I have heard similar things from a few different people, and suspect this is a common experience at a certain phase of the awakening process. And for whatever reason, I have heard more than a few talk specifically about trees looking back at them!
HUMAN SELF AND WHAT WE MORE FUNDAMENTALLY ARE
In a conventional sense, we are this human self in the world. That’s not wrong, and it’s an assumption that works pretty well. (Although it does come with some inherent discomfort since it’s out of alignment with reality.)
And if we explore what we are in our own first-person experience, we may find that we more fundamentally are something else. We may find we are what the world to us happens within and as.
We may find we are a field of consciousness within which this human self, others, the wider world, and any other experience, happens within and as.
ONENESS EXPLORING ITSELF
The oneness we are is in a process of exploring itself.
It explores itself by taking itself to be one part of the content of experience – this human self – and anything else as “other”.
It explores itself through the process of becoming consciously aware of itself as oneness and how it is to live from and as that noticing. The field of consciousness we are, and that the world to us happens within and as, becomes consciously aware of itself. And that happens through sudden shifts and it’s also an ongoing process.
And it continues to deepen in and as that exploration.
MOSTLY IDENTIFIED AS THIS HUMAN SELF: A TREE IS A TREE
If the oneness we are is mostly identified with this human self, then it will experience itself as one object (this human self) and the rest of the world as other objects.
This is how most seem to operate, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s divinity – or the oneness we are – exploring, expressing, and experiencing itself and the world in this way. It’s how we learned to operate from those around us.
Here, a tree is a tree. It’s an object as any other object. We may have ideas about the tree – that it’s a plant, it has no consciousness, or maybe it has a kind of plant consciousness, and so on, and those are all ideas. To us, it remains an object out there.
AWAKENING PROCESS: TREES SOMETIMES LOOK BACK AT US
If the oneness we are is in a process of noticing itself, we call it an awakening process.
Here, it may mostly be identified as a human self (and a doer, observer, and so on), and will have glimpses of something more.
This sometimes includes glimpses where trees and other things appear to look back and be conscious.
It has a glimpse or intuition of itself and its whole field of experience as consciousness and interprets it as if trees and other things are looking back at us.
MORE CLEAR RECOGNITION: TREES HAPPEN WITHIN AND AS THE FIELD OF CONSCIOUSNESS
And when this clarifies and settles, the whole field is awake to itself as a field and as consciousness, and we find ourselves as this field.
The oneness we are recognizes the whole field of experience as happening within and as itself, and within and as what we can call consciousness.
Here, a tree and anything else in the world – humans, animals, plants, stones, stars, the wind, this body, thoughts, feelings – all happen within and as this field of consciousness. It all happens within and as what we are.
To us, it’s all consciousness. Or Spirit, the divine, or God. Depending on how we chose to label it.
And there is always more to clarify, deepen, mature, explore, live from and as, and so on. There is no finishing line. It’s an ongoing process.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I can tune into or imagine the “looking back” experience. In my case, the initial awakening shift was more of a jump from the first to the third, followed by a long “cleaning up” phase clarifying and allowing more parts to join. That means that the process mostly skipped the intuiting and “looking back at me” phase so it’s something I am less familiar with.
INITIAL NOTES
- Looking at a tree, and divinity looking back at me
- Bc all happens within and as consciousness, what we are
- When the field of what we are becomes awake to itself, then have that experience, especially at first
- Then just all consciousness, settles into all as consciousness, as what I am
- A field of consciousness awake to itself, within and as which the world as it appears to me happens
- Just how it looks to me
DRAFT
I have heard similar things from a few different people, and suspect this is a common experience – in glimpses – at a certain phase of the awakening process.
If the oneness we are is mostly identified with this human self, then it will experience itself as one object (this human self) and the rest of the world as other objects.
If the oneness we are recognizes itself, then everything will be experienced as consciousness. To ourselves, we are consciousness and any experience – this human self, the wider world, trees – happen within and as consciousness. It happens within and as what we are.
And if the oneness we are is in an awakening process, it will mostly be identified as a human self (and a doer, observer, and so on), and it will likely have glimpses of something more. It may have glimpses where trees and other things appear to look back and be conscious.
DRAFT
I have heard similar things from a few different people, and suspect this is a common experience at a certain phase of the awakening process.
HUMAN SELF AND WHAT WE MORE FUNDAMENTALLY ARE
In a conventional sense, we are this human self in the world. That’s not wrong, and it’s an assumption that works pretty well. (Although it does come with some inherent discomfort since it’s out of alignment with reality.)
And if we explore what we are in our own first-person experience, we may find that we more fundamentally are something else. We may find we are what the world to us happens within and as.
We may find we are a field of consciousness within which this human self, others, the wider world, and any other experience, happens within and as.
MOSTLY IDENTIFIED AS THIS HUMAN SELF
If the oneness we are is mostly identified with this human self, then it will experience itself as one object (this human self) and the rest of the world as other objects.
This is how most seem to operate, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s divinity – or the oneness we are – exploring, expressing, and experiencing itself and the world in this way.
It’s how we learned to operate from those around us.
AWAKENING PROCESS
If the oneness we are is in a process of noticing itself, we call it an awakening process.
Here, it may mostly be identified as a human self (and a doer, observer, and so on), and will have glimpses of something more.
This sometimes includes glimpses where trees and other things appear to look back and be conscious.
It has a glimpse or intuition of itself and its whole field of experience as consciousness and interprets it as if trees and other things are looking back at itself.
MORE CLEAR RECOGNITION
And when this clarifies and settles, the whole field is awake to itself as a field and as consciousness, and we find ourselves as this field.
The oneness we are recognizes the whole field of experience as happening within and as itself, and within and as what we can call consciousness.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I can tune into or imagine the “looking back” experience. But since the initial awakening shift here was more of a jump from the first to the third, and the “cleaning up” – the clarifying and allowing more parts to join – has happened after. The process mostly skipped the intuiting and “looking back at me” phase.