However, on further examination we can see that the mystical insight which has for thousands of years consistently revealed the universal sentience of all life is now being corroborated by science.
A recent spate of studies is proving that plants have volition, show altruism and understand kinship much like many animal species. All this without a nervous system, which illustrates how profoundly scientific materialism and our anthropocentrism shuts us off from the wondrous interconnectedness of life and confines us to a mechanical world of insensitivity towards existence.
To spend a few hours among the great forest trees is to be granted a kind of peace the civilised world has long forgotten. I suggest those who resort to the dictionaries for understanding also spend time sitting silently in contemplation under a tree in a quiet spot. What might be revealed there may be far more convincing than any written or conventionally defined wisdom. And I dare say even Mr Bahrt might discover humour and peace of mind in doing so.
Michael Setter
Chon Buri