try looking up at a tree

I like to do this little meditation, particularly on a windy day, which really brings the tree alive.

Simply go out and find a tree. And lie down on the ground underneath it, on your back, looking up into the branches of the tree.

Perhaps you do this anyway. It is a beautiful change of perspective. Usually, we humans are standing or sitting, when we are awake at least. And our vision tends to be outwards, horizontally, and we often forget to look up. In a way, we have created a two-dimensional world, a flat world, that we move around on. If we were birds it would not be so: we would be living in three dimensions all the time.

And this meditation is about seeing that third dimension again, the third dimension of space. Because that's the space that trees occupy. When you look up into the branches – the way they form such an intricate pattern, filling the space in all directions. And there's so much complexity: every branch unique, branching and branching and branching again; every twig unique; and every leaf on every twig, unique.

This is what comes to me as I look up into the branches of a tree. And on a windy day, the branches are waving, dancing in the wind. And it reminds me that the tree is a living being, not so different from myself. The fact that it is rooted in one spot doesn't make so much difference. It, too, is part of the dance of life.

So give it a try: try lying down under a tree and looking up into its branches.