The Five Trees and Meditation
(From Integral Deep Listening and Meditation)
Hinduism compares the mind in meditation to monkeys jumping around in trees from branch to branch. These monkeys represent the constant activity of our minds. Our thoughts are active, and this activity is something that meditation is supposed to reduce. But meditation often is unsuccessful in doing so. Why? What can be done about it? On closer examination, we find that there are at least five trees that our monkey mind inhabits and each has its own enticing fruit. Here are descriptions of the five trees, what we do in them, and what we can do to live with them in peace.
The Tree of Thinking
We are addicted to our thoughts. We jump from thought to thought all the time, like monkeys in a tree swinging from limb to limb. We eat the fruit on this or that limb while check ing out how comfortable that particular branch is. On one limb we consume the “fruit” of thinking about what we will have for dinner; the fruit of another limb is about solving a work problem; another is thinking about whether or not we are meditating properly; another is thinking about a relationship. Any thought, whether awake or asleep, is a fruit you are gobbling on one or another limb of your Tree of Thinking. You spend much of your life hanging out on your favorite limbs, swinging back and forth among them, and eating your favorite fruits. Fun!
Some approaches to meditation teach you to think better thoughts. They say, “Repeat this mantra. It will bring you enlightenment.” They say, “Repeat the name of God. It will bring you enlightenment.” They say, “Repeat these affirmations. They will bring you peace of mind, health, and prosperity.” “Think the right thoughts and you will create the reality you desire!” Metaphorically, they are saying, “The fruit found on certain higher branches of the Tree of Thought are transformative. Climb up there and spend your life eating those fruits and you will be enlightened.” So you scramble up to those lofty branches where the view is better and think the lofty, pure thoughts which come to you when eating the fruit of those branches. You swing around on branches toward the top of the Thought Tree; they are obviously better than branches down lower on the thought tree because they are higher and thinner and closer to the sky. You can see the other monkeys better from up there. You can see more places to jump to. The fruit on the higher limbs is probably better, too. You are a pretty smart monkey to have climbed so high and to have discovered such sweet fruit. Relatively speaking, you are smarter than those who are either oblivious to the fruit of those higher branches or too lazy or afraid to climb up after it. Relatively speaking, you are even meditating. You can use the higher branches of the Tree of Thinking to leverage yourself out of your attachment to this or that lower limb or to some other tree. For example, many approaches to meditation teach the use of mantras as a way to detach from other trees and lower limbs of the Tree of Thinking. Such an approach can be very helpful as long as you do not confuse repetition of a word or phrase with being out of the Tree of Thinking. Substituting “better” thoughts for those you were addicted to on those lower branches is a good strategy for meditation – as long as you don’t think you are meditating when you are actually thinking. It is a good strategy as long as you don’t think you are free of the Tree of Thought just because you can climb all over it or swing over into one of the other five trees, like the Tree of Images.
The Tree of Images
We monkeys are addicted to watching the pictures in our minds. When we are not jumping around in the Tree of Thought we may be checking out the fruit of the Tree of Images. Some monkeys think in images. They see mental pictures of things they want and other monkeys they know. It’s like turning on a TV inside your head or going to the movies, but without the popcorn. When this is done in a methodical, purposeful way, it’s called “visualization.” We don’t stop jumping around in the Tree of Images just because we go to sleep. We dream an average of eight years of our lives, 2.5 hours every night, whether we remember them or not, and our dreams are full of images. Clearly, the Tree of Images is an important, ancient tree, with much to teach us.
Some images are scary while others fill us with sadness, anger, or desire. Some images are clearly the fruit of higher limbs of the Tree of Images, and we can spend a lot of time climbing up there to find the best fruit. Some smart, helpful monkeys sell elaborate visualization tapes as meditation exercises. You imagine you are climbing mountains or reading books of wisdom in mystic caves when you eat this or that fruit while sitting on a particular limb of the Tree of Images. You visualize certain colors and Sanskrit letters in this or that chakra. You are told that if you see the right colors in your third eye you’ll be a meditating monkey. You will attain certain forms of enlightenment when you sit on certain branches of the Tree of Images and eat those fruits.
