How much do we actually differ from trees?

It sheds its bark, loses hair... even leaks resin

But it still grows, right? It bears fruit... feeds itself... survives through spring, summer, and winter

So, I guess it gets some kind of organic orgasm feeling out of all those processes?

Kenneth Lee16 said:It sheds its bark, loses hair... even leaks resin

But it still grows, right? It bears fruit... feeds itself... survives through spring, summer, and winter

So, I guess it gets some kind of organic orgasm feeling out of all those processes?

Everything you just listed describes the characteristics of a living being, and a tree certainly qualifies as one. As for an orgasm, I couldn't say for sure, but if we look at it from an evolutionary standpoint—if such a thing provides a biological advantage to the tree—then perhaps it does experience something similar.

Kenneth Lee16 said:It sheds its bark, loses hair... even leaks resin

But it still grows, right? It bears fruit... feeds itself... survives through spring, summer, and winter

So, I guess it gets some kind of organic orgasm feeling out of all those processes?

Here you go again...

A tree, at its core, lacks consciousness. Therefore—even if it were to experience some sort of euphoric peak during photosynthesis—it wouldn't actually *know* it happened, which makes the whole thing functionally nonexistent.

A tree will only ever be as different from you as you choose to let it be—nothing more, nothing less.🙂

George Smith2 said:Here you go again...

A tree, at its core, lacks consciousness. Therefore—even if it were to experience some sort of euphoric peak during photosynthesis—it wouldn't actually *know* it happened, which makes the whole thing functionally nonexistent.

😁 We're being serious here.
I've heard that plants actually remember things and feel stuff. I don't know how they proved it, but honestly, what you're claiming is just as unprovable.

A human can be like a tree, sure, but it's pretty hard for a tree to be a human. People have all sorts of different ways their brains work. 🙄

George Smith2 said:Here you go again...

A tree, at its core, lacks consciousness. Therefore—even if it were to experience some sort of euphoric peak during photosynthesis—it wouldn't actually *know* it happened, which makes the whole thing functionally nonexistent.

😁

A man grows upward... much like a tree
he falls dead to the earth after stretching out... just like a tree
he springs from a seed... just like a tree
the womb is akin to... Mother Earth herself
he is bound to the soil... like a tree
sending down roots... in the same way
veins pulled straight from the root...
yielding fruit... and though we consume it differently, it serves as seed—even if the method varies
man is social, much like a tree—a forest council gathered in honor of the Sun God, where trees vie for who can catch more sunlight
lonely, like a single tree standing in an open field
trees embrace a man because it heals him
life within a man and life within a tree are one and the same

truth be told, there isn't much difference at all

You put that so beautifully...

Kenneth Lee16 said:It sheds its bark, loses hair... even leaks resin

But it still grows, right? It bears fruit... feeds itself... survives through spring, summer, and winter

So, I guess it gets some kind of organic orgasm feeling out of all those processes?

A whole lot. Like, a massive amount.
Think about all the different species, families, genera... it's endless.
The only real common ground is that we're both living things built on carbon, breathing in oxygen and CO2 just to keep going.

It’s this tiny little distinction, but honestly, it matters a lot: a tree can't just sit itself down in front of a MacBook and start having some deep existential crisis about how much different it is from a human being😬>

hmmm, though I guess you could look at it another way, like maybe a tree doesn't actually need us at all, right? It's more like we're the ones who desperately need trees. So, sure, a person can plant a tree, but there's no way in hell a tree is gonna grow a person...
what else am I missing here.. 🤔>
I mean, a person can definitely go out and kill a tree, but a tree isn't really out to get a person, unless it's like, an accidental thing where a branch falls or something😬>

The core idea remains the same. By just observing, you start drawing these conclusions and making comparisons, much like the way > so beautifully put it in his own post. The things we witness give us this profound insight that everything we are, and everything they are—like those trees out there—all stem from the exact same point of existence, a single origin where everything branches out, a point that reveals the fundamental principle of life itself.

