The Way of Roots {part 2}

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | RSS

This meditation series, The Way of Roots, began with an exploration of our own rootedness - our own ability to be present and awake to the moment as it is. 

Now, we add a bit to our understanding of Roots. 

Roots travel in search of nutrients, water, and community with other trees. 

One of the first things I think about is the big oak on the side of my house, near the road. It has been there a long time, and its roots have traveled past the boundary of the yard, under the paved road where they have made these huge, self-created speed bumps in the road.

The tree doesn’t heed to suburban ideas of lawn. Roots don’t heed to where development has said ‘stop’. In fact, re-wilding has shown that even in the face of huge infrastructure and development - if left alone, roots move back in and take back the territory that was once theirs.

This makes me think of the wisdom teachings from great meditators of the past. These ancient teachings don’t heed to modernity. They don’t become obsolete because now iPhones and social media exist. In fact, these teachings of meditation become MORE potent in the face of these modern evolutions. 

Meditation teachings invite the rewilding of our souls on some levels. It says ‘remember when’ or ‘remember who’ you were before all this. 

This isn’t to romanticize an ancient time, or ancient culture. It is simply to be aware of the path your roots have carved and are currently carving.

From each root, are tons of little off-shoots. We get to ask, “are we on an off-shoot, or are we on the main root? Are we moving in the direction we want to be moving?    

If we look at teachings as roots, they allow us to understand the path that has been carved.

And then crucially, the teachings always invite us to explore for ourselves. To question. To advance. We don’t have to accept without experiencing for ourselves.

We use wisdom teachings - through books, through teachers or classes or podcasts -  to help guide us. To give us the lay of the land and the sense of what’s possible. And then we return to our practice.

Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we explore the path roots carve and then share in a 20-minute guided meditation.