There is nothing wrong with feeling free, healthy, peaceful, or happy. Everyone wants to feel these things, and if visualization helps you to feel them, why not use it? Visualization is a wonderful tool for self-development, just as other forms of imagery, like dreamwork, can be. Visualization and imagery exercises are helpful in that they help you bridge into the experience or sensation of experiencing yourself as expanded. You take more inclusive perspectives. You detach and accept. Problems only arise when you believe that success in meditation is the same as the feelings of freedom, health, peace, or happiness that you will have when you eat certain high, exotic fruit and experience certain images. Eating these fruits in order to see these images is a great strategy as long as you don’t delude yourself into thinking that you are meditating when you are watching monkey TV. It’s fine to spend your time jumping from limb to limb of the Tree of Images, feeling free, healthy, peaceful, and happy because you have lost yourself in beautiful, transformational images toward the top of the Image Tree. But meditation can be something more, something that transcends any possible image available from eating any possible fruit of the Image Tree. If you define meditation as less, you may settle for less, which would be to cheat yourself of your own birthright and destiny.
The Tree of Feeling
We tree-climbing monkeys are addicted to our feelings. The limbs of happiness, romantic love, sadness, anger, fear, guilt, sorrow, confusion, brotherly love, impatience, and doubt all feel so real when we are climbing on them. They feel exciting and alive! When we don’t feel them life is boring, which is another feeling. These feeling limbs are real, as are all limbs of the Tree of Feeling. We are not only addicted to our feelings; we are addicted to our preferences, which are like fruit on the limbs of the Tree of Feeling. We like what we like and dislike what we don’t like. We want more of what we like and less of what we dislike. Getting what we like and avoiding what we dislike is happiness; getting what we dislike and avoiding what we like is unhappiness. We jump from feeling to feeling all the time, like a monkey in a tree hopping from limb to limb in search of a better branch. One limb is feeling impatient about sitting in meditation; another is feeling bored. We may swing into the Tree of Thought in search of a better fruit. Another limb of the Tree of Feeling is fear from a sudden loss of our sense of self. Another limb is confusion about how to meditate. Feeling such feelings can easily take the place of any actual meditation. Many people fill their “meditations” with the search for higher and “purer” feelings and think they are meditating.
Some approaches to meditation teach you to feel the right feelings. For instance, you should meditate to experience bliss (ananda) or compassion (karuna), and both bliss and compassion are rarefied feelings. You are being told to settle down onto branches toward the top of the Feeling Tree; they are obviously better than the heavy branches down lower because they are higher and thinner and closer to the sky. This is a good strategy as long as you don’t think you are meditating when you are actually feeling. Most people who feel such feelings are on a high branch of the tree of feeling. They are simply deluding themselves into believing they are not feeling when they are.
There is nothing wrong with having feellngs, and most monkeys agree that positive feelings are better than negative ones. Monkeys will climb very high and pass by a lot of other tempting fruit to experience feelings of bliss. The problems arise when bliss defines meditation. We stop there.
The Tree of Sensations
We are addicted to our sensations. Our itches, pains, and throbbings, which are the lower limbs of the Tree of Sensation, are all only too real. They tell us that we are not only alive, but that things are happening. We can easily spend our time in meditation swinging from one sensation to another. If this gets too boring, we can think about our sensations, which is to swing over into the tree of thinking. We can swing into the Tree of Feeling and feel something about our sensation, perhaps irritated that it is there or relief that it is distracting us from the work of staying clear and centered. We can decide some sensations, like pain, are bad because they make us feel unhappy and other sensations are good because they make us feel comfortable. Comfortable sensations provide comfort and support the illusion that we are accomplishing something during meditation.
Many approaches to meditation will teach you that it is better to spend your time swinging around on the higher branches of the Tree of Sensation. These approaches emphasize paying attention to your breath, to vibrational pulsings, psychic energies, chakra energy emanations, and kundalini movements. You need to concentrate on putting your consciousness in the physical space of your third eye. These approaches are about the special healing properties of a mala or stone blessed by an enlightened master. If you wear them they will help you to meditate because they have special energy. The diksha, or blessing, of an enlightened master will raise your vibrations, heal your karma and make it easier for you to meditate. If you raise your kundalini or integrate the male and female energy flows in your body you will attain enlightenment. These approaches are telling you that spending your time during meditation swinging around among the higher branches of the Tree of Sensations is better than swinging around on the lower branches. This is a good strategy as long as you don’t delude yourself into thinking that you are meditating when you are actually seeking to feel this sensation or another. You are still a monkey, locked in your monkey mind.
