Metaphysical Bonsai was established in February of 2008.
The art of bonsai is more than traditional stylizations and the development of foliage pads on trees in pots. I have an enormous fascination and respect for trees as sentient beings, this comes before art. When I see a tree, I see a pure life form that is both intelligent and incorruptible. The outer appearance of a tree is beautiful enough without having to conform to man's design of what beauty is. In fact, I enjoy a new seedling or undeveloped bonsai tree as much as I do a fully developed one. That said, there is another spectrum of appreciation to observe here, that of the unseen, the hidden attributes that are within a tree. I hope to elaborate on this subject more at a future date.
Trees are givers and healers. They contain our medicines, our wood for shelter and supply us with oxygen, our very life breath. We all share in an intimate relationship with trees even if we aren't all nature enthusiasts or Taoists. Right now we are breathing in air that was exhaled from the leaves of trees, sitting in a shelter that contains or is made of wood and have some kind of chemical constituent derived from trees in our body from a food or from a pill that was ingested, etc.
What happens when the trees are gone? Generations from now will be forced to answer this question.
Many of the bonsai trees in the Wisdom Keep collection (the trees on this site) were rescued from construction sites prior to development. These young specimens would have been bulldozed and trampled by machines just like their parents, they wouldn't have had a chance. I have personally witnessed entire forests disappear before my eyes in a single day in this fashion. And for what? Many more of the trees in this collection have been grown from cutting propagation or from seed. Anyway, these are mostly young specimens, somewhat undeveloped and without ramification, yet I cherish them. I drive by the chain stores and new developments, I think of the marvelous forests that used to be there and how they now survive through their offspring who are with me now, safe in Wisdom Keep. If I could live in a forest that included at least one of every kind of tree, that would be paradise. I guess that's why I have so many bonsai, it is both an act of preservation and a beautiful art form.
Between the metaphysical and the material aspects of trees there is Balance, Symmetry, Harmony, Purity, Sanctity and Wisdom. All of this combined with caring for a living and intelligent being in a clay pot is Bonsai.
"Opposed to this utilitarian theory stands the metaphysical one that would make the beauty or intrinsic rightness of things the source of their efficiency and of their power to survive." ~George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty
