2. The Book of Knowledge. 8. 2. Studying the natur

The BOOK of KNOWLEDGE,
a novel by Alexandra Kryuchkova
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series

PART 2. ANOTHER REALITY

Day No. 8

CHAPTER 8.2. STUDYING The NATURE

We went down to the hall after breakfast to go with RAM to a distant monastery, which was somewhere in the high mountains.

Suddenly, I realized that I couldn’t find my glasses, sunglasses. In the morning, or rather, at night and before sunrise, of course, they were useless, but on the way back, returning from the mountains, the Sun was already shining in full, and the glasses were very useful, so I used to take them with me.

“When we met in the morning in the mountains, did I have my glasses on?” I asked Svetlana

“No, I think,” she said thoughtfully.

I went up to the room and tried to find the loss in vain. I went downstairs with sadness.

“Sasha, do you remember whether I was in the mountains today with glasses or without?”

“I don’t remember exactly, probably, without. And why?”

“I can’t find them. Most likely, I left them on the Book of Knowledge.”

“Daphne, don’t be upset, your Salvatore Ferragamo, although beautiful, are of the last year. You’ll find your Stone Wall, and have a hundred more like them, no, even better!”

I wasn’t very upset. It was just that I had only one pair of sunglasses, and I really liked them. Sasha suggested that I put out the entire contents of my small bag on the table in front of them. Actually, except for a wallet and a camera, nothing was found in it.

“Well, they were left on the Book, so it was necessary so,” I exhaled.

“Alice, they will read so many interesting things in the Book!” Svetlana said with a smile.

“Daphne, stop… You told us about dematerialization! Here is an opportunity for you to put your knowledge into practice!”

“Sasha, it’s wrong to use Knowledge for selfish purposes.”

“Alice, you can ask the Book to return your glasses!”

“I can probably.”

“So ask, the Book hears you! You’ll go to the mountains tomorrow and find them untouched there.”

“There is a strong wind, Svetlana.”

“Daphne, ask for it, we tell you! Stubborn as a sheep!”

I sighed and mentally turned to the Book of Knowledge with such a petty request.

It took us a few hours on the bus to the gorge with an unknown mountain river, then along the river. The road went up all the time. The bus stopped at the site. We left it in a picturesque place, surrounded on all sides by mountains, mountains, mountains – an uncountable number of peaks, wherever you looked.

We went up in the cable car. Somewhere far below remained the sacred lake of Maya. Here and there in the lower mountains at different levels we saw lonely monasteries. It seemed that we had climbed into the sky itself. We left the cable car and climbed up the narrow path, on foot, trace to trace. We came across huge stones on which unknown letters were inscribed with multi-colored paints. Having conquered another height, we reached a huge Lake. On all sides there were mountains of smoky blue color. There was snow on some peaks. The mountains followed each other, forming chains, and the farther they were, the foggier they looked. What a magical place! My heart fluttered.

I approached RAM and asked cautiously, “At a regular seminar, you take us to a lake, where we cleanse the lungs. Is it this one?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’ve been here, right in this place.”

RAM smiled, turned to everyone and said, “This is a sacred lake. You can’t swim in it, but you can drink the water.”

We dipped our hands into the water, washed our faces, talked to the Lake, each about his own. The locals brought freshly baked bread to RAM, for us and for the inhabitants of the monastery on the mountain.

“Now we’ll go to the monastery, which is not yet visible from here, trace to trace, along the suspension bridge that goes around the rocks along the lake. Each of you should carry the bag with bread for some time in order to put your energy into the bread, to join our modest gift to the monastery. I go first, then I pass the bag to the one who follows me, then he passes it to the next one. The last one returns the bread to me.”

We stepped on the suspension bridge. It was so narrow that it was impossible for two people to walk on it together. There were rocks on the left, we touched them with our hands. They either protruded into the lake, or retreated from it, and the bridge snaked them around. The rocks in some places hung so low that even I, being one meter and 58 centimeters, had to bend down to walk further. To the right and below us, there was the huge sacred lake, surrounded by many mountains stretching into the distance in the ghostly haze of mist, into Another Reality. Around the last bend, where the bridge ended and a steep uphill path began, RAM stopped.

“What do you think these trees are?” she asked, touching the trunks growing right out of the lake.

We thought about it, everyone made their own guess. I noticed a striking detail, there were water all around. Above, along the path, there were grasses and flowers, and other trees drowned in greenery. However, the trees near the bridge were almost withered and leafless.

