The Tree That Forgot Itself: A Guided Journey Into Truth

This immersive meditation uses the metaphor of a tree to guide us through the illusion of separation and the quiet journey back to our true nature. Through poetic reflection and direct felt experience, we explore how thought becomes identity, how suffering arises through forgetting, and how, like the tree, we can return to the peace that never left us.

A powerful invitation to simplify 'enlightenment', to see clearly the dualistic nature of thought, and to remember yourself home. Please forgive my use of “it” when referring to the tree in this meditation. For the sake of clarity in the visualization, our more-than-human kin was momentarily framed as an “it”—but this is a limitation of language, not of truth.

I hope it doesn’t distract from the deeper message of interconnectedness and remembrance. Thank you for being present in this space and for holding these words for a moment - may they be of use to anyone suffering, lost, or unsure right now.

Much Love, Sez

Transcript

Beloved,

We have innocently accepted a reality that's not entirely true.

Suffering arises when life is not allowed to be exactly as it is.

And in this way,

The illusion of separation can become deeply and quite existentially painful.

The friction that comes from living against the natural grain of existence often reveals itself as longing,

Confusion,

Discontent,

Or ache.

Yet this discomfort is not our doom,

It is our doorway.

So how do we recognize what is true and what is not?

At times,

We need to step back from life in order to truly see it.

From this vantage point,

We may begin to dissolve the heaviness of duality and rediscover the peace of the oneness we are.

One of the most powerful ways to do this is through metaphor.

Metaphor is a sacred and silent bridge that allows us to move from one understanding to another.

While it may seem abstract,

Metaphor has a unique ability to clear away the mental clutter that distorts our view.

It can help us soften the rigid lens through which we often interpret life.

In this meditation,

We will take a gentle and reflective journey into the heart of separation,

How it forms,

How we begin to live through it,

And how we can remember our way home.

You are invited to engage with these words in whichever way feels most supportive.

You might choose to close your eyes and visualize the tree we are going to encounter,

Or you may prefer to sit beneath a tree that you love,

Eyes open,

Allowing these words to connect you more intimately with your surroundings.

What matters most is that you remember the tree's journey through separation and back to wholeness is your journey,

Too.

It is our collective path,

A rivulet of remembering,

Carrying each other home.

So,

Let's begin.

Whether your eyes are open or closed,

Make yourself as comfortable as possible.

Let your body settle,

Feel the breath,

Notice where gravity hugs you.

Be present,

Open to this moment and to these words.

The great remembering begins now.

A seed is buried deep within the dark soil.

The womb of creation is fertile only because of what came before,

What surrendered its earthly body to give rise to new life.

Within this seed is a wisdom that carries it through its entire existence.

It's an intelligence that knows how to grow,

How to become the truth of what it is.

This intelligence is a microcosm of the entire universe,

Encoded with the memory of everything that has ever happened in the precise way it unfolded over the past 14 billion years.

So,

The seed is seeped in a wisdom far beyond its small form.

But it doesn't know that,

Because it's simply being itself,

Growing in accordance with its quiet depth.

Through the petiolome it rises,

Drawn towards the light,

It becomes more and more itself.

Branches reach outward,

Its slender roots deepen into the earth,

Anchoring to life.

The tree does not see itself as a thing,

For it cannot discern where its leaves end and the sun begins,

Or where its roots end and the soil begins.

It is nourished by all that surrounds it,

Appearing as a singular form but utterly dependent on every living thing within it and around it.

It knows itself only as relationship.

In time,

However,

Something shifts.

It becomes beneficial for the tree to recognize itself by a name.

This vast,

Unbounded,

Undefined organism begins to call itself a tree.

It becomes an it.

And with its naming,

A remarkable process begins.

A current of energy,

Like sap,

Moves through it.

This energy is deeply creative and intelligent,

Arising from its cosmic roots to help it adapt,

Survive and communicate.

This movement is called thought.

At first,

Thought is simply a processing tool,

A magnificent instrument that supports the tree's understanding of life.

It allows it to deepen its relationship with its environment.

But gradually,

The tree begins to identify its boundless self with the fluxing,

Spontaneous nature of thought.

What was once a flowing process becomes more and more a solid and fixed identity.

Because thought is a reflection of the environment in which it arises,

A kind of osmosis of subtle and gross information,

Thinking begins to mirror the collective mindset around it.