You can use the higher branches of the Tree of Sensation to leverage yourself out of your attachment to this or that lower limb or to some other tree. For instance, many approaches to meditation, including the Buddha’s, use observation of breathing as a way to detach from other trees and lower limbs of the tree of sensation. Your breath is sensation. As such, observation of your breath is to be in your Sensation Tree. Observing your breath is a way to leverage sensation to free you from all Trees. While the higher branches of any tree can be used to leverage us out of our addictions to the fruits of lower limbs of all trees, your breath is always there. It is primal, foundational, and intrinsic. Consequently, you will read more about how to use your breath as a meditational aid in subsequent chapters. The objective is to observe your breath without becoming caught up in the sensations associated with it. Begin by interviewing it so that you develop an awareness of it as something that scores tens in all six qualities. Such an approach can be very helpful as long as you do not confuse hanging out on the breathing limb of the Sensation Tree with being out of the Tree of Sensation.
The repetition of mantras not only involves hanging out on higher limbs of the Thinking Tree but hanging out on higher limbs of the Sensation Tree as well. This is because in many meditation traditions the power of the vibration or energy of the mantra lies in its particular sound, not in the meaning of the words, which is often not communicated to the meditation student by the teacher. Identifying with the experience of a particular sound is a way to disidentify with other sensations and with other trees. Repetition of mantras can be very helpful as long as you do not confuse hanging out on a limb of the Tree of Sensation with being out of the tree itself.
The Tree of Drowsiness
Some people go to sleep during meditation and wake up at the end, thinking, “That was a great meditation!” What they had was a great nap. Like a tree sloth, they were asleep on a limb of their Tree of Drowsiness. We are addicted to sleep. When we are not awake and in control we are used to being asleep and either in the tree of dream images, the tree of sleep thoughts, or the Tree of Unconsciousness, which is another name for the Tree of Drowsiness. People who get drowsy when they meditate may spend an entire meditation period in a state of drowsiness and think that they are meditating. Consequently, beginning meditators in particular tend to either be awake and exercising control through thinking, feeling, imaging, or sensing, or are drowsy and out of control. Learning to be neither is one way to frame the paradox of the relaxed alertness that is meditation.
The Tree of Drowsiness is also known as the Tree of Trance. Drowsiness and Sleep are the lower branches of this tree while other states of consciousness, containing more or less self-awareness, are the higher branches. These are altered states of consciousness, when our normal waking sense of who we are is either significantly altered or laid aside entirely. Some approaches to meditation will teach you that meditation is a desirable altered state of consciousness. Perhaps it is called samadhi; perhaps it is a shamanic vision quest or a mediumistic trance. In any case, you are no longer here and now; you have checked out on one of the higher branches of your Tree of Trance. Something else has checked in, and you may or may not know what that something is and what it is doing and saying. Maybe it is your higher monkey mind. Perhaps it is the archmonkey Galadrielgibbon. Perhaps it is a member of the White Monkeyhood. Whatever is being enlightened, whatever is experiencing enlightenment, whatever is dispensing enlightenment, it’s not you, because you’re asleep on a limb of the Tree of Trance.
