All Things Alive

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This poem's research is primarily based on a wide array of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and noted scientist's and investigator's commentary: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Peter Wohlleben, Suzanne Simard, David Haskell, Marcia Bjornerud, Michio Kaku, Dinesh Chandra and Albert Einstein.

I went to a nearby park
to a bench I knew with a view.
Seated there was a fine-looking woman
she had the purest white hair.
Sitting at one end unobtrusively, I at the other,
after a time, she turned and spoke softly...
"Your search for truth is over,
you needn't fear your own death anymore".
It was a dreamlike state of conversation
unlike any other for me.

We talked, she taught: 
Trees and plants communicate with each other
they do it through animals, air and soil
often enlisting insects and chemicals to carry signals.
Some scientists and many indigenous people believe
trees act intelligently in self and communal interest
and actually "talk" even though
they can't utter a sound, have a brain or move quickly.
Their conversation is so alien to us, many deny it,
some are unaware, others say it's ancient wisdom.
When conscious humans appeared on earth,  
plants had preceded us by nearly 450 million years.
Do we know what they know?
Question is, are trees and plants conscious beings?

"Universal Consciousness" is throughout the cosmos
it's enlightenment in totality for all time.
Humans as a part of it, share it with all organic matter -
everything past, present and future to varying degrees.
Are humans all alone in a meaningless universe?
The quest for more life is primordial -
it's humankind's oldest story.
Other life forms are possible, 
carbon-based is not the only one.
Much for thinkers, scientists and mystics to ponder.
The mystics are wise no doubt,
sentient beings tell us what life's about.
Life is exploding - a cosmic force,
even through cracks in the pavement.
The planet's saga is life always finds a way to survive.
Let's not be cavalier about earth's 4.5 billion year story.

When I awoke from this trance, she was gone.
Left alone with my thoughts, my musings...

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us,
'Universe', a part unlimited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings
as something separate from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
The striving to free oneself from this delusion
is the one issue of true religion".
- Albert Einstein

Life is vibrant all around us.
Consciousness for all beings - humans, animals, 
plants, a concern for us all.
Science can meet spirituality in our universe.
It's only 15 billion light years across.
When you die you fall gently into
an ocean that is the "Universal Consciousness".
So some say... theories abound.
The evolution of AI "Carbon Consciousness" is possible -
transforming human to inorganic consciousness.
There are options beyond conventional religious beliefs,
it's the one issue only you can answer.
All Things Alive: Your Consciousness Can Survive.

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L. J. Carber

Date: 11/21/2021 4:15:00 PM

As a 24 yr. old agnostic I literally 'found' my soul, an eternal consciousness, when I had an NDE whilst almost drowning in a Vermont river. 50 years on, I still have more questions than answers, Greg, but I suspect you/the lady right in sensing that the 'Great Mystery', God, permeates the Universe and every atom in it. The problem with life is not that it's meaningless as atheism's logic posits, but so full of meaning we can only grasp at best a tiny bit, like a grain of sand in a huge desert.

Greg Gaul
Date: 11/22/2021 7:02:00 AM

This, without doubt, is the most cogent and enlightened comment I have gotten about this poem. Yes, concrete conclusions are difficult to draw. But you, above all others, emerge with a sentient point of view, one of greater wonder as you write in your critique. As a Buddhist guru remarked to a puzzled student, "Ah, now you are on your way".