Spring leaves

What? Spring leaves? But it has barely even arrived here yet!

No, leaves as in leaf. Small, light green, but definitely leafy. There have been some flowers already, they seem to be in more of a hurry than the leaves. Can’t wait to spread pollen, you know. But this bush actually has leaves. And it is not alone. Yesterday on my way home from work I saw whole trees beginning to green, further up in the valley where there is more sun.

And further up in the hills I saw small heaps of snow still, in the shadows. Spring is a weird and varied thing here in Norway. And beautiful, but it is not easy to convey that beauty in a photo, because it depends on all the other things around. This bush was special because the other trees and bushes around were still dark. It was the first.  We tend to remember our firsts, and our lasts if we know. Each of the two has its own poignant beauty, that a lens cannot catch but only the heart.

15 thoughts on “Spring leaves

  1. When I practice what Eckhart calls presence – I notice my vision improves or everything becomes a little more blurred out for a short while. Pretty odd.

    • Yes, it is extremely common that you have SOME kind of strange experience when you do spiritual practices of any kind. But the exact nature of the experience varies from person to person, and for the same person it varies over time. The experience can be awesome or terrifying or anything in between, it really depends on what’s in the basement of your mind. The experiences are just a sign that SOMETHING is happening, they are not the purpose of the exercises. It is common that people get these things mixed up, but you seem to have studied things quite a bit since first we met. ^_^ Good luck!

    • I doubt it. This is how people are usually led astray from spiritual practice in the early phase: They have an Experience, and they desire to chase that Experience instead of what they first came for. So they try to practice the Experience instead of practicing the presence of Now, or the Presence of God, or the presence of Mind, whatever. But because the Experience was a side effect, it retreats like a rainbow when you chase it.

      That said, if your vision problems come from a small fault of focus, it may be possible to train yourself to correct for them. Biofeedback would probably be better for that purpose though. You may want to bring this up with a (not too old) doctor. There are some who have managed to train away their glasses or lenses, although it is not common. I don’t know about it except hearing it mentioned though, and not from any of my own friends or relatives.

  2. Eckhart claims that by practicing this, morality will automatically kick in when in a situation.

    What do you think?

    • Never heard the words “morality” and “automatically” in the same sentence before. Be sure to report back on whether it works as advertised.

      You will probably have to practice presence alone or with likeminded friends for a while before you can stay in it long enough to get any heavy test of morality though. ^_^

  3. I’m laughing right now at how ridiculous this is.
    If you are present the situations where tests of morality happen, simply will not occur.

    • Ecstatic or at least remarkable spiritual experiences are good, because they keep the newbie coming back to their spiritual training, instead of saying “Frak this! I’m gonna do something more interesting.”

      But at a certain point, we have to let this expectation go. For most people, if they continue a particular spiritual practice for long, they will enter periods where nothing happens. It is like watching paint dry. So that will happen naturally. That is where one is tempted to jump ship and latch on to another branch of spiritual practice, another guru, another book.

    • Yes, your way of thinking and viewing things will still change, which was really the point all the way. But yes, also such “dry spells” are usually temporary, although they normally last months and in some cases years. It is hard to predict. But it is a rare soul that does not have them.

    • Why would I bother? You are it. What I can’t prove is that you have a body. I take that on faith, since I have met a lot of people with bodies, but I know you only by your mind, which is a part of your soul.

      Actually, even my own body is known to me only through my soul. It is I who experiences my body, not my body that experiences my soul. This is why for instance you can hypnotize people to ignore pain, or to believe that they are children, or that they are old, or the opposite gender, or that they are a chicken. (OK, not all people can do the chicken thing.)

      Life could be a virtual reality and we would never know. But if we were not a soul, we would not be able to imagine that possibility.

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