It Is Tree

13 August 2025

When I point to a leaf upon a tree¹ and say, "It is Tree"; you understandWhen I point to its branch and say, "Too, it is Tree; you nodWhy then;When I point to the Mind & say "It is God"²; do you not?Why then;When I point to Creation & say "It is God"; do you protest?

Why?

Notes

By the editor.

The Chandogya Upanishad (6.11) uses a tree to teach that life is one: it stands firm because the living Self pervades it, and when that life leaves one branch the branch withers. The teaching ends with the refrain tat tvam asi, “you are that.” The poem's part-is-whole logic is the Upanishad's. source ↩
In What the Ghosts Actually Are she says the highest ghost, the ghost of everything, is God, and that everything is fractal, one and infinitely many. True Polytheism Has Never Been Tried argues that Hinduism, Daoism, Shinto and the Norse all have one first cause behind their gods. ↩