I thoroughly enjoy working, playing, and simply savoring my garden. It gives me a chance to use my creativity in ways that are both satisfying and humbling. The grandeur of the flowers that appear, the insistence of these plants to grow even into places I wish they left alone, the constant variety of beauty, and the constant change from one form to another, all fill me with great awe and wonder.
I am particularly fond of unusual fragrances and have collected a great many tropical trees, shrubs, orchids, and vines with special fragrances. So I was delighted when I had the opportunity to buy and plant a small tree called Nyctanthes arbor-tristes. Its name means night flowering sad tree, but it is anything but sad. It has small, very fragrant flowers that come out in profusion at night and drop off like tears early in the morning. The scent is quite intoxicating and delightful, something like jasmine with lots of wild honey and a bit of vanilla.
One story goes that Krishna’s wives heard about this divine tree that only grew in Indra’s garden in Heaven and that they implored Krishna (perhaps more accurately, nagged him) to go to Heaven and bring back this tree, called Parijat in India. When Krishna returned with his prize, each wife wanted it planted in her own garden. Wise Krishna ended up planting it in one wife’s garden in such a way that the flowers fell into the other wife’s garden. From there it started spreading and now it grows commonly in Southern Asia.
Another name for this tree is The Wish-Fulfilling Tree. It has such a divine fragrance that smelling it brings forth the power to have one’s wishes manifest. The story goes that one time a traveler in India who had been walking for a long time found a Parijat tree that looked very agreeable to sit under and rest. After catching his breath for a few moments he said gently, “My legs are so tired. I do wish that I had someone to massage them for me.” And instantly a young woman appeared and set about massaging his tired legs. When his legs felt better and the massage was over he noticed that he was very hungry. “Oh, I wish I had some food to eat.” No sooner was his breath out with these words than before him appeared a great feast. Many of his favorite dishes were there at arms reach. He happily set about eating his fill and enjoying this great bounty. When he was done he became drowsy and decided to take a nap. As he was getting comfortable for his sleep he said, “I hope a tiger doesn’t come now and eat me up!” And, of course, a tiger appeared and had a great feast, too.
Besides this being a story about being careful of what you wish for and energy flowing where attention goes, it is about the nature of manifestation. What makes this tree so magical that sitting under it brings the power to have wishes granted? I would say that it is the power of pleasure.
Pleasure is the experience of enjoying something. It is the foundation of happiness. In fact, one could say that happiness is going gracefully from one pleasure to the next. It is the essence of feeling good. And the only really useful definition of health is feeling good. One might say, then, that health is the ability to enjoy pleasure.
Pleasure all by itself is both relaxing and energizing. When we are enjoying ourselves, we let go of tension and allow our natural energies to flow better. When we are feeling good we are more able to open to inspiration and intuition. We are more able to hear the subtle voices inside us that gently steer us towards our greater good. These are all signs that we are in alignment with our High Self.
The opposite is, of course, true as well. When we are feeling miserable nothing seems to go right. At this point, we are clearly out of alignment with the parts of us that are other than our conscious mind. We are resisting something; we are fighting some part of ourselves that is inconsistent with what we think it should be.
So, when we are feeling good and all parts of us are working together as a team, that’s when we are the most powerful and that’s when we are best able to manifest our desires. The conscious mind becomes aware of a desire and imagines the fulfillment of that desire. The subconscious sets about manifesting that fulfillment. And our conscious mind adjusts reality to make it happen. All this takes place because we are enjoying ourselves, feeling the pleasure of life, and not resisting life getting even better.
You’re invited to come sit under my Wish-Fulfilling Tree but I bet that you have your own equivalent where you are. All you have to do is find ways of hanging out in the state of feeling good and expressing your desires from a place of pleasure, not one of fear. Actively and intentionally enjoy your life and watch the magic happen!
