The Angel Oak Tree
There is an old oak tree in a field. If someone asked you to draw a tree, probably you would draw it straight and symmetrical and it wouldn’t look like this old oak. This tree is gnarled and growing over on one side, great branches have fallen away. It has been shaped by long summers, cold winters, lightning and frost. This tree is made of suffering and light.
When we come to meditation, often we bring with us a list of imperfections that we want to fix but too often we do not have eyes to see what is beautiful in ourselves.
Usually we start meditating so we can be a better person, calmer, more productive. We go along like this trying to fix ourselves, until something different happens. Until we fall into a wider inner place and realize that meditation is about something else and then we forget about the list. Meditation is not like other tasks where if we do A, then we get to B. It is much more magical than that, and works in ways that are not logical, that are not totally dependent on us.
There are many other energies playing out in meditation, we can call them grace.
Extract from the book There is Light and only Light: Teachings to illuminate your inner wisdom by Gemma Polo Pujol. Watkins publishing.