As I find myself staring into that principle, I can't help but wonder where I might fail it, or if I could somehow cheat my way into something fundamentally different—perhaps something more meaningful, an extraordinary existence or purpose specifically assigned to me as a human being, rather than just being part of this cycle where the Earth eternally renews the spring just as it does with everything else in Nature.

We are all one, really, yet in our restless drive to uncover everything laid out before us within that singular, unspoken law of Nature—to realize that we are the root, the body, the seeds meant for propagation, and the very transience that sits so nakedly before our eyes in everything we gaze upon—we are actually completely different.

A tree doesn't have a gender, or rather, any dualities within it are merged into one, so it can't truly understand the kind of love humans know, where two people can become one while still remaining two distinct individuals joined by affection.

Beyond that, I can vividly imagine myself growing upward from the soil with my head reaching toward the clouds 🙂 while my feet take root deep into the sky. It makes me wonder, is that even possible? Is it perhaps the case that the actual order of things is entirely different from how we perceive it?

George Smith2 said:Here you go again...

A tree, at its core, lacks consciousness. Therefore—even if it were to experience some sort of euphoric peak during photosynthesis—it wouldn't actually *know* it happened, which makes the whole thing functionally nonexistent.

It feels like a total dogma to me, honestly—just something people believe without any real proof.
And besides, there's really no way for you to actually know that for sure...

The fundamental distinction lies in the fact that trees possess the inherent capacity to grow in any direction imaginable, bending and twisting according to the whims of their environment, whereas we are bound by our own rigid biology. Furthermore, if one were to provide them with an inexhaustible supply of minerals and essential nutrients, they might achieve a state of nearly limitless expansion; humans, however, would never possess such a boundless potential.

Indeed. It is much like those trees that refuse to spit back into the very plate that nourishes them, a stark contrast to us humans, who seem hell-bent on consuming everything until there is nothing left but the wreckage we’ve made.

Thoughts from Lajos Kesegi

I sometimes find myself wishing I could just be a tree. Not really noticing anything, just existing. To exist in this kind of unconscious state where there isn’t even the concept of waking up or falling asleep. Just growing through the night, sending roots deep into the earth and branches high into the sky, blooming and flowering without ever needing to say a single word about it. Honestly, maybe trees are the last true apostles left among us.

No matter how high a maple tree grows, it’s never going to touch the sky. And honestly, I don't think man is any different... not even now, in this day and age.

Think about those rigid, unyielding trunks. Unlike the ones that can actually bend with the wind,
when a massive hurricane slams into the coast, those stiff trees just snap or get ripped straight out of the dirt.
It’s the exact same thing with people—those stubborn, inflexible types who refuse to budge an inch on their views
and flat-out reject any kind of change.
Everything we need to learn is staring us right in the face, if we'd just bother to look.

Man, how much do we actually differ from one another? I don't think it's nearly as much as people make it out to be, mostly because my old history professor used to always tell us, "It's just apples to apples... here's your grade."😁

Kenneth Lee16 said:It sheds its bark, loses hair... even leaks resin

But it still grows, right? It bears fruit... feeds itself... survives through spring, summer, and winter

So, I guess it gets some kind of organic orgasm feeling out of all those processes?

That's tough, because as far as I know, plants don't have a nervous system, which is the whole basis for feeling things.

Harold Adams5 said:Think about those rigid, unyielding trunks. Unlike the ones that can actually bend with the wind,
when a massive hurricane slams into the coast, those stiff trees just snap or get ripped straight out of the dirt.
It’s the exact same thing with people—those stubborn, inflexible types who refuse to budge an inch on their views
and flat-out reject any kind of change.
Everything we need to learn is staring us right in the face, if we'd just bother to look.

👍
"(...) All living things enter this life soft and tender, yet they depart withered and harsh.
That is why hardness and strength are seen as companions to death, while softness and weakness accompany life.(...) If a tree stands too rigid, it risks being broken.
The mighty and the massive fall downward, while the soft and the weak rise upward."

Lao-Tse, the Tao Te Ching... it really gave me pause...