How to Prune a Tree...

This is in response to the last comment on my prior post. I'm glad you liked the story from my Sensei of washing one's hands.

On a personal level I agree with you that when we are in the right environment, have plenty of water and know how to concentrate our efforts towards the right growth for us, then the sky is in fact the limit... for this is indeed the purpose of Wood. We need proper environment, nourishment, resources, and guidance to flourish. When one or more of those is missing, our Wood can either grow out of control and we spread our resources too thin, or we cannot grow at all because we don't have what we need to do so. Not all growth is good growth. We prune back roses in the winter for a reason. We prune old growth, and we cut off branches that are taking up precious resources which deplete the whole plant. Control is good in moderation, because it guides our growth towards the highest quality blooms. Not all growth is quality growth. We remove weeds because their growth is poor quality and we need to conserve resources for more valuable plants (flowers, shrubs, fruit, and vegetables).

In terms of how Wood is out of control in our culture I meant this at a more global level. When we look at our planet and each culture in the world as if we are looking at a patient - we can diagnose the dynamics of balance of the Five Elements within just as easily.

We need only look to the sprawl of housing developments, new pulty homes springing up where forests used to be seemingly overnight like mushrooms. The materials used are of poor quality, and noone builds high quality brick buildings anymore. The growth is optimized for speed and sprawl and not quality.

Growth in our cities is happening so quickly that like a branch of a tree the inter-county connector in Maryland is built seemingly overnight to accommodate more growth and expansion as our greed for more and more replaces the forests and rivers and trees with more conduits for transport of resources (water, fuel, people) to places where more growth is expected. These conduits are like the branches of the tree that deliver resources to the far leaves, so that the leaves can stretch out further and further.

Just like the energy of wood has to battle against obstacles to grow - the project of the inter-county connector is a good example of the frustration it created in many citizens, especially those who's houses had to be destroyed or properties taken away by the county to create this new growth. This is a great example of how the emotion anger and frustration are the emotions associated with growth. The project was frustrated by opposition, and yet the government kept pushing through - each side was frustrated. Ultimately it frustrated the citizens more who's plans for living a calm life were derailed by the project going forward and their houses and properties were taken away. This is a perfect example of how the function of growth and frustration go hand in hand - and also why growth must be selective.

In our culture Wood is also out of control in non-selective creation of more and more consumer goods and the shelves of our stores are filled with new types of electronics, toys, and products at an alarming rate - and most of them are crap. Cheap growth, rather than quality growth. Just like weeds. Cheap means that you can produce more and more and more, and quicker. Our shelves are filled with weeds and not roses. Conventional vegetables and cheap imports from abroad - quality sacrificed for quantity. The regulatory element for Wood is Metal. The Metal element is what establishes quality growth by looking towards the true value of growth.

Metal also represents spirituality, religion, ritual, tradition. Spirituality and ritual is about respecting and having reverence for what you have and what you produce. All new growth should be evaluated from the perspective of whether it is aligned with your highest ideals and values and any growth that isn't must be pruned back and discarded.

When the Metal element is not controlled by the Fire element properly, it becomes perverted and hard - out of control structure, religion and tradition stifle growth and evolution and the creation of new ideas. You are kept in your rigid constraints. This rigid constraint prevents growth, just like a rocky soil can restrict growth.

It is true that when we prune back too far, and when Metal is out of balance we become a cold and cutting patriarchy (which is what our culture rebelled against by throwing our religion). The Metal element represents spiritual guidance and ensuring that our lives are filled with quality and not quantity. In this way Metal is the moral backbone of tradition and ritual. When our culture went away from religion and guidance by the Heavens for what growth and which path is righteous and with the greater good of all, the Wood was no longer constrained by any specific values or guidance to channel its energies appropriately. Wood began to grow in all directions as a way of replacing God by products and new ideas as a way of filling the void.

The technology evolution boomed out of nowhere with the discovery of fossil fuels (the Water which is the Mother of Wood for our society). When our planet's deep reserves were tapped the growth sprung up over night and we are drinking through our Water reserves as a culture without any spiritual and moral guidance (Metal) that normally guides Wood's growth towards pure and quality pursuits - in the same way as Metal wires and Metal clippers guide a Bonsai tree in a direction that best expresses its essence, without the distraction of unnecessary and poor growth to take up precious resources. We prune back so as to conserve and make the plant stronger. But when we prune back too much and put too many guiding wires we stifle and choke growth.

We clear out weeds so that we can conserve resources for our vegetables and crops. Proper control of growth is needed to ensure resources aren't squandered. In our society all we do is squander resources (Water). In our society we have very little pruning taking place.

So, in our lives as individuals we can ensure that our Wood is healthy by giving ourselves the right environment, as well as having a balance of values and qualities which we want to see in our growth. This way we ensure that when we grow, we grow into roses and not into weeds.