“They are aspens,” said RAM mysteriously. “Everyone who goes to the monastery must purify himself. The aspen tree takes on the negative energy of passers-by. Therefore, it suffers, unlike its neighbors of other species. You should touch the aspen trunk with your hand and thank the tree for its help.”

“Oh, my God, an aspen stake!” Svetlana exclaimed.

“Now we’ll find out who is who here! DAC and… bool-bool-bool,” I said quietly, turning to Sasha.

“Aren’t you afraid yourself, Daphne?” he said just as quietly.

“To remain in this monastery forever?” I smiled.

“Are you again?”

We walked up to the now visible, but still high, or rather, far from us, monastery. On the way, I wondered if it would turn out to be the same monastery I had been during my meditations. But I realized it wasn’t. Mine was located on the highest mountain, above all imaginable and unimaginable mountains. To get to the local mountain with the monastery, we needed to walk along the suspension bridge over the lake, and to my monastery I used to walk over the Abyss along a thin ghostly thread.

The closer we got to the monastery, the more distinct the Yin-Yang sign on its wall was.

“A man and a woman?” Svetlana asked.

“Yin is a symbol of female passive power, Yang is male and active. But in each of us there are both, female and male, only in different proportions. For example, shakti in India, among other things, is a female force, a female principle in male gods. Yin is the energy of water, it should be more in a woman, while Yang is fire, respectively, in a man. If harmony is broken, problems arise. In general, these are two cosmic energies present in everything around us, two sides of the same coin, the Chinese symbol of duality and the unity of opposites. The duality of the world, which in fact doesn’t exist.”

“Why doesn’t it exist?”

“It doesn’t exist in Another Reality. Therefore, the task of man is to strive for harmony in the combination of two opposites.”

“What else can be attributed to Yin and Yang?”

“Yin is Earth and shadow. The Moon. Valleys. Everything round and oval. Winter, night. The inner world of a person, intuition, emotional perception. Passivity. Damp and dark rooms. Depth, cold. Moonstone, lapis lazuli, aquamarine, rose quartz. The smell of chamomile, vanilla, geranium, lavender, mint. The right hemisphere of the brain. Raw foods without heat treatment. Also: wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, milk, sour cream, vegetable oil, sweet fruits, nuts, honey, green tea, chicken meat, for example. Any matter, unlike Spirit.”

“So is Yang Heaven?”

“Yes, Heaven, Spirit. Light. Fire. Deserts. Mountains. Summer. Day. Heat. The Sun. Everything sharp and hard. Activity, movement, knowledge. Warm and bright spaces. Ruby, garnet, black tourmaline. The smell of ginger, rosemary, cinnamon, rose. The left hemisphere of the brain. Rationality. Creativity. Heat-treated food. Buckwheat, rye, rice, onion, garlic, cabbage, all greens, legumes, beef, pork, salt, black tea, sour fruits. Light, as a means of maintaining the vital energy Qi, the embodiment of Yang, the Spirit.”

“It turns out that everything in the world can be divided into Yin and Yang?”

“Yes, it can. For example, people can be divided into extroverts and introverts. But, again, it is desirable not to divide, but to combine. Moreover, Carl Gustav Jung said that there are neither 100% extroverts nor introverts. Yin is bad without Yang, and vice versa. They should be together. If there is too much Yin energy, a person is constantly depressed, feels lethargic, doesn’t want to eat anything. And if there is a lot of aggression in a person, there is too much Yang.”

“And what to do then?”

“What do they do in case of fire? To put it out, Fire with Water.”

We reached the entrance to the monastery and climbed the steps to the main temple.

“This monastery is called a thousand Buddha monastery,” RAM said. “When we enter the temple, you’ll see red columns on the left, with 1,000 small golden images of the Buddha. Here the monks answer the questions of those who come to them for advice on the Book of Changes. But we won’t ask them, because the Book is very complicated, it’s better to listen to the interpretation in the native language.”

An old monk approached us. He and RAM had known each other for a long time. She gave him our modest gift, the bread. The monk gestured for us to enter the temple. Svetlana took a picture of the monk and suddenly handed me her camera with a picture.

“How do you like it, Alice?”

In the frame just captured, flames of Fire were beautifully fluttering out above the monk’s head. The monk meanwhile gave each seminarian three candles. We made a wish. The monk lit our candles in a special way.

