Shared Wisdom Guest Post
Featuring Ilchi Lee

As a rule, many trees around a mountain make it good for meditation. In Fay Canyon (in Sedona, Arizona), there are many trees emanating a sacred energy. In a canyon like this, I shed the thought that I am looking at the trees and think instead that the trees are seeing me. Focus not only on yourself, but on the trees. When you’re talking to another person, if you’re filled with your own thoughts, what your counterpart is saying will not even register. The same is true when you’re interacting with trees. Empty yourself and feel the trees truly.

If you feel something from the tree, express yourself immediately and with a pure heart. Then the tree will also respond. When you’re passing through the forest, there will be a tree that your heart feels drawn to or that you want to touch. Try expressing that feeling exactly as it is. You can place your hand on the trunk and feel the energy of the tree, and you can even have a conversation with the tree. If you meet a good-looking tree, you can say, “You’re very good looking,” and start up a conversation, as if it were your friend. As you do this, a bond will form between you and the tree, and the tree can even give you a message.

I remember Mr. Heo, who participated in a meditation tour I conducted long ago. Due to a disease called cerebral infarction, he had speaking disabilities and partial paralysis of his hands and feet. He had a serious concern. It was smoking. He agonized over his inability to quit even when he knew it was fatal to his health. Even though he had trouble speaking after a single puff, and even though walking became difficult if he smoked a single cigarette, he couldn’t bring himself to stop. When Mr. Heo came to one of my outdoor meditations, he made a big resolution. He thought that this would finally be the time that he quit smoking and, when he was leaving Korea, he tossed his cigarettes and lighter into the trash bin at the airport. But in the end, he couldn’t stand it and as soon as he arrived in the US, he bought some cigarettes and had himself a smoke. The first night of the meditation tour, he came to me and, with embarrassment, told me about his dilemma. I asked him to give me his lighter and cigarettes, and instead, I handed him some fragrant medicinal herbs used by Native Americans.

The next day, we all practiced an exercise in meditation in front of a juniper tree. The exercise involved communicating to the tree whatever you wanted to say, questions, thoughts or feelings that came to you while you were in standing in front of the tree. This gentleman brought up the topic most pressing in his mind, which was smoking. He asked the tree how he could quit smoking.

Then he said the tree answered like this. “It’s not that you can’t quit smoking. It’s that you didn’t quit.”

Surprised, he asked, “Why do you think so?”

“It’s because you don’t have a reason to quit smoking. You have no dream. You don’t have something you want desperately to achieve. If you had that, you would treat your body preciously. But because you don’t have it, even though you’re saying on the outside you’re going to quit, in a place deep in your heart, you have this kind of mind: ‘I’ll just live like this until I die.’ Your body has caught on to your mind. That’s why you can’t quit smoking.”

He experienced a big awakening when he heard what the tree had to say, and after that, he was in fact finally able to quit.

We say that the red rock mountains of Sedona, the souls of Native Americans, the juniper trees that are hundreds of years old, the eagle flying through the endless clear blue sky gave us a message, but actually it’s that with the help of Sedona’s energy, we have a meeting with ourselves in a state where our various defensive walls surrounding us have come down.

The person who knows you the best is you. We have eyes that watch ourselves. We know what we want. You need courage not to turn away from that. Even when it comes to our own problems, there are many times when we say, “I don’t know,” and fool ourselves. Because when we acknowledge that we know something, we have to act on it, so we tell ourselves we don’t.

Many people hide inside of their “not-knowing” and, afraid of taking the risk, settle for mediocrity in their life. They imitate the same safe, easy life that other people walk. They mistake that for happiness and, inside of it, look for security. However, the moment that the defensive shields we’ve built up come down, all truths reveal themselves and speak to us. When we hear our inner voice and follow it, we can walk our own path.

Excerpted from the book The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart ©2011 by Ilchi Lee. Printed with permission of BEST Life Media, LLC, Sedona, AZ. www.callofsedona.com

Ilchi Lee is an educator, mentor, and trailblazer who is the developer of many mind-body training methods including Dahn Yoga and Brain Education. He serves as president of the University of Brain Education and the International Brain Education Association. Ilchi Lee is also the founder of Sedona Mago Retreat and the author of thirty-three books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Call of Sedona. Share more of Lee’s wisdom at http://www.ilchi.com.