"Of all trees I am the banyan (peepal or pipal tree)." (10.26)

The banyan (pipal) tree is unusual in that it can send forth from its branches secondary roots, often reaching down to the ground.

This is a daring, almost surrealistic metaphor - a tree with roots above and branches below. At the top of such a tree resides God and in the trunk is Brahma, responsible for the creation of all manifested existence. We are however accustomed to a very different kind of tree, exactly the opposite of the one thus described. Hence are appearances deceptive. Things are not what they seem at first sight. The richest are the poorest inside. Those who are seen smiling outside, feel terrible within, and the one successful is only sitting over his mound of failures. Once we gain this discriminating vision, what Krishna calls the "divya chakshuh" (11.8), only then can we see through appearances and perceive the root cause common to all - God.

The farther we move (evolve) away from the top of the cosmic tree, the more distant we are from God himself and what we normally feel to be progression is in spiritual terms regression. Nevertheless, even though the branches and leaves may spread out far and wide, they are always joined to their root cause (mula), and therefore never separated from God, although perhaps at a remote distance from him.

What we are able to see in the world is in truth the exact opposite of how things actually are. Conforming to this flawed vision our priorities too have become inverted. For example, spiritual activity is thought to be the opposite of worldliness. For those of us who have understood the true nature of the tree of life, living life inside out is the correct way to progress on the spiritual path. God acknowledges this when He says:

"What is night for all beings is the time of waking for the disciplined soul; and what is the time of waking for all is night for the sage with vision." (2.69)

How can we gain this vision? By standing detached from the world, very much like a person on the moon, who would perceive all the trees of the world to be hanging upside down, as they actually are, only because he stands apart from it all. Somewhat like Archimedes, when he said: "Give me a firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth." The eagerly sought spot is however not a geographical location separate from where we already are. It is the mental condition of unattached (asanga) equanimity, with which we need to cleave the flawed tree of our distorted perception.

--Quotations cited from "The Bhagavad Gita" (a Hindu allegory in the form of a dialogue constituting merely one part of the larger Hindu scripture the "Mahabarata".



पीपल (Pipal Tree)

"A man who keeps death before his eyes will at all times overcome his cowardliness."

Hesychias and Anchorites are both synonymous with 'hermit'.  The  'Apophthegmata Patrum' is the name given to various collections of Sayings of the Desert Fathers, consisting of stories and sayings attributed to the Desert Fathers from approximately the 5th century CE.

The collections consist of wisdom stories describing the spiritual practices and experiences of early Christian hermits living in the desert of Egypt. They are typically in the form of a conversation between a younger monk and his spiritual father, or as advice given to visitors. Beginning as an oral tradition in the Coptic language, they were only later written down as Greek text. The stories were extremely popular among early Christian monks, and appeared in various forms and collections.

The original sayings were passed down from monk to monk, though in their current version most simply describe the stories in the form of "Abba X said...." The early Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers also received many visitors seeking counseling, typically by asking "Give me a word, abba" or "Speak a word, amma, how can I be saved?" Some of the sayings are responses to those seeking guidance.[6] A rough form of the sayings in Ethiopian shows a more lengthy transmission of the sayings, and the way in which they were passed down. The earliest date ascribed to the written form is the end of the 4th century. Two versions from the 5th century, the Ethiopian Collection (Collection Monastica) and the Ascetica of Abba Isaiah show how the oral tradition became the written collections.

T.S.&.P.P.o.K.G.I.T.: The Great Daedalian Apophthegm Responsible for the Semantic and Phenomenological Non-Existence of All Apophthegmatic Systems.

Mathematical and Logical Paradox--Simultaneously True and False.  Enantiodromic Emergence in Empirical Science.  

Hesychias and Anchorites:  Sayings of the Desert Fathers

I recorded this while I wrote it and didn't have the patience to stop and focus on lyrics, so I mumble through a lot of parts.  There'll be a tighter, mastered version with lyrics.  And since lyrics are the shuttering earth of a song sweeping a person off the ground if the words travel up from beneath your feet with the momentum to reach your heart and history, it's vital for me to invest everything I have into what I'm saying and why I'm saying it.  Mixing problems, poor accoustics and toooo many vocal takes made shoddy vocal takes embarressing sounds to listen to.  

II. Darlings & Dharma

Metanym

I want to receive every bit of your disease, Honey
Won’t you please just infect me?
I’m ready to…

See the same way I feel
I need to bleed just to know it’s real
I need to steal just to feed my family
I need the tree planted right inside of me

Becoming a part of me
Saplings grow into a tree

Your love doesn’t reach me
Echoes of a vow lose speed traversing the sea
Trying to catch me, to infect me with love

Crushing hearts is just a part of love
And loving and losing is just what humans do
Breaking up and tearing a part
Is all a part of it, do you know what it is?


NaseymIanFalk