Competition,

Short-term gain,

Seeking and individualism,

The whispered messages of success through effort and attainment.

Slowly,

The tree's thoughts crystallize into a solid,

Separate,

Sense of self who is always in lack.

It begins to see the beautiful world around it as deficient.

It now sees the world through thought,

Like an amber-tinted lens,

The whole world is colored.

The tree slowly starts to forget its nature.

It forgets its interdependence,

Its inseparability from the web of life.

It begins to live as thought,

Mistaking this temporary movement for the truth of who it is.

Life becomes small,

Limited,

Contained within a self made of thought.

When the tree loses its leaves in autumn,

It believes something essential is falling away.

In winter's stillness,

It tries to think better thoughts,

Hoping to force the sun's return.

In spring,

It believes it authored the blossom.

In summer,

It takes credit for the canopy's glory.

It sees its dripline as its boundary,

Forgetting its ever-present conversation with the broader,

Deeper web within the earth.

When a storm breaks a branch,

The tree's natural wisdom sends up sap.

To heal the wound.

But now,

Tousled in thought,

The tree sees the sap as proof of its brokenness,

Not its natural resilience.

It fixates on the wound,

Protects the wound by layering it with thoughts.

So,

It will never have to feel that wound again.

Its natural growth slows because its energy is spent leapfrogging over the present moment where it could feel,

From the pain of the past into the hope of the future.

Thought becomes the tree's addiction.

It spends its days wishing to be elsewhere.

Wishing to be someone else.

Have something else.

Wishing to solve itself.

Forgetting that it is only ever here,

Part of a vast,

Interwoven relationship with the wholeness of this present moment.

In its seeming separation,

The tree withers.

Still beautiful,

Still a holy expression of wild life.

But dimmed by its forgetting,

Begins to seek a way out.

The tree,

Who has now contained its entirety into a thought,

Does not see that this me it's made itself into is its limitation.

Not life,

Not change,

Not even death.

It's just a case of mistaken identity.

Other trees offer guidance.

Some have transcended their tree-ness and recommend giving up earthly ways.

Certain neo-plant species tell it to erase its sense of self entirely,

To become a no-self,

Without realizing the duality in that goal.

The flowers are quick to tell it to manifest what it desires with positivity and surrender.

The grass assures the tree that if it splits itself up into parts,

It will understand its actions better.

The damp mosses growing on the north side advise it to study its past and investigate why it casts such a long and dark shadow.

And all of this has its place.

Each offering may be helpful for some time.

But deep within,

The ancient intelligence of the seed still stirs.

The part of the tree that knows truth,

Because truth feels like home.

By grace,

The tree stops trying to become a better,

More spiritual tree.

It turns instead to presence,

Begins to notice its thoughts,

To gently observe rather than follow.

It bravely stays for every moment,

And slowly it learns to recognize the simplest,

Yet most vital distinction one can make in life.

What is a thought,

And what isn't?

As the grip of thought identification loosens,

The tree feels its roots again.

It catches glimpses of its borderless being,

Its permeable nature,

Its essence as relationship.

It begins to see that the solid self it once believed in is not located within its trunk.

Every time it looks,

It is met by a flux of processes,

And this leaves it with a deepening sense of mystery.

Emotional energy,

Long buried,

Begins to rise.

Not because something is wrong,

But because the tree is no longer resisting them,

No longer dousing their flames with protective thought.

Sometimes the tree feels like it's on fire,

But it knows it's wrong.

It's one of those thunderbird fires that naturally burn away the litter and the debris,

That actually make it more resilient,

And even helps release hidden creative seeds.

It learns that a thought cannot feel,

Cannot see,

Cannot hear,

Cannot experience anything at all.

And it begins to feel safe in its senses,

And it turns over and over again to its direct,

Felt experience of what is here.

The tree now knows itself not only as the concept of a tree,

But as wind,

As soil,

As mycelium,

As universe.

Thoughts return to their rightful place,

Not as owners of an experience,

But as intelligent,

Creative,

And spontaneous participants.

Seasons come and go.

The tree no longer resists or grasps what arises.

Conditions change and they pass.

The tree becomes a surrendering verb,

A vibrant dance between both form and formlessness.

The tree realizes it cannot know itself through thought,

But it can be itself as this awake and mysterious relationship between all things.

It sees now that there is no part of itself that can become enlightened.

