The Tree Sends Out its Roots

STANDING LIKE A TREE! …rooted in the TAO.

The tree is growing in a courtyard. Early morning sunlight glances off the stones and porcelain tiles. The shrubs among the rocks are wet with dew.

Stone walls surround the courtyard on all sides. The tree and all that grows within the confines are unmoving, held like stately prisoners in their places. Small birds move out along the branches and are gone.

The silence and the stillness mask the tree’s persistent work. It stands beside the stonework, motionless, but underneath the ground its roots are seeking out new soil.

The work is hidden, delicate. The tiny root hairs reach into the dark. The tender tip of every filament is inching outward in the earth.

Soon gardeners will come to tend the jasmine and the hyacinth. The day will bring the sounds of many visitors. Now, in the precious hours of the dawn, the little garden stands alone.

The spreading tree is breaking through the wall. Like little raindrops seeping through the rocks, its patient roots are boring through the stone. The layered mortar splits apart and cracks, while overhead a thousand leaves breathe, silent in the light.

— The Way of Energy by Master Lam Kam Chuen