When we left the temple and approached the vat of incense, RAM took a very, very large candle, more like a long drainpipe in size. We silently repeated our wishes. RAM lit the candle and put it in the vat.

“And now let the Sound transmit your wish to Heaven,” smiled RAM, pointing to a free-standing bell tower painted in the Tibetan style.

Having struck the bell three times with a special magic wand, we set off on the long way back to the site where the bus was waiting for us. On the way, Svetlana decided not to waste time.

“Listen, the aspen tree struck me… I remember there were some people who specialized in trees. They even made tree horoscopes. Can you tell me something about them?”

“The Celts, one of the most warlike people in Europe.”

“Bearded warriors who played harps and made all sorts of beautiful things from metal?”

“This is a romantic idea of the Celts, appeared during the era of the Celtic Renaissance at the end of the 18th century. Although they really knew how to work metal beautifully, the Celtic style is still used to describe various jewelry with specific curls. There is even such a thing as Celtic cross. When you are in Ireland, you’ll see a lot of Celtic things in souvenir shops. But not everything is as beautiful as their decorations, and not as romantic as in the stories. The Celts destroyed Rome. The Romans called them Gauls, which meant white-skinned. Then they were going to plunder the temple of Apollo at Delphi, but suddenly a thunderstorm broke out, and the leader of the Celts took the sign for a bad omen. The Celts were quite bloodthirsty, they cut off the heads of their opponents, hung them on the necks of horses, and then nailed them at the front doors to their houses or preserved them in cedar oil. They were proud of the cut heads and didn’t exchange them for a bag full of gold equal to the weight of a head.”

“Why heads?”

“They were convinced that the Soul lives in the head. They counted the Souls sent by them to Another Reality. Gaius Julius Caesar, in his letters to the Roman Senate about the Gallic War, described the human sacrifices of the Celts. The historian Pliny the Elder described cases of cannibalism.”

“Have you read them?”

“I’ve read Caesar’s letters about the Gallic War, to the Senate and to his wife, too. I mean Caesar’s wife.”

“Then?!”

“No, in this life, during the Latin classes at the Academy.”

“Where did the Celts live?”

“They went from the north in all directions, capturing neighboring territories, mixed with local tribes. There are probably no pure Celts left. Those who call themselves Celts are people who adopted their culture and style, including in clothing. Although many European words derived from Celtic ones. For example, Paris is from the Celtic tribe of the Parisians, Galich is from the word Gauls.”

“Did the Celts build these cities?”

“The Celts didn’t build cities at all. They had only settlements. It’s not that they couldn’t or didn’t know to build cities. They just didn’t want to. They were closer to nature. But Stonehenge, for example, according to one version, is a magical place of the Celts, where they worshiped the Sun.”

“So did they treat nature better than people?”

“I think they didn’t cut off the heads of their tribesmen in the heat of the moment. But nature, in particular, trees and flowers, meant a lot to the Celts. It’s interesting, they had a whole pantheon of gods, and in October 2010, some British commission recognized the worship of the Celts to the spirits of nature as a religion. Their religion was based on the idea of reincarnation, not esoteric, but exoteric.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I have already told you. Exoteric is when you, Svetlana, or rather, your Spirit, next time may find yourself, for example, in the body of a tree, flower, stone or animal. The esoteric one says that nobody returns back to the lower realms, only to the same level or even higher.”

“Well, I don’t like the Celts idea of the reincarnation.”

“Among the Celts, the closed priestly caste of the Druids had great influence. They were in charge of religion, the supreme judiciary and education. The druids were also the keepers of mythological poems and poets themselves. They wore long cone-shaped hats, some of which, made in gold, were found during excavations in Europe.”

“A strange word ‘druids’. Does it mean something in the Celtic language?”

“Many people wondered, whether it was from the oak or from knowing? They searched for similar-root words in different languages. In Greek, for example, a word close to them is dryads, that is, nymphs who live in trees. As a result, it was decided that the druids were very learned. I would say ‘clear-seeing’, ‘clear-knowing’ through communication with Nature, in particular, with trees. The druids were engaged in nature studies. Someone danced to get knowledge, someone communicated with trees to get it. It’s logical, because basically the druids lived in oak forests, had a close relationship with the plant world and mainly used oak in their rituals. It was considered by the druids, as well as by all the Celts in general, the world tree.”

“So the druids communicated with oaks only?”

“Not only, with each one.”

“How?”

