Trees

Urban Sadhu Exploration December 2025

PYS 2.46 stira-sukham-asanam

Meaning: Asana, the connection to the earth, should be steady and happy. – Austin Sanderson

The Lebanese-American writer and poet Khalil Gibran's poem “Sand and Foam,” published in 1926, reads, "Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." You can often find this quote on social media celebrating the sacred relationship between trees, the earth, and the sky. Still, few know that Gibran continues in his poem, "We cut them down and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness." Gibran points out that our relationship to and understanding of trees are less than sacred. We must ask ourselves, “What can a tree tell humans about life and our quest for spiritual fulfillment?”

Trees have to grow in two directions simultaneously – down and up at the same time. The nature of a tree is both gravitropic (growing downward with gravity) and phototropic (growing upward toward light).

A tree starts under the soil as a seed or sapling. Away from light and toward gravity, the roots grow down before the trunk can grow upward; the soil is dark and damp and offers additional resistance from rocks and the root systems of neighboring plants. The young tree must push down into the soil, grounding, rooting, stabilizing, and exerting effort to establish itself. The young tree gains stability, strength, and nourishment in the darkness of the earth. A seedling’s or sapling's downward energy must be established before the tree can grow upward and push out of the earth toward the sky.

Once the root system is established, the young tree breaks through the soil and grows upward toward the sky and light. Fascinatingly, the underground root system of a tree looks very much like the part of the tree above the earth. As the tree pushes out of the earth and away from gravity, the tree experiences the freedom of light, which it uses for photosynthesis. To us, the branches and leaves growing toward the sky and light seem to meet no resistance. In fact, though, the young tree is exposed to the elements (wind, air, water, and fire), and its trunk must offer further strength and stability to support its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits. When we look at a tree, many of us only see those showy branches; we don't see the dualistic downward and then upward energetics a tree must make to support its glamorous crown.

The Sanskrit word asana means “seat”: whenever an asana is practiced, it should be done with a feeling of grounding, firmness, steadiness, endurance, and well-being. The seat should be both beneficial and enlightening.

Many yoga schools have interpreted Patanjali’s sutra PS: 246 to mean that an asana must be “comfortable,” “pleasurable,” and “easy.” If that were the case, it would be called bhogasana in Sanskrit, not yogasana. The Sanskrit word bhoga means “pleasure” or “sensory indulgence.” Like the metaphor of the tree establishing its root system, yoga asana involves effort, hard work, and pushing back against our resistance in establishing our practice. Patanjali insists that to reach upward toward the light of yoga we must restrain our self-indulgent tendencies and embrace the opportunity for spiritual growth. For Patanjali, this would mean paying attention to the yamas and niyamas at the start of a yoga journey.

For any asana to become yogasana, the body, mind, and spirit must be fully engaged in the practice. If asana is not approached with this high intention, the practitioner's growth will become stunted, immature, and malnourished. When asana is about only pleasure and comfort, the practitioner becomes rogi, a Sanskrit term that means “tree of the sick,” not yogi, meaning “one who is connected and has achieved a higher level of spiritual insight.”

Trees are a beautiful analogy of how yoga asana brings about self-awareness and growth both externally and internally. Vrishasana, the seat of the tree, allows us to grow downward with gravity and upward toward light, just as natural trees do. Standing and balancing asanas reveal our willingness to connect to the earth and all earthlings we share this loka or “location” with. Vrishasana helps develop balance both physically and mentally and, at the same time, develops strength and endurance. We benefit from both the work done in the dark and with the work we do in the light; we align ourselves with the natural world around us. Trees in particular can help us develop a symbiotic relationship between things that seem dualistic. When we recognize the symbiotic relationship, we let go of the dualism; grounding down is needed to lift up, flexibility is necessary for strength, and darkness is needed to understand the light.

Austin Sanderson, Urban Sadhu