The soul of a tree

I was pleased to know from my six year old grand daughter Emma, that her favourite pastime hobby is to swing by holding the hanging branches of a Banyan tree. It also happens to have been my favourite childhood activity too.

The reason the Banyan tree makes the best swings in nature is also why it has a special place in Indian literature and philosophy. The branches have the capacity to gradually touch the ground, go deeper into the soil to connect with the roots, and together they give strength and longevity to the main tree and create an extraordinary canopy of thick leaves and are among the largest trees on the planet. This unique characteristic of a Banyan tree conveys a beautiful metaphor used in Indian philosophy to describe the nature of consciousness - that while each branch is separate it also has the capacity to connect to the source and in fact, there is one consciousness even as it is embodied across a multitude of individuals. Man’s creation of artificial intelligence - which, like a banyan tree is interconnected and always learning and growing, is a shared construct. Is it our consciousness that powers intelligence or intelligence itself that becomes conscious? Or are they facets of something entirely larger. The Banyan tree works as a swing just as well as it works for a metaphor for consciousness of artificial intelligence.

Spiritual masters say, by stilling the mind through meditation, realisation of our  connectivity, and our one divine source  can be manifest in our mind. As the moon and stars get reflected on the calm surface of the water, by stilling the mind, one realises the divine connectivity of all living beings. That only makes us loving and compassionate to each other. Then only barriers between people, religion, and nations will begin to fall.  As the Sufi poet Rumi beautifully wrote “ you are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop “.