external force needed. because understanding something is one thing, but putting something in to practice is another.

We don’t realize how many of these small connections we miss everyday. We eat hamburgers, but don’t see the cow. We eat tuna, but don’t see the fish. We eat apples, but don’t see the tree. What a pity this is because you never learn to appreciate the sacrifice that’s offered up to you to sustain your life. The earth gives you part of her life to keep you alive, and when you die you will give it back by fading in to the soil. This is why life is dependent on death to sustain itself. In order for something to live, something must die. This is the way of the universe. We see it on grand scales as when stars die, and the death of those stars seeds life on new worlds. As we are part of the same creation, why should it be different for us.

So the point of this post? If you don’t already know, is to get you to look not for the grand connections, the ones that make you feel superhuman or above others, but the small ones you never noticed before, the little ones we ignore every day. In this way you can transform your every day life in to something sacred and wonderful, because you will see just how dependent life is on you, and you on it. So now I’d like you all to share some of your connections. How are you connected to your surroundings? To the earth? The stars? Please share with us your thoughts on this. And the next time someone asks you “Is that an apple in your hand?” You can say no, it’s a tree.

Over and out.

**Merin Kyo-Den Bows**