Destroying Nature
Means
Destroying Yourself
H
ere is a story about Lao Tzu: One day one of his
disciples was sent by someone to break a few
leaves from a tree. He broke a full branch and
was taking it when Lao Tzu stopped him. "Don't you
know you fool," he told the disciple, "if any part of this
tree is destroyed, you too become less to that extent?
When this tree stood before us, full and green, we too in a
manner, were also full and green. Today, its wound has
caused a scar within us also. We are not apart, we are
one."
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But even with full knowledge, we have cut off so many
trees!
Lao Tzu objected to a single branch being broken
from the tree but we have destroyed full jungles! Now
we realise it was a terrible mistake. We had cut off the
jungles because we thought they were our foes. Man
was afraid of the wild life they harboured and so
destroyed them and built townships. He did not realise
that all the rains that poured on his land, all the breezes
that blew and cooled the land cannot be without the
jungles! If we cut down the jungles, our towns will no
Longer exist.
house. He does not know the vast world outside. He
is totally unaware of the clouds that glide in the skies,
he does not see the flowers blooming on the trees, nor
does he hear the song of birds in the spring.
A book was published in England called The Silent
Spring. A sudden drastic change had taken place.
Thousands of birds suddenly fell down from trees and
died. Thousands lay dead in the streets of the towns.
All spring was suddenly hushed into silence. Due to
some fault in the atomic energy research experiments,
this catastrophe took place. England lost a major part of
her singing birds
All over Europe
which will be hard to
now, there is a stir
replace. The spring in
England can never be
against the cutting of
That which seems hostile and
the same. And we
trees. It is a crime to
unfriendly, let even that be where it is,
think -- what
break a single leaf for
difference will the
man will fall with the
for the pattern of nature is deep and
change in spring make
extinction of trees.
profound
and
full
of
mystery.
in our lives? Will our
Lao Tzu said 2,500
roads
or our marketyears ago that when a
Everything is joined within. You do not
places be affected if
tree is denied of a
know, what problems you create when
the birds stop singing
single branch, we too
you set apart a single thing in nature.
in the trees? Would
are lessened
that life were so aloof
somewhat, within
and apart! But it is not
ourselves. The tree is
so. There, everything
very much a part of
is joined and inter connected. If a star becomes extinct,
us, a part of existence. It is just as if we were to remove
it affects the earth, even if it be millions of light years
a part of a painting from the main work. It would not
away.
then be the same. One single stroke of the brush can
change a whole picture. A slight digression changes the
If the moon is no more there will be enormous
total form and hence, all the following connections.
changes on earth. There will no longer be waves in the
oceans; the menstrual cycle of women would become
The tree that stood between the hut and the space
erratic. It will not move in a cycle of 28 days, as it does
outside is hewn down. Now the sky and the hut stand
now. Then everything will change. A slight difference -bare and naked. We cut down trees unscrupulously in
and everything changes.
order to clear a good place for man's dwelling. We have
also destroyed completely many species of animals.
Lao Tzu says, "Let things be as they are." Accept
them, they are your companions. Do not segregate the
This new movement in Europe, is called ecology,
opposite. That which seems hostile and unfriendly, let
which believes in the interrelationship of organisms
even that be where it is, for the pattern of nature is
with their environment. They say, that man has to
deep and profound and full of mystery. Everything is
suffer because of the things he has destroyed. The birds
joined within. You do not know, what problems you
that sing in the jungles. are equally a part of us. When
create when you set apart a single thing in nature.
birds stop singing in the jungles, we shall have created
Now as the science of ecology has begun to spread
a hindrance in the music that is in nature and then our
and man has begun to understand, we have begun to
minds will never know the peace and joy that came
realise how difficult it is to tell in how many ways we
with their singing. We are not aware of this for man is a
are inter connected. For example, if we cut off trees
small creature who spends all his life in a corner of his
then the life-elements that the trees gather for us will
house. He does not know the vast world outside. He is
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then the life-elements that the trees gather for us
will no longer exist. The trees absorb the rays of the
sun and make them fit to be absorbed by our bodies.
The direct rays of the sun cannot be converted into a fit
form of consumption for our bodies. The plants draw
the elements from the soil and turn them into food for
us. Little do we realise that if the trees and plants had
not been there to produce the vegetables we eat, they
would be under the soil -- a mass of earth! It is the soil
below that turns into the food that is capable of being
digested by our system.
I was reading somewhere the other day, that if we
continue to throw oil into the seas, either through the
waste-matter from factories or from ships, in sixty years
time this oil will cover the surface of the oceans. Then
we shall need no more world wars to finish us, for the
life-elements formed by the sea-water with the help of
the sun, will no longer be formed owing to the layer of
oil.
Now we use detergents instead of soap. The latest
discovery of ecology says that if man continues to use
these detergents, he will kill himself. When we wash
All the twenty-four hours of the day. you take in
clothes with soap, the soap gets re-absorbed in the soil
oxygen and throw out carbon dioxide. The trees take
within fifteen days. In fifteen days, it is again lost in
in this carbon dioxide and take out oxygen. If the trees
nature; but detergents take 150 years to be re-absorbed
of the world are destroyed,
in the elements. So it will
how will you escape the
be in the soil for 150 years
poison of carbon dioxide
and it will begin to turn
that you yourself produce?
into poison within the first
All things are connected. There is
Then the quantity of
15 years. This means, it
one
integrated
existence.
The
oxygen will grow less and
will stay in the soil for 135
less every day. Ultimately,
years, as poison.
moment you affect the slightest
all life will come to a stop
change in the order of things, you
for the trees that give us
The scientists proclaim
affect an equal change within your
the life-giving oxygen, are
that at the rate these
no more.
detergents are being used
own selves. There is one integrated
in the world today,
existence and the non-existence is
Now Lao Tzu had no
whatever grows on the soil
knowledge of oxygen. He
will become poisonous
very much a part of it.
did not know what part the
within the next 50 years.
trees played in our lives
Then you will not be
and yet he said: "All things
drinking water but poison.
are connected. There is one
Then the vegetables we
integrated existence. The moment you affect the
eat, will be poisonous. But this understanding we do
slightest change in the order of things, you affect an
not have now. We use detergents because soap costs
equal change within your own selves." There is one
more. It seems all right now -- we are being thrifty but
integrated existence and the non-existence is very
remember; whatever we do, is inter-related. The
much a part of it. Everything is connected within this
slightest modification causes a great deal of difference.
existence -- death, illness: everything! And Lao Tzu
says, "If there is the attitude of friendship, of
Lao Tzu was against change of any kind. He used to
companionship, between the various parts of existence,
say: "Accept life as it is. Accept the opposite also, for
if there is the feeling of one ness with each other,
there is a secret to it. Embrace death when it comes. It
instead of over-powering each other, a wonderful
too, has its secret. Do not fight with life; yield to it. Fall
music is created in life." This very music Lao Tzu calls
at the feet of existence -- surrender. Do not enter into
Tao; that very music is religion; that very music is 'Rit'.
any struggle with it.
It is now becoming increasingly clear tha t as the
understanding of ecology expands, our understanding
-Osho, The Way Of The Tao: Vol-1
of Lao Tzu, will also become more profound. The more
we begin to understand the unity within the diversity,
OW
the less we shall be in a hurry to change the order of
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