Essay for
July 2003

Information Overload

It was not that long ago when one had to struggle for information or go great distances to contact anyone that held any form of wisdom you where searching for. Today there are a plethora of avenues for every conceivable piece of information that once required intense searching. Each piece is again sub-divided into smaller pieces with proponents of each piece expounding in further detail upon that individual piece or upon aspects of that piece. There is now so much information on any topic that it is easy to become lost in the forest while looking for a tree.

In the quest for spiritual understanding there are now a vast array of teachers and various devotional practices. They sustain a variety of methodologies and interpretations, philosophic constructs, psychological processes, spiritual based workshops and courses, books, magazines, television shows, belief and experiential revelation processes. This ceaseless mass of information all has value, but it can also become a barrier to the very thing you are searching for. It is easy to be lead down one pathway, only to skip to another in endless succession, as there are many ways to the same end. When initiating your spiritual quest they all look enticing. Obtaining a piece of this and then a piece of that does create an accumulation of data, which certainly can be useful in multiple ways. But the accumulation of data potentially holds a collector's compulsion to endlessly acquire more of the same. The ceaseless accumulation can eventually overpower the initiatory reason why you began searching in the first place.

There are many types of information forests. Some grow on rocky hillsides, some on the plains, while others cover the rolling hills. As you wander through the countryside, you will discover that you feel most comfortable either in the mountains and hills or on the plains. Eventually, you settle in the forest that suits you best. The varieties of forests simply appear due to the type of terrain, as one type of forest growing better in one position than another. They are all forests: it is simply a terrain variation of the same thing.

When settled in one forest you begin the exploration of all that it contains. It may take a long stretch of time to learn all the varieties of trees in the forest you are residing in, as there are many types of variations. The forest is an awesome place to walk within. And that forest would not be a forest without a multitude of individual trees. But it is those same individual trees that can prevent you from seeing the forest; not because of any individual tree, but because there are just so many of them. It can be difficult to make a choice as which tree suits your purposes. It ultimately comes down to choosing one tree and hanging on to that tree until the forest becomes visible. Not that the forest was not visible before, but the many types and variations obscured the reality that you are indeed in a forest. When you can see the totality of the forest with clarity you can then let go of trees. The clarity of seeing and now knowing is the appreciation of the interconnectivity of the forest by observing the connective simplicity of multiple trees: all growing in the same soil.

All trees combine to form the forest and each individual tree points in the correct direction. Hanging on to one tree does not prevent you from admiring and appreciating other trees. If you leave one tree to hang onto another, eventually you may begin to see the value in the one you left and return, only to repeat it all again. Scampering from tree to tree is an enjoyable way to gather information on all the varieties that exist. If that is your intent you will have a lifetime of information accumulation ahead of you. But it is only information, and as valuable as information is, if it cannot be used in your daily experience it forever remains accumulated knowledge. Or, if not experienced, it remains as secondhand information.

The choice of one particular type of tree can be initially difficult to settle on, but you will discover that for some seemingly unfathomable reason you will be drawn toward one. Standing at its base there will be support to show you how to climb the tree. After years of perseverance and many falls you learn how to climb. Eventually you make it to the top and finally can see the forest, and from that angle all the trees look similar; while at the base they all looked dissimilar. Sitting there, admiring the forest, it will dawn upon you that they all grow under the same sun, and their roots are all in the same soil.

Back down on the forest floor you can now wander the forest with ease, simply admiring the endless variety and complexity of the forest. No one tree captures your attention, as they all are rooted in the same ground and feed by the same sun. But what does capture your attention while wandering around is the shadow they all cast. The shadow now becomes your focus of attention as it blocks clear vision of all the other trees. No matter where you turn there is a shadow. It's disturbing to perceive the sun giving life to the tree, and by that giving creating the shadow. Eventually, you realize the sun does not create the shadow, the tree does; and once again you wander the forest with ease.

Then one day your vision is assailed by the seemingly endless variation of trees — even though you saw them all before — but now the changing magnitude of all the forests arrests your vision and binds you within the totality of that immensity. Once again, your joyful tripping down various pathways is impeded by the thought of how can that be? One sun, one soil, why the many variations of the same thing, and the why leads directly into how? It is the realization of 'how' where the 'why' becomes knowable. The 'how' is how the tree draws nourishment form the soil and receives vital energy from the sun to use the nourishment. And all trees do the same thing: they are identical in construction, simply varying forms of the same thing. The construction gives it away, as the construction exposes the interconnectivity. And the interconnectivity exposes the 'why' embedded in the construction. The identicalness of the constructions is equality in permanence. The temporary form creates differences, whilst the transitory shadow of the form breeds inequality, injustice and violence.

The form of the tree is just that: no better or worse that any other tree, just another tree. But without the tree the forest would not be complete. The endless variety of forms creates numerous parallel pathways to the same end. It is only the shadow, cast by the trees themselves, covering the others in darkness that prevents one from seeing the sameness of all trees. But there really is no darkness, just an illusion of darkness, as the sun is always full on. Blocking the sun to create a shadow also creates the darkness of the shadow. And the sun will not intervene or interfere with the shadow or its darkness, as it has given life to the tree, which contains the freedom to grow in whatever direction it chooses.

It is your choice to stand in the darkness of the shadow or climb to the top and receive full sun. When at the top you realize the bottom is what creates the top, and so appreciate that there really is no top, just two ends of the same thing perceived differently. Facing the full sun you see no shadow, even if those on the ground still can. When and if you cast no shadow you are as That, which gives and maintains life for all the trees and forests.

The day is done and shadow slips into darkness where nothing is seen. With dawn the shadow arises to live in its own shade, and the process repeats. The suns endless equanimity of giving does not intervene or interfere to remove the shadow that would illuminate the darkness with light, as the shadow does not diminish the sun.

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