A MEDITATION DEDICATED TO DR. RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER

THE MAN OF THE TREES

“Planting and growing increasing quantities of trees is the scientific solution to Earth’s environmental dilemma”

Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker

RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER, O.B.E.9 OCTOBER 1889 - 9 JUNE 1982 FOUNDER, MEN OF THE TREES

PIONEER OF DESERT RECLAMATION THROUGH TREE PLANTING

CRUSADER FOR VIRGIN FORESTS WORLDWIDE

“While I was at Findhorn in 1979, there I met the legendary Man of the Trees, Richard St. Barbe Baker. By the time I met him he was in his nineties. A beautiful man in his old age, emanating the uprightness, calmness and solidity of big trees. From early childhood his passion was to plant trees. And he planted literally millions of them throughout his busy and productive life—all over the world…

…During his talk at Findhorn, he led a meditation of a special kind. He asked us to imagine that each one of us is a tree. We stretched our arms as if we were trees… while our feet were solidly grounded in the earth—as the roots of a tree are. For St. Barbe Baker, to be in touch with the forest was a form of religion. Each tree was a form of altar for him. We must develop a similar spirit of reverence and empathy for the trees and forests. For they are true sanctuaries.”

Henryk Skolimowski

OF MEN AND FORESTS

Forests are the temples. Trees are the altars.

We are the priests serving the forest gods.  

We are also the priests serving the inner Temple. Treat yourself as if you were an inner Temple

And you will come close To the god which resides within.

  To walk through life as if you were

In one enormous Temple— This is the secret of Grace

Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator.

Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.

From the Baha’i Writings

I have the dream of the whole earth made green again, an earth healed and made whole through the efforts of children: children of all nations planting trees to express their special understanding of the earth as their home, children of all races holding hands, circling the earth, expressing and celebrating their special understanding of all children as their brothers and sisters.

Richard St. Barbe Baker

We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other, and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.

From the Baha’i Writings

“… a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the

products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to

the axe-man who destroys it.”

Buddha

O my God! O my God! Unite the hearts of Thy servants, and reveal to them Thy great purpose. May they follow Thy commandments and abide in Thy law. Help them, O God, in their endeavor, and grant them strength to serve Thee. O God! Leave them not to themselves, but guide their steps by the light of Thy knowledge, and cheer their hearts by Thy love. Verily, Thou art their Helper and their Lord.

A Baha‘i Prayer for Unity

“In the stillness of the mighty woods, man is made aware of the divine.”

Richard St Barbe Baker