Meditation

Kim See-bong

In my backyard there stands a giant oak tree. It has been there for perhaps half a century. It has withstood many frigid, snowy winters, hot summers, fierce thunderstorms, and gentle rains.

It has stood straight and tall while everything around it evolved from open prairie to bustling city. It has withstood its branches being amputated to make way for electrical and telephone wires and the ground around it being covered with concrete.

It has calmly allowed children and squirrels to play all over it and birds to make their homes in its branches.

This huge oak tree has remained essentially the same through all the changes surrounding it. It is tall and strong and straight and healthy.

It does not bend or break, at least not under any force it has so far encountered in its fifty odd years. It is itself-strong, solid, and true through whatever happens.

It feels no anger or emotion, no sorrow or anguish. It has no ego, and yet it withstands all manner of attack. It serves its essential nature, its true spirit.

I look at the giant oak tree in my backyard more frequently now, and more closely. It holds great meaning for me and still gives me comfort and wisdom.

I see the rope that hangs from its largest and strongest branch, a relic of some child's swing that hung there not long ago. I see the tree's strength and reliability.

I see the scars of wounds from the electric saw and the woodpecker's bill that have now healed over. I see the old dead, dry leaves, bark and branches letting go easily with the wind and falling gracefully to the ground when the time is right.

I see, too, the new growth: fresh infant buds and thin green branches stretching out and up toward the sun.

The oak tree, in doing all of this, is simply being an oak tree. It is being true to its essential nature.

I, too, am being true to my essential nature when I am calm, peaceful, strong, and steadfast; when I am responsible and reliable; when I withstand life's wounds and go on to heal; when I let go gracefully of old qualities and circumstances and relationships that once were mine but are no longer right or good for me to hold onto; and when I allow new growth to continually stretch me in new directions, while I remain firmly rooted in my true essential nature.

I am being true to my essential nature _ my spirit _ when I am surprised by the brutality of life's raging storms.

Someday, off in the distant future, future being the essential word, that the tree will fall or be cut down, just as my own life on this earth will eventually come to an end.

But until then, I will follow the example of the giant oak, My Giant Oak. We will stand here in the sunshine and the rain, the warmth and gentleness of summer's breeze and the frigid isolation of a winter's night.

We will stand straight and tall while the floodwaters crash and the lighting crackles all around us. We will be true to our essential natures and let all other things and people be true to theirs. We will just be the mighty oak tree and me.

It is hard to fathom an appropriate way to pay tribute to this day The respect and gratitude both Eddy and I have towards you is beyond words Our love towards you is immeasurable, though we fail to show it. And as feeble attempt to allegorically put how much you mean to all of us I write this meditation on this day of your birth.

Kim See-bong is an education consultant residing in Montreal, Canada. He can be reached at glsacademy@dreamwiz.com.