 Dear Friends,
What a wonderful tree Janet Baxter has photographed for us to share with you this month! Doesn’t it take your breath away? Look at the delicate freshness of the leaves, the magnificent strength of the roots........
It reminds us of a Hindu story we often like to contemplate. It’s about a tree which has its roots in heaven and its crown in the world, just as in the Jewish Kabbalah. In his new book, The Heritage of Trees, Fred Hageneder quotes the following beautiful verses about it. This one is from the Katha Upanishad:
‘The universe is a tree eternally existing, its root aloft, its branches spread below. The pure root of the tree is Brahman, the immortal, in whom the three worlds have their being, whom none can transcend, who is verily the Self.’ (VI, 1) And this is from the Bhagavadgita: ‘There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.’ (XVI, 1)
A lot of life’s difficulties and conundrums are simply dissolved away if one makes the practice of imagining such a tree growing within one’s own being. Its roots – the ‘heart-mind’ – are grounded in the All-Highest, the Source, the Peace which passes all understanding, (call It what you will...). Thus the trunk, branches and leaves of this ‘upside down tree’ – the body and its life in the world – are fed and sustained by the purest, most nourishing food there is. What harm can touch us then? When we are aware of such a tree, growing inside us, we know that, whatever may be happening to us now, ‘all is well, and all shall be well’. And when we remember that such a powerful Light is helping us, solutions to problems often just pop into our minds instantly, or even if they don’t, we feel absolutely happy and confident, knowing that a solution will come when the time is ripe.
This practice is not unlike ‘The Laughing Buddha Game’, which you can read about in our Feature. It’s an extract from Susan Jeffers’ new book, called Embracing Uncertainty. To experience the wonderful, healing results of playing this game of imagining that you are the Laughing Buddha, or of imagining that your roots are in the Heavens as in the story above, there are just two knacks you need to know about. The first is to imagine the Laughing Buddha, or the Heavens which give life to your ‘roots’, as a level of Light and Love so high, so huge, so glorious that it is beyond anything you could possibly conceive mentally – rather like the sun, which we don’t look at directly because it is too bright. When we do this, our ordinary minds with all their preconceptions and conditioning, are prevented from getting in the way.
The other knack is to realise that the companionship, help and guidance of this All-Highest, most beautiful Light is not something we have to earn or deserve, or do anything complicated or arcane to experience. It’s something we just have to remember, because it was ours from the beginning; it’s just that, for a while, we forgot it was there, that’s all.
So..... happy playing!
Staff changes
These last few weeks have seen a lot of change at Cygnus. Jackie Martin, who helped us with order processing for many years, left because she has moved to Essex to be nearer her family. Her place has been taken by Sarah Portsmouth, who has just come to live in our area.
Karena, very sadly and suddenly, had to leave us because of family problems. Karena is the lady you will have met if ever you came to see Cygnus at exhibitions and events, so we’re sure a lot of you will miss her just as much as we will. Eddie Shurey, who spent many years in advertising before he came to live in Wales a few years ago, will be taking over Karena’s tasks.
We’re also glad to welcome Irina Yelland, a Russian girl who has recently married a boy from our village. She has joined the Cygnus team to help Regina with customer care.
Good news about overseas p&p charges
If you live outside Europe, you’ll no doubt be glad to hear that, at last (we’ve been hoping to be able do this for ages) we’ve found a cheaper way of sending your parcels, so that from now on we will only need to charge you 30% for postage and packing, and all parcels will now be sent by airmail, which is so much faster and more reliable than surface mail.
With much love from all of us,
Geoff, Ann, Martyn, Jackie, Emma, Sarah, Regina, Irina, Penny, Sandra, Belinda, Mary, Derek, Eddie, Louisa, Jon, Sam, Tobi & Pat
Text & photographs © Cygnus Books 20-May-2002
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