Just keep on planting!

 Thousands of fruit trees I've phantom planted for the community and nature to enjoy. 11 years now I've been running around planting and chanting. Yesterday I brought my mate down to The Phantom Planters HQ for the first time and he couldn't believe it. Over 400 fruit trees here full of all sorts of apples, pears, plums and berries. Everyone is welcome to go down and help themselves. 

Looking forward to the coming years when our Lisnabreeny Community Orchard gets going. We have only just started to plant this orchard up in the past couple of years. 600 heritage Irish apple trees here, again all for the community and nature to enjoy. 

Scattered all over Belfast and beyond is thousands more phantom planted fruit trees. 

I was telling my mate yesterday how it all really started for me. About 11 years ago I planted a couple of fruit trees just outside where I grew up, I just did it for a laugh. The trees thrived and grew like champions over the next few years! 

Watching these trees did something to my mind. At the time I was an alcoholic / drug addict and watching these trees grow in the hood, planted without permission which I called back then environmental graffiti ignited something special in me and made me think differently about life and how I should be using my time here in this world. It also give me this type of good feeling that I never got from drink and drugs. Because it was a little act of rascality with a positive twist it felt so good for me. 

I had never planted a tree in my life before and to be honest I couldn't even have told you what an oak tree looked like back then. All I knew was to plant the trees the right way up! 

A few years after planting these 2 trees I was rowing this Viking boat drunk one day as you do down the Shannon waterways in County Cavan Ireland. I was drinking away on the boat and it was lashing down so heavy the rain drops were bouncing off the water. My beer ran out and I said f**k this I'm off. 

I run and jumped into a field full of cows and knocked on a farmers house for help. I had a hotel booked in the next town called Ballinamore. It was a 10 day Viking rowing event which I didnt even last 2 days. 

Anyhow I knocked on a famers house looking a lift to my hotel and 2 girls were in the house. They brought me in and gave me a hot whiskey, which was the last thing I needed but was very nice of them. They rang their uncle to come and give me a lift and one of them said was I a Buddhist by any chance? I laughed saying a drunken Buddhist that just jumped off a Viking boat! 

They said there was  Buddhist monastery just down the road and thought I may have got lost. Maybe the bald head made them think I was some monk did a runner and got drunk. Who knows but something sparked in me right at that moment and I had to go there. 

I went to the hotel, got my bags and got a taxi to Jampa Ling. I never forget the taxi driver, he picked me up in this old Russian Lada type car and he looked like the grim reaper. You could have fitted pound coins between the gaps in his teeth. It was a very eerie journey with him heading to a Buddhist monastery were I was taking a chance just rocking up and asking can I stay with them. 

My life was really not good back then at all. Probably the lowest point ever to be honest. 

So the grim reaper gets me to this Buddhist place and there was monk standing waiting on me with a smile. I jumped out and asked could I stay with them. He said no probs. I couldn't believe what I had just come across. 3 days I stayed with them. 

During that time I learned about this practice called Karma Yoga, which to me is like prayer in action. Its a selfless service act that you do for no other purpose other than to contribute to nature or others happiness without seeking anything back in return. Saying that though, performing these acts of generosity is said to help elevate ones own being. 

All I could think back to was the 2 trees I planted and how this elevated me. How good it made me feel watching these trees thrive. I loved watching people pick the apples and I also loved watching birds and wasps eat the fruit too. 

I planted that tree I used to say to myself and now life is feeding off what I did. It felt so good!

This for me was my Karma Yoga practice without even knowing it. It elevated my consciousness like no drink, drug or any other self gratifying act ever did. 

Karma Yoga hit me like a light bulb moment. I knew back then my Rat - Race programmed mind would find it very hard to sit and meditate or chant. But I knew I had the energy and enthusiasm to plant trees and I had the Balls to do so too. I mean I was born into the depths of the underworld, grew up working moves you wouldn't believe and have escaped jail and death on many occasions by the skin of my teeth. Planting trees around the hood without permission was a walk in the park. 

I took this karma yoga practice into my life big time. I gave up some money I used to spend on drink and drugs and just went out every day buying trees in garden centres and planting them around the hood the right way up. 

I made up my own prayer after planting which I still say today. 

"Father of creation, mother of nature, please accept this tree as token of appreciation for all that you have given me"...

Still I say this prayer in my head after every tree I plant. 

Fast forward 11 years guys and I'm off the drink and drugs and doing handstands. I have also turned my hood into a nature loving Buddhahood.

I've learned so much from Buddhism. Never mind what others are doing in this world.its what your doing that matters. 

I challenge you all to phantom plant a tree. 

I challenge you all to some Karma Yoga...

Peace and love 

The Phantom Planter and Wee Betty