Trees play an important role in Taoist practice. They serve, for one, as a metaphor for the human body, awakening to its natural state:

- feet open and alive, like the roots of a tree, descending and spreading and drawing life-force/nutrients upward;

- torso strong and fluid/radiant at its core, like the trunk of a tree containing and drawing sap upward, to nourish branches & leaves;

- limbs lengthening, like the branches of a tree;

~ crown of the head soft & receptive, sense organs purified & spirit quickened, like the beautiful flowers and luscious fruits of trees in the spring and summer seasons.

What also has been discovered ~ through the research of the Masters of the Taoist martial & healing arts, and many generations of qigong practitioners ~ is that trees are actually nourished by the negative energy of human beings. So when we practice qigong next to a tree, and in that practice release energies that are harmful or constricting to us, the tree (that is our practice partner) absorbs these energies as though they were, to it, a form of food! The relationship is, by design, a mutually beneficial one.

When you're cultivating the capacity to see the energy-bodies/auras of beings, trees are a good place to start ? Somehow their subtle bodies tend to be more visible, at certain times of the day especially (dawn & dusk) than the subtle bodies of other life-forms. If you'd like to try this, go out at dawn or dusk, when the sun has dropped below the horizon, or hasn't quite risen, but still there's plenty of light in the sky ? choose a tree (pine trees are great for this), and then let your gaze rest very softly upon it. Let your focus be diffuse, as though you were making a relaxed effort not only to see the entire tree, but at the same time to expand your peripheral vision. Or imagine that somehow you're able, and are going to look right through the physical form of the tree. What you'll notice, eventually, is a golden-white outline, which is the subtle body of your new friend, revealing itself to you.

Taoism presents us, also, with a whole variety of tree-hugging practices. And for the same reason that trees? subtle bodies are relatively easy to see (because they have ~ at least the healthy ones - a lot of energy!), they also are great hugging partners: they'll give you energy, balance your energy, and happily receive energy from you. And if you don't have an actual tree handy, simply imagining the practice is almost as good ?

Stand with your feet shoulder-width, and parallel. Bend your knees just slightly (feeling the backs of the knees as soft and hollow), allowing your weight to descend fully into your feet, legs and pelvis. Then float your hands and elbows up to the level of your heart, palms facing your torso, creating a circle with your arms, with four or five inches between the gently extended fingers of your right & left hands ? just as though you were indeed hugging a tree.

And then imagine that you are hugging that tree, and as you hug the tree you're also becoming a tree: feel your roots descending, sap being drawn upward through the center of your torso, your arms & legs lengthening, your crown softening to receive sunlight and the energy of the blue sky from above you, your senses becoming more clear and bright. Feel yourself blossoming, bearing fruit, becoming the meeting-place of Heaven & Earth. How wonderful!

Today I want to share with you a beautiful Taoist meditation/Qigong visualization practice ? So to begin, please find a comfortable place to sit, either on a chair with your spine up-right and your feet flat on the floor; or in a comfortable cross-legged or hero position on the floor. Take a couple of deep, slow breaths, filling your lungs completely and then saying (either out loud or to yourself) 'aaah' as you exhale. Let go of any tension you find in your neck, face or shoulders. Feel your energy descending, filling your legs and hips and belly. Smile gently, and close your eyes.

Now, imagine that you're sitting outside, at dusk, on the shore of a beautiful mountain lake. The air is pleasantly warm, and perfectly calm. As the sky darkens, stars begin to appear. Soon, the entire night sky ~ visible above the silhouettes of the mountains ~ is filled with them: golden-white points of light, millions and millions ? Let yourself be filled with amazement at the vastness of it all, its quiet mysterious beauty.

And then, in your imagination (still sitting there on the shore of the mountain lake), notice one of those stars moving toward you (kind of like a 'shooting star,? but slower). As it moves closer and closer it ?grows? in size, becoming ever more bright, and ever more beautiful. Closer and closer ? larger and larger.

And as it draws even closer to you (hovering now somewhere above the lake), what you notice is that it's not a star at all, but rather it is an infant: a beautiful newborn, naked and shining like a star. And as this newborn, golden-white, moves even closer, what you notice is that it's not just any newborn ? but rather it is YOU as a newborn!

And now, imagine that beautiful newborn, who is you-as-a-newborn, floating even closer, until s/he is hovering directly above your head. See and feel his/her Presence there, golden-white, shining like a star. And now, allow the crown of your head to soften, as though it were the dome of a temple, which you were slowly opening ? And as you do this imagine that the newborn who is floating above your head is beginning to descend, toward the opening at your crown.

Now imagine the newborn entering that opening at the crown of your head, as though entering a temple ? and continuing to float downward, along the central channel of your body (just in front of the spine), until s/he is floating in your heart center. Feel the Presence of the newborn, shining like a star, in your heart-center.

And now the newborn-who-is-you continues to float downward, along that central channel inside of your body, until s/he is resting in your low belly, below the navel. See and feel that newborn, warm & bright as a star, floating there in your belly. As you breathe, send waves of love and appreciation to this infant, this newborn-who-is-you, resting now comfortably in your lowest belly. Let yourself feel delighted by his/her Presence there, inside of you ? as though you had within you a secret treasure, which you had just now discovered.

And now, keeping a portion of your attention here with that new-found treasure ? open your eyes.

To end (this post, and begin the rest of your day), a poem about the Kahmiri yogini Lalla (written by Frithjof Schuon):

Lalla

When Lalla Yogishwari found Atma
Within herself, the outer world became
Her sole garment, a web of dreams;
Thus she went naked beneath the vault of Heaven.

And as she entered from the outward to the Inward,
So did the Inward enter her body's fullness;
And thus she went naked and dancing through the land ?
In Lakshmi's ecstasy and in Atma's stillness.