Enlightenment is simply truth remembering its truth.

Not something lofty or rare,

But something so ordinary,

So plain,

It has been hidden beneath layers of complexity.

The tree recognizes its form,

Its seeming individuality,

As held within its true nature,

Awakeness,

The same essence that holds all things.

It sees all others not as separate,

But as expressions of itself,

Part of the same gilded existence.

Like how the colors in a rainbow are distinct,

But not separate,

The tree begins to know that all of life is unique,

But fundamentally inseparable.

And when its body nears the end,

The tree understands there is no death contained within it,

That death,

Too,

Is just another concept.

The seed it came from was just as transient as the seasons,

And there is no fixed moment when one season becomes another.

There is only continuation,

There is only life seeding more life.

The verbing continues even when the nouns fall to nourish the earth.

The tree has returned home to itself,

To the verb of its being,

To the peace of its truth,

To the ease of its open hands and its cleansing heart.

You might like to take a deep breath.

When you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

We come home,

Beloved,

By remembering,

By being,

By seeing clearly,

By simplifying.

There is no need to negate anything unless that negation is in service of a deeper inclusion.

We need not dwell in barren emptiness unless we can also see its inseparability from the fullness of life.

And this is why true understanding must move beyond concept,

Beyond identity and duality,

Into lived experience,

Where emptiness and form are one,

Where we realize our ongoing relationship between all things.

You have never been apart.

You only believed your vastness could be contained.

But you are so much more,

Whether you feel it or not,

Whether you think it or not.

It is the truth of who you are.

Even the smallest realization,

The faintest resonance is enough.

Trust it.

Offer yourself to it.

Devote your life to it,

If that feels like it's a calling.

And the path home will unfold itself before you.

It will guide you and support you through your own direct,

Felt experience of this present moment.

And when you do return,

You will realize you never left,

And all you've ever searched for has been this.

To know yourself.

To simply be yourself.

To deepen your journey into the heart of wholeness,

Not in spite of your lack,

But because of it,

You may like to join my new course on the Insight Timer called Wholeness,

Where you can also listen to weekly reflections that help you remember yourself home.

I am indebted to you for your presence and your support of this work.

Please feel free to share it with your own community if it spoke to you in any meaningful way.

From my heart to yours,

Have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Dear Sez, this is exceptional as always! As do so many human beings, I feel a deep and beautiful connection with and love of trees and other forms of life. I love your words that each tiny seed contains the growth and wisdom for its entire existence. May we all remember this.💕

Refreshing perspective and give me beautiful insights. 💙

What a beautiful reminder of what life is about. 🌳

What a wonderful meditation. My takeaway from this reflection is that I am the tree, but that the tree is also me. We are connected, the same. One. Which means I have as much value as the tree. I want to be in a museum - to have a life worth remembering.

This is a beautiful meditation. I am at a point in life where this was exactly what I needed to hear and spend time with. So perfectly delivered.

This is such a beautiful expression of presence Sez. Thank you.
Love and blessings to you

Oh yes, it spoke to me. And right now I enjoy the feeling of answers and possibilities, such an aliveness that want to spread.
Thank you for this strong calling that seemed to reach me. 🙏

You’re deeply appreciated. You so eloquently depict life to me on a level that is mind blowing. So wonderful

Thank you Sez for sharing your wisdom and once again in such a beautiful way 💗

This metaphor was very helpful. Beautiful and life changing as always ✨🫶🏼

Wonder ~ full 💓 🌳 🙏 ty Sez 💓
Soul touching 💫💫💫💫💫

Beautiful I’m so deeply grateful 🙏🏻

Most excellent! Thank you! 😊 🩷

Sez, thank you so much. For the metaphors, the wisdom, the truth, and your incredible guidance to notice it all and perhaps apply a dose to self in struggle. I appreciate you so very much and thank you for sharing your incredible gifts!! 💞🙏🏼

Lovely meditation. I love her voice and the tree metaphor. I feel even more deeply connected to myself. Thank you

Thank you 🙏🏻

Dearest Sez, thank you for sharing with me this metaphor which resonated so deeply with me, bringing up sap of emotions while summarizing my experience of being. 🙏

Beautiful 💜🌷🙏🏻

Lovely. Thank you. 🙏🏻

A beautiful journey thank you Sez 🙏🏼💝🌟