“They approached a tree, asked a question and received an answer. They practiced communication by changing the rhythm of breathing. We would say that the druids entered a trance state, slowing down their breathing, relaxing their bodies, closing their eyes. The main method consisted of three stages. At first, the student had to breathe so that one inhalation lasted exactly three beats of the pulse, and one exhalation the same three beats. It was necessary to breathe this way for at least an hour. The second stage was the breath of insight, everything was the same, but the breathing was slowed down already to four beats of the pulse. Again, breathe for at least an hour. In this state, the druids could do psychometry, that is, they could take any object in their hand and tell everything about it. A hand of another person, for example.”

“Could they read the future by the streams, rivers, water?”

“They could, like everyone else who sees or knows. Both water and fire. But it’s more difficult to read something running or moving than static. It depends on the level of the reader.”

“Okay, I see, and the third stage of breathing?”

“Five beats of the pulse. The disciples were brought to breathe in a cemetery, laid on the graves in order to read, in an altered state of Consciousness, information about the life of the deceased. In the same state, they communicated with trees, heard the answers of the gods in the rustle of leaves. It was believed that the older was the tree, the more talkative it was, and even better if it grew in the Place of Power. It was quite good if the tree had a hollow. Then two pebbles were placed in the hole, which remained there forever, and the tree was marked with a personal sign so that it would remember its owner.”

“Did they set up a communication bridge?”

“Yes, that’s right, the adjustment was underway. The druids coaxed their tree: they brought it wine, honey and lit incense in front of it. A special procedure was the collection of mistletoe, used not only to predict the future, but also for healing. A suitable one was selected on the sixth day of the Moon. A sacrifice was made at the tree for a solemn meal. They brought two white bulls with tied horns. The priest, all in white, climbed up the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle into his white cloak. The bulls were sacrificed to a laudatory hymn to the gods.”

“And how was the mistletoe used then?”

“In many ways, because after this ritual it was even considered an antidote to any poison.”

“Wasn’t your grandfather a druid in his previous life, by any chance?”

“Probably, I’ve already thought about it. He was very calm, like a druid. Druids learned slow breathing not only for magical purposes, it brings both mental and physical calmness. In summer, my grandfather used to wander with me through the forests, and we had a huge garden in the country. Trees and bushes, I think, about a hundred of them. My grandfather looked after them, every day he did something good for them. They loved him. It’s interesting, he had a woody surname, it meant the linden tree.”

“Wow, it’s cool!”

“By the way, he always walked with a staff like a real druid, and he even taught me to make a staff for myself.”

“Were druids supposed to have a staff?”

“Many magicians have wands, and among the druids, the symbol of the magician was a staff. Everyone had to make it for himself out of his own tree, that is, from the one that he felt as his own. First, you need to talk to the tree, explain to it why you are going to cut down the branch, placate it, do something pleasant or good for it. If the tree gives you permission, then the cut branch should be processed immediately.”

“How?”

“With a knife, for example. You can even engrave different symbols on the staff. My grandfather taught me all sorts of magical signs. Druids gave names to their staffs. In fact, it was like a magic wand, the strength of which depended on its owner.”

“Did you have your own tree?”

“Not only in the country. In the city, I often climbed up my tree and watched all passers-by from above. I was so small that nobody noticed me in the branches.”

“You are still small, like a dryad, it’s not for nothing that Sasha calls you Daphne! What did the druids think about trees?”

“They thought not only about trees, but also about bushes and flowers. They thought they had a soul, each of them its own. They have feelings, react to everything that causes pain or joy. Each tree and flower, like a person, has its own character, strengths and weaknesses, needs certain conditions for life and growth. Therefore, after careful observation of trees and flowers over many centuries, the druids already knew their nature so well that they associated any tree or flower with a certain type of people. This is how tree and flower horoscopes appeared.”

“Are there twelve of them, like the Signs of the Zodiac?”

“No, in the tree horoscope, the year is divided into 2 periods of 18 segments or trees in each, the first 18 are repeated in the second period. For example, my son and Ray celebrate their birthdays in opposite Zodiac Signs, but are the same tree. My grandfather and I were born on the same day, and my mother and French grandmother celebrated their birthdays six months after us, but all four of us are the same tree.”

“What tree are you?”

“According to the nowadays horoscope, I’m mountain ash.”

“You were born in spring, and they were born in autumn, but the tree is the same, why?”

