The big jugly tree

In the sort of "no man's land" next to the freeway offramp I am on every night on my comute home from work -- there is a big ugly tree.
I've seen it at least 4000 times, maybe more.
I have no idea what kind of treee it is. Oak? Maybe.
What is so striking about it is how far and wide it's thick thatchy bunch of leaves have grown in relationi to it's relatively short and narrow trunk.
It's just an odd looking tree.
Most nights I notice thie tree and stare at it, marveling on it's oddness and enjoying the fact that I am finally nearly home.
The other night while staring I started to notice how the wind seemed to be touching and moving each small section of the leaves in slightly different ways. Parts of the tree were swaying, parts of the tree were undulating, parts of the tree were shaking.
The tree was no longer a solid object - "tree."
It was all of a sudden a myriad of different parts all doing something different and wonderful.
It looked so alive.
Here is my question:
Do I see the tree this way now because of some new ability I have from practice. Or, is it normal and common to see treees this way and I'm finally able to do it after a lifetime of shallowness?

why can't I correct the title typo and make it "ugly" instead of "jugly?"

I kind of like "jugly" actually

"The tree was no longer a solid object - "tree."

This is the key to answering your question, Mike. Solidity is constructed by mind. Nothing is, in an absolute sense, solid. It's beautiful to see things not as solid but as the dynamic, flowing interplay of myriads of... whataver!

"Here is my question:
Do I see the tree this way now because of some new ability I have from practice. Or, is it normal and common to see treees this way and I'm finally able to do it after a lifetime of shallowness?"

My guess would be the former. You have a new ability because of practice.

But of course, the return question would be 'Normal and common for whom?'

My last period of consistent daily practice went from 2002 to 2007. Basically an hour a day during that time.

Well, one morning in 2004, I got up and looked in the mirror, and I had the physical perception of the person in the mirror as a link in a chain, or a moment in a continuity that stretched way way back. I didn't think about it. I saw it. It lasted for just a short while, but it was significant.

Unfortunately I don't have more or better words for what I saw. But it was an out-of-the-normal perception.

So.

That was one of mine.

This is one of yours?

Nigel

I think this is the absence of the attention wave that Daniel talks about. There is a distorion that happens when you pay attention/look at something. When that is absent there isn't a shrinking/distorting of perception and you see things the way they are as they stream into the senses. Think about the fact that it is the movement of attention around in the stream of sensory experience that allows a volitional agent to use it in some way. You can break it up into manageable chunks by paying attention to one thing at the exclusion of others. It is like looking through a straw. When this is absent you can hear/see/feel/smell/taste all at once rather than experiencing this one thing as separate discrete objects/senses.

So you were seeing the whole tree by not seeing just a single piece at a time. You were sort of not looking at it although you were pointed in it's direction. This is how I see things when practicing the lightning rod well for some time. This effect can become very pronounced and it is very nice.

In short, I think it is very much related to your practice. It happens to people at random, but it is quite likely that it is now happening for you because of practice.