Tree People

Airports have a tendency to churn up latent stress, they whip up the creme de la creme of reactive behaviour in people; adult tantys, meltdowns and public demonstrations of our suffering. These glorified industrial store houses contain all the good tools to milk us of stress. Traffic, confusing signage, flashing computers , security screenings, staunch guards, crowds, queues, time delays, loud noises, expensive drinking water, contagious diseases.. its a solid stress factory, an industrial kitchen, the flaming ovens set to roast, unleashing all the flavours of human emotion.  

For this reason I found it to be a great place to practice a technique that I learnt from the late Ram Das. My last trip which involved big delays, missed flights and hours of sitting around in the airport, gifted me extensive opportunity to refine the technique and it completely transformed my experience. I actually found that with a slight tweak in my perception I was able to not only tolerate but actually enjoy my time in the airport. 

“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

I read this many years ago and loved it. Yet I never truely applied it as a practice. It is a powerful practice and I encourage you to give it a go. If you’ve got a trip to the airport soon you are in luck! They are rich with diversity, an exotic jungle, teeming. Take a seat and enjoy the show. The play and display of the epic story that is human life.