the world in Bonsai

Salam
What are you thinking
when you are with your bonsai?
Just a thought anyway, happy diwali!
I was asked this question long time ago by a close friend (11 November 2004)

These are my answers…

I was thinking about the world in a miniature. I was thinking about a scale down forest (show example) I was thinking about the balance of Ying n Yang (ex; east n west) I was thinking about harmony, I was thinking about cascading (ex) I was thinking about humbleness,…

I was thinking about how the bonsai follow my instructions without arguing back, how they followed and be the form that I wanted them to be. How they rebelled back by shooting new shoots, how I controlled them again by trimming and pruning them accordingly. How I talk to them that even human don't follow whatever I told them, but the bonsai do listen in a certain ways… and developed the form that I envisage. How they keep coming back with new shoots even when I keep trimming them back.. (stubborn).

About how I treated them from their mother seed and nurture them at the natural surrounding from small till they are big and transforming what they are today. Of course it takes years. How the value keep increasing year after year. How much love and care I have put on them. Raising them from the seed to be an art piece.

How sad I am when they die before their maturity.

How I have to water them almost every day, how I have experimented with them by soaking them in the fishpond. How many times after they have grown up need to change their pot. How I separated some of the young ones from their parent. How these small shoots start having their own pots. How some of these have been given away as a special present to special people on special occasion.

How much expenses I have spent on the pots and the fertilizers. How I have been trying to decorate them with other elements such as pebbles and small stones and miniature garden accessories.

How much time I spent before and after coming back from office looking, staring, pondering, imagining, visualizing about them?

How obsessed I am with them.

How this passionate hobby have evolved into part of my life. How many years of my life have I devoted to these bonsai. How many more answers can I give you? To let you know what I am thinking when I am with my bonsais……


(Added on 15.02.09)
Last but not least….the thinking do not stop there…it goes beyond the physical appearance of the bonsais… it goes to the real Maker actually… the contemplating is in sync with Him… to be able to understand His creations, to be able to appreciate the details of His working..
And the fragrance that the bonsai gives you is to remind you how He is all the Knowing and the entire Giver…
Than u can also say that sometimes being with the bonsai, is being in the presence of the Maker…as to recall Rumi… everywhere I look….i see u….

Peace…

(Answer written on the bus to Kuala Lumpur…11.12.2004)