“This horoscope is based on the position of the Sun relative to the Earth, that is, how far the Sun is from it in a given period of time. And for the days of the winter and summer solstice, spring and summer equinoxes, there are 4 more trees.”

“Great, now tell me about each, what does it mean according to the druids?”

“No, Svetlana, I won’t do it.”

“Why?”

“Everyone should get this information by themselves.”

“On the Internet?”

“Do you really think that the current horoscopes contain the knowledge of the druids of the second half of the first millennium BC? The Secret Knowledge was transmitted by druids orally. It was strictly forbidden to record anything. Their students had to develop their memory in order to memorize information by ear, and be able to connect to the Universal Computer, and even better if…”

“But I can’t connect to the Universal Computer, only to the ordinary one!”

“No need, Svetlana. I’ve read the druid horoscope, but I don’t want to use it in my life. There are just general phrases, a lot of nonsense and little truth.”

“Give me an example!”

“Well, I’ll give you examples from once read. If you were born under the X tree, you inspire others to love you, that is, you are charming and attracting the attention of the opposite sex. It turns out that all the rest, born under other trees, must be extremely scary. If you were born under the Y tree, you love perfumes. What about the rest of the world’s population? If this were true, the entire perfume industry would have died out long ago. One who was born under the Z tree is not easy to communicate with. For example, it’s not easy to communicate with me, but I was born under a different tree, not Z at all. Bold and strong should be born under another tree, sensitive ones – under some other. For example, it’s written that people born in the period from … to … are short. But I know very tall, even excessively tall people born in the same period. Isn’t the quoted silly? It cannot be that all those born under the same tree are exceptionally short, or all are very smart, or poets, or writers. Obvious nonsense. Every human has his mind, but it’s developed to different degrees. Poets and writers are born under all trees. In general, if you discard what may apply to people with other dates of birth, you’ll understand how little information is provided by today’s druid horoscope. And its characteristics are based only on the location of the Sun relative to the Earth at the time of birth. All other planets are not taken into account. But it’s not even about the planets.”

“And what is it about?”

“We should first study and feel the trees well. Then automatically, even without knowing the date of birth of someone, you’ll suddenly realize that he is an apple tree, for example. It’s the same with flowers and flower horoscopes. There’s no need to tie dates of birth to a specific tree or flower. In any case, the quantity of trees in the horoscope, like flowers, is limited. There are many types of people. Why should we put our mind into the framework of standard horoscopes? There are also horoscopes of animals, but there are much more animals in the world than 12. What if the Soul of an unborn one looks like a tree, not included in the druid horoscope? Should it not incarnate at all?”

“Are you saying this is all nonsense?”

“No, I want to say that the druids are absolutely right, and each tree really has a certain character and Soul, like a flower. But they were right, not transmitting their Knowledge in writing. Now there are solid patterns all around, so that people, without thinking and without taking into account other factors, project what they read onto themselves and their loved ones. I feel the soul of certain trees and flowers, and when I talk to a stranger, not knowing his date of birth, I understand that he is Cedar. The information comes out of my Subconscious, since once it put the images and corresponding characteristics of certain trees and flowers. I never write anything down, I just feel it. What difference does one’s date of birth make to me, if I see him as Edelweiss, for example? Either I see the image of a flower, or I know immediately that he is Edelweiss. And not vice versa, first asking the date of birth, and then putting the Violet stamp on a person who is actually 90% Edelweiss, and only 10% Violet.”

“I don’t understand how it works.”

“First, information on observations of flowers, trees, animals is collected and accumulated in the virtual notebook of the Subconscious. A certain image is prescribed there: what a given tree, flower or animal means for you, Svetlana. When you need to better understand a stranger or someone whose date of birth you don’t know, it’s enough to chat with him or watch him for a short time, as your Subconscious will pull out of the chest the necessary image – a sign that will help you remember or read the characteristics you have put into it.”

“It’s too complicated. It’s easier to find out the date of birth and read the horoscope! Isn’t it?”

“It’s easier, but remember: a person can be born as Violet and Apple and change himself to Edelweiss and Cedar. It’s not the date of birth that matters, since it says only about certain prerequisites at the time of his birth, but who he is now. Study trees and flowers, and both tree and flower horoscopes, as well as dates of birth, will absolutely cease to interest you.”

“How can I study trees?”