Trance is a state of consciousness. States of consciousness are different from stages of consciousness. Five year olds and criminals can experience altered states of consciousness, including lucid dreaming, past life recall, disincarnate visits in dreams, out of the body experiences, and mediumship, but five year olds and criminals are unlikely to be enlightened. Enlightenment can be a temporary state of consciousness or it can be a permanent stage of consciousness. These two are usually confused, as MonkeyMaster Ken Wilber has described,1 and that confusion makes successful meditation less likely. Accessing higher states of consciousness in the higher limbs of your Tree of Trance, such as developing psychic ability, lucid dreaming, mediumistic channeling, shamanic drumming, or entering samadhi, is about experiencing higher states of consciousness in the higher limbs of your Tree of Trance. Swinging around on such limbs will fill you with a sense of power, control, and certainty that you are enlightened. Consequently, your life has new meaning, and that is to get the other monkeys to swing around on those same limbs of the Tree of Trance. This will not only free them; it will validate your brilliance. Many of the spiritual traditions of the world will tell you that when you do manage to swing on these very remote, skinny, and beautiful tree limbs that you will be really meditating. History shows that just about anyone can enter all sorts of fascinating trance states. Anyone, at any level of development, can experience altered states of consciousness either by accident, by cultural expectation, or with the proper training. They can learn to do meditation exercises for the purpose of entering these states, which is what traditional definitions of meditation largely entail. In effect, they say, “eat the fruit on the higher branches of the Trees of Thought, Feeling, Sensation, and Images so that you will be able to hang out on higher branches of the Tree of Trance. Then you’ll really be a meditating monkey.
Do you want to live your life in trance? Do you see your life as a karmic entanglement from which you wish to escape? Do you see the world as a mental ward while life in the Pleides or Amida Heaven is the Place to Be? Then spend your life exploring the lofty, etherial limbs of the Tree of Trance.
Are There Realistic Alternatives?
Don’t these trees comprise reality? the Buddhist world view says that they do. They can be equated with the five skandhas, or components of reality. These have no separate existence, “own being,” or “self” because they are interdependent. The Sensation Tree corresponds to the rupa, or “form” or “matter” aggregate. The Feeling Tree corresponds to the vedana, or “feeling” aggregate. The Image Tree corresponds to the samjna or “perception” aggregate. The Thought Tree corresponds to the samskara, or “mental formations” aggregate. The Trance Tree corresponds to the vijnana, or “consciousness” aggregate. Is there any reality apart from these five realms of experience? Of course there is, but you will never find it as long as you equate meditation with swinging from branch to branch in one or another tree or with swinging from one tree to another. You will never learn to meditate if you define meditation as one of these five areas. That’s because you will look no further. You will think you are enlightened when you are actually hanging out in the higher branches of this or that tree. If you can convince enough other people to buy your definition of enlightenment they will validate your delusion. You will stop growing and you will unwittingly stop those that you are trying to help from growing beyond your model.
A more functional goal is to consider enlightenment as the next stable stage of your development. Enlightenment becomes a relative rather than an absolute awakening, changing according to evolving contexts and levels of your unfolding. You have more of your lines balanced and operative. You take into account the inner and outer, the singular and collective aspects of your experience. This is a more helpful framing of meditation, because enlightened states of consciousness do not sustain themselves, since states change. No matter how wonderful your limb is in the higher branches of the Tree of Trance, you will eventually find yourself swinging to another. Higher stages are relatively stable by comparison and involve awareness that transcends and includes all trees, including the Tree of Trance.
There are many liberating alternatives to living your life as a limb-hopping, fruit testing monkey. There are a number of ways to start thinking about meditation in terms of accessing the next stable stage of your development. Here are several analogies that are themselves visual and experiential metaphors properly belonging to the upper branches of the thought, image, feeling, and sensory trees. In other words, they themselves are not meditation; they only point to it, like every other meditation tool.
Be a Monkey!
Monkeys do all sorts of things, but in their beingness, they simply are. When you become a monkey, you give up doingness – thoughts, feelings, images, sensations, or trance states – for the beingness of self. Become a human being instead of a human doing. This broadens and deepens your connection with the spiritual core that both sustains and gives meaning to action. Right now imagine that you are the beingness of your monkey self. You don’t have to change anything you do; focus on who you are. In the process, you give up any individuality separating you from other beings.
Be a Bird
Most monkeys don’t fly. Birds have wings for a reason, and it isn’t to hop from limb to limb in trees. When you become a bird you can hop forever among the limbs of trees or you have the option to fly. You have a choice monkeys don’t. That means that you can claim your nature as witness to all thoughts, all images, all feelings, all sensations, and all states. You can transcend all five trees, or you can swoop down and land in any of them and hang out on any branch you please, eating whatever fruit you want. When you become a bird, watch out that you don’t lose yourself in images of the trees below or in the sensations of flying. If you do, you’re back in the Image and Sensation Trees! Take a moment now to be a bird instead of a monkey. Experience how you shift in perspective, potentials, and freedom.
