The Peepal tree therapy
Aman who lives a natural and a meditative life may not need any of the therapies available in the modern world. Nature is therapeutic and so is meditation. Medicine and meditation have something in common, that is “Medi” and it is healing element. There are trees in India, especially the Peepal tree and Banyan tree, that provide the meditators abundant prana energy day and night.
The Peepal is well- known for its therapeutic properties and is considered to be the largest oxygen provider as it releases oxygen even at night. And it is antibacterial. That’s the reason our ancient sages always chose these trees to meditate under them. And whenever in deep meditation, the seekers attained to enlightenment, such trees became more blessed and divine.
People started worshipping these trees like living temples. They became more significant than the stone idols of deities in the temples. Sometimes the temples are meant only for certain sects of believers and they are not open for all, and some temples were not open for the women, half of the population of this country. But there have been no restrictions about meditating under the trees or worshipping them.
In the time of Gautama, the Buddha, one village woman called Sujata used to worship a Peepal tree. One day she came to give an offering of kheer ( the sweet rice- pudding) to the tree. Suddenly, to her amazement, she saw a person sitting there in deep relaxation.
The tree was mysterious ly glowing with his glow. She felt blessed that her prayers have been heard, the tree deity has manifested himself. It was Gautama the Buddha who accepted her kheer.
In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna declares “of all the trees, I am the Peepal tree”. Another popular belief is that Lord Krishna attained to nirvana under this tree.
Osho is an exception. He attained enlightenment under a Maulshri tree. So even if the meditator does not find any Peepal or Banyan tree, meditating under any tree or near many trees, or in a forest is also beneficial. All you need to do is to first create an empathy with the tree. Share your love and be caring and then you get much more in return. Just hug a tree. Hugging a tree is an ancient technique of meditation, cited in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, one of the oldest spiritual manuals in existence.
Osho says: Hug a tree, and a day will come soon when you will feel that it was not only you who was hugging the tree — the tree was responding, you were also hugged by the tree, although the tree has no hands. But it has its own way of expressing its joy, its sadness, its anger, its fear.
Hug a tree and relax into it.
The writer, editor of Osho World, is the author of Mindfulness: The Master Key