“Talk with them, observe them, read information about them, up to the legends. People are too lazy to spend time on studies. In general, one should be closer to Nature. Nature is Knowledge. Everyone has their own Path to Knowledge. In Japan, for example, the cultivation of miniature copies of trees in pots is very widespread. The dwarf plant production is called bonsai. This art appeared even before our era in China, then moved to Japan. At first, Buddhist monks grew such trees. According to Chinese legend, an emperor demanded to recreate in his palace a miniature copy of the empire, including rivers and mountains. That’s how miniature trees appeared. Although, perhaps, the roots of bonsai are in Taoism. Taoists believed that by creating an object in miniature, one could concentrate its magical power and control it. There is also a Japanese fairy tale. Once a rich man was traveling incognito in the mountains, climbed into the wilderness, froze hard and came across a poor samurai hut. The owner welcomed the guest and decided to warm him, but there was nothing to throw into the fire, except for an old bonsai that had been passed down from generation to generation. The samurai sacrificed the most precious thing he had, and the rich man later thanked him taking the samurai to his palace.”

“Why a tree?”

“In Buddhism, the tree and its branches are considered ritually pure. There is a cult of the Boddhi tree, under which Buddha achieved enlightenment. There is a Buddhist shrine, a tree behind a stone fence. It served as the prototype of bonsai. In Buddhism, the whole world is the garden of Buddha, in which the Tree of Life grows. The Master of the Garden, the gardener, is the main person in the Universe. Previously, only government officials could cultivate bonsai. Nowadays, the Japanese feel as powerful as emperors, growing bonsai.”

“Are those special small trees?”

“No, ordinary. They become small after special care – pruning, for example. But the ratio of the size of the root system in the pot and the ground part correspond to the proportions of an adult tree, as it is in nature. Many styles have been invented by people for trees in pots, besides the usual straight line. Among them are runk inclined at a certain angle to the horizontal, cascading or semi-cascading style of branches to imitate growth near water or in the mountains, philosopher’s style with a minimum number of branches, root on rock or growing on rock in crevices, twisted trunk, broom style, a tree growing in a swamp, and so on.”

“What size are they?”

“From tiny to huge over a meter. The average trees are usually up to 40 centimeters.”

“So do they just cut them off? What’s about the shape?”

“There are a lot of methods and ways. You can use copper or aluminum wire, directing the branches in the right direction. It’s called ligature. Sometimes special weights are hung to create bends. Pinch to limit the growth of shoots, or simply prune.”

“Should they grow outside or at home?”

“Many trees need to be grown indoors first and then moved to the garden. Bonsai can be kept indoors as long as it gets enough light. You have to care about each tree individually, according to the its more comfortable conditions. Maple or pine, for example, can grow both indoors and in the yard, but they have a period of sleep – hibernation, you can’t interrupt it. Japanese black pine is an outdoor tree, but can live in a cold room, even better, in a special refrigerator. In fact, there are no completely outdoors trees. All cold-resistant ones, having been moved into warmth, acclimatize after a while. By the way, trees live longer than humans, so the wisdom of many generations is embedded in them.”

“What’s the point?”

“You communicate with the tree, watch it, learn to understand each other. First, you create a certain image, how it will look like. Then you start the implementation, not on your own, but together with the tree. It’s both cooperation and compromise, since a tree isn’t able to do everything that a person wants, it’s more likely to die, thus, you should understand each other. For example, you use a wire to ask the tree to lean to the right. The tree responds and bows obediently, or doesn’t. A man wrote a book about bonsai ‘A Slow Sculpture’. But in the process of sculpting, the tree changes a person.”

“How can a tree change a person?”

“Watching something beautiful or natural, you became calm, anxiety and stress go away. The inner energy is harmonized. Having power and wisdom, the trees can pass them to whomever they deem worthy. A man strives for self-improvement and creativity, tries to express his inner in the outer with the help of a tree. Moreover, bonsai, unlike other forms of creativity, such as painting, music or poetry, is never completed.”

“I have neither strength for this, nor time, absolutely!”

“You have no desire.”

“Are you saying that everyone should grow bonsai?”

“No, Svetlana, I’m saying that, if desired, each of us can learn the language of communication with Nature. Everyone has their own path to it. It would be hard for me to prune and miniaturize trees. I’d rather let them grow to their heart’s content, but I communicate with trees in my garden in summer, or in the forest.”

At that moment, RAM stopped at the lake, waited until all the seminarians had gathered, and said, “Now we are going to visit the locals. They leave the city in spring and live here in tents until late autumn in order to be closer to Nature. They’ll feed us a little, and we’ll go back.”