Be the Tree
When you become a tree that you are in you become one with the source of its branches and fruit. When you recognize that you are thinking instead of meditating, you awaken to the realization that you are in the Thought Tree. Become the Thought Tree to become one with the source of all thoughts. That means you are no longer thinking any particular thought. You are no longer in the Thought Tree. You are the thought tree. Take a moment to become the source of your thoughts right now. It is as if you became a cat or some other animal that does not do language or thought. You are totally aware and knowing, but without abstract content.
When you find yourself unintentionally in the Image Tree, become it to become one with the source of all images. That means you are no longer seeing any particular image. You are no longer in the Image Tree. You are the Image Tree. Take a moment to become one with the source of all images and experience the difference. It is as if the colors of the spectrum turned not into white light but into clear light. It is as if you became the sun instead of seeing seeing it or viewing the solar system from the sun’s perspective.
If you wake up in the Feeling Tree, become it to become one with the source of all feelings. That means you are no longer feeling any particular feeling. You are no longer in the Feeling Tree. You are the Feeling Tree. You are all feelings and so transcend identification with any one feeling. Take a moment to become one of your favorite strong feelings, such as impatience, anger at yourself, or worry. Now shift your focus and be the source of all possible feelings. Feel the difference. It is as if you sank beneath the waves on the surface of the ocean and became one with the deep peace of its depths.
If you are in the Sensation Tree, become it to become one with the source of all sensations. That means you are no longer experiencing any particular sensation. You are no longer in the Sensation Tree. You are the Sensation Tree. When you go to sleep you no longer feel pain because you become one with the source of all sensations. Take a moment to become one with some sensation, such as the feel of the surface you are sitting on. Now shift your focus and be the source of all possible sensations. Experience the difference. It is as if you had died but remained completely aware.
If you discover you are monkeying around in the Trance Tree, become it to become one with the source of all states of consciousness. That means you are no longer experiencing any particular state. You are no longer in the State Tree. You are the State Tree. Take a moment to become one with drowsiness. Now shift your focus and be the source of drowsiness. Experience the difference. It is as if you are the beingness of a tree beneath its cycles of winter hibernation and spring-summer wakefulness.
Be the Sky
The sky embraces, transcends, and includes all trees and their contents. It doesn’t care what branches the monkeys are on or what fruit they are eating. As the sky, you are not affected by any weather or by day or night. You are always awake and aware. You do not see, because you have no eyes. You do not hear, because you have no ears. You do not sense, because you have no sense of touch. You do not feel, because you do not experience emotions. You do not become drowsy or experience trance states because you have no self. Although you do not experience life as the Five Trees, you are most definitely both alive and aware. You are always the clear witness. When you become the sky you become clear witness.
It is not that being the sky is better than being a monkey hopping from limb to limb. It isn’t. There are times you need to think, feel, picture, sense, and change states. These are all good things. The problems come when you are trapped in those states and have no alternatives. So it is not that one perspective that is better than another. The problem comes from not having the ability to access perspectives that transcend and include. This is why defining meditation as a higher limb of one or another of the trees is a useful but limited definition of meditation.
Be Space
While you can imagine that you are Space, you will not fully become Space until you have mastered becoming Sky. Although it is very slight, sky has content relative to space. Space has no up or down, no past or future, no light or dark, no duality of this and that. Space is totally full of its emptiness. To become space is to embrace even the sky. Because space is unborn, it does not die.
Becoming space is not better than being a monkey on some limb of some tree. But being able to be either space or a monkey is better than just being a monkey. This is because you have more choices and therefore more freedom when you can be both. Monkeys can’t choose to be space, but if you learn to be space you can also choose to be a monkey when you want. The same holds true for becoming a bird, a tree, or the sky. None of these perspectives are better than being a monkey. You can do things as a monkey that you can’t as something else, like think and feel monkey thoughts and feelings and throw feces.
Be Your Breath
There is a difference between observing your breath, as you do so when you watch it move into your nostrils, down your throat, inflate your chest, and move out of your chest, throat, and nostrils, and becoming your breath. It is the difference between experiencing the limb of breathing (more like its trunk) of the Tree of Sensation and becoming the entirety of the tree itself. When you become your breath, your breath breathes you. You are no longer meditating; life is meditation.
Be High-Scoring Sangha Members
Whenever you become a high-scoring Sangha member you identify with a part of yourself that meditates better than you do. This is because it is more awake, alive, balanced, detached, free, and clear than you are. If you want to easily meditate, become parts of yourself that naturally do so. Remember that becoming a Sangha member is not about seeing them or seeing the world through their eyes. It is about experiencing your beingness as their beingness; it is about choosing to be possessed by a part of yourself that personifies your greatest potentials because it transcends and includes all that you are. Also remember that the enlightenment of Sangha members is always relative and will be transcended and included in more enlightened perspectives with time.
Wake up out of the Drama Triangle
The Drama Triangle consists of taking the roles of rescuer, victim, and persecutor. When you look for a meditation technique to rescue you, you take the role of ignorant, incapable, or helpless victim. When your preferred meditation technique doesn’t rescue you from your boredom or bring you enlightenment, it is seen as a persecutor or you (or your teacher) persecute you for not meditating correctly. If you take one role you will end up playing all three, whether you want to or not, whether you like it or not. Whatever role you are in always feels justified, valid, and authentic when it is actually a rationalization, lie, and barrier to authenticity. There is no peace in the Drama Triangle. only excitement and a jumble of tumultuous life experience. As some wag said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” The Five Trees are all about the Drama Triangle, although it is possible to be in them without playing any of the three roles. Most people spend their lives discovering who they are not, what they do not want to be or do, and who they do not want to spend time with. By the time they have figured all this out, their body is done. This is life in the Drama Triangle.
There is no intimacy in the drama triangle, just drama. To the extent that you are in the Drama Triangle when you are dreaming, whether lucid or not, you are in a state of self-delusion. If you are in one of the trees, or jumping from tree to tree, whether dreaming or awake, you are in the Drama Triangle. That is because you are looking for the contents of your mind to rescue you. That limb over there is obviously better than the one I am currently on. The contents of your mind can’t and won’t rescue you because there is no “you” to be rescued and no “you” to take roles. To the extent that you are in the Drama Triangle when you are awake, you are dreaming. If you are in the Drama Triangle in your waking life you are in it when you meditate. In other words, you think you are meditating when you are in a state of self-created drama.
To wake up out of the Drama Triangle you must first learn to recognize when you are in it. Do this by first watching and listening to others and ask yourself, “If he or she were in the Drama Triangle right now, which role would he/she be playing?” Then ask yourself, “If I were in the Drama Triangle right now in my relationship with that person, what role would I be playing?” Once you become good at recognizing your immersion in the Drama Triangle you have new freedom because you have an increased ability to choose. You can choose whether to stay in your role, switch to another role, or to stop playing. Switching to another role is to simply jump to another limb or another Tree. To stop playing is to metaphorically to become a monkey, a bird, the tree, all trees, the sky, or deep space. Such moves bring enlightenment because they transcend and include your previous identity.
Integral Deep LIstening provides alternatives to the Drama Triangle. Instead of spending your life learning from experience what not to do and be, IDL encourages you to get in touch with parts of yourself that already know who you are and how you need to be in the world in order to be fulfilled. Instead of identifying with the roles of rescuer, victim, and persecutor you learn to become the qualities that are the antidotes for each. Instead of mistaking life for drama, you learn to be present within, above, and beyond drama. This does not mean that you stop doing life any more than you stop being a monkey. It simply says that it is better to be able to take the perspectives of actors on the stage of your life, the audience, the director, and the theater than to be stuck in the perspective of this or that actor.
Having an appropriate model of meditation is not the same as successful meditation, but it is something of a prerequisite. Without a proper framing of what meditation is and is not you will waste time doing things that are optional rather than those that are essential or core to the process. Becoming those perspectives and values that are meditative is essential to building a foundation for successful meditation. This is what Integral Deep Listening is designed to teach you to do.