Customer Reviews

The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an intriguing book about our essential connection with the plant kingdom. Herbalists around the world are lamenting the loss of plants that have medicinal properties, some of which have not yet been discovered.

There is a great, and little explored puzzle: virtually every known group of humans has developed sophisticated plant-based medicines and agents for altering states of consciousness. Many are only used in complex mixtures. Too much of one ingredient and not enough of another, and the concoction is either inert or toxic. Yet to have found all these plants and all of their combinations by trial and error would have taken armies or researchers and hundreds of thousands of years. Throughout the world, traditional healers report that they learned about these properties from the plants themselves. They speak of using intuition and the "intelligence of the heart" for the direct perception of nature. Stephen Buhner suggests that this perception comes from the neural network within the physical heart that beats in our chests.

Throughout the book he presents countless examples of people from Thoreau to Luther Burbank and Goethe, who saw deeply into Nature, not through the intellect, but through the heart. He shows us how these people obtained their direct knowledge. It is very clear that Stephen Buhner is not reciting something that he read, but he is telling us about his own direct and deep perception of Nature. He explains how we can all share in this communion with Nature. He goes on to teach us how we, like the shamans of old, can learn the medicinal uses of plants directly from the plants themselves. He also shows us how this opening up to the world of plants can have profound effects upon us.

The fundamental premise is extremely interesting and the second part of the book is excellent. So why "only" four stars? There are two reasons. First, I am not convinced that the connection between living beings can be reduced to electromagnetic fields. The author had some excellent material, but seems almost to lose his nerve, and to try too hard to find a "scientific" explanation for his observations, while not giving enough credence to the evidence suggesting that the web of life is a more subtle underlying property of the Universe.

The second is the style of his writing. He describes the first half of the book as linear and the second half as not. He calls the two halves systole and diastole, to reflect the major cycles of the heart. And he invites the reader to read the book in any order. He tries quite deliberately to move away from a linear, verbal and analytical presentation. Many of the pages are broken up by italicized words or phrases on separate lines and quotations, poems and comments that don't always seem to be in the right place. It may be that he is trying to stir us up and make us think. Or rather to not think: to apply our intuition to his words. But it can make reading a little difficult.

Despite my two quibbles, I hope that this book is widely read for its stories, anecdotes and Buhner's encyclopedic knowledge about plants. It is an interesting but not always an easy read.

The following review was written for a class in Botanical Medicine as part of a degree program in Naturopathic Medicine.

Buhner's book can be divided into two distinct parts. In the first half of the book, Buhner explores the ideas of linear versus nonlinear thought. He explains that nature is a culmination of fractal patterns and fluctuations, and extrapolates this idea into the concept of the human thought process. According to Buhner, the brain thinks linearly, defined by logic, language and life experience, but the heart has its own vibrational consciousness. When the heart is used as an organ of perception, the entire body is healthier and more in tune with its natural surroundings. I related to the story about the author's exposure to nature after living in the suburbs, which immediately brought up memories of my own childhood and similar feelings about being in natural versus manmade surroundings.
The second half of the book is devoted to applying the concept of heart consciousness to communication with plants and with people. He explains how native peoples around the world have learned over time to use plants for medicine, ritual and food - when asked, they always say they learned from the plants themselves. In this section I found some very powerful, unique concepts about plants. One was the idea that a person's deep-seated need will be communicated through their energy, expressed via the heart consciousness, and that plants respond to this on various levels. They not only begin to produce medicinal chemicals in response to the need, but they respond and tell the person how to use them. Buhner explores methods of communicating with plants and shows how to bring about an open dialogue for learning from the plant itself. He then goes on to show that this heart communication with the plant can also be used in the same way to communicate as a healer with people, their disease, and their organs. This type of communication involves a spiritual link with the person seeking healing and involves much introspection and time on the healer's part. He teaches how to use all of your senses to perceive information about a patient on many different levels and how to integrate this information into a complete picture, finally feeling for the right plant to heal that person.
In Buhner's paradigm, to be a healer you must be completely honest and in touch with yourself and your heart in order to be able to communicate with other sentient beings. He concludes the book by exploring how to access this heart consciousness through introspection. Part of this is undoing the damage of socialization and education so that we come closer to our primitive state and feel with our hearts - until we think with our hearts and there is no difference between thinking and feeling. Thus linear thinking is abolished and the individual is in true communion with all living beings. Buhner ends with a series of exercises for "refining the heart as an organ of perception."
Reading this book has been a defining moment in my education, not only as a Naturopath, but as a spiritual being. Although parts of the book were somewhat tedious and not well written, the ideas expressed therein spoke to me on a deep level. I have always felt drawn to plants and natural environments, and have had a communicative, interactive experience with the few plants I have been fortunate enough to cultivate and learn about. Being in a medical school and focusing on linear, scientific methodology has sometimes taken me away from the path of spirit that I feel more comfortable with Buhner's book helped refresh in my conscious mind what I have always known to be true - I must think and feel with my heart in order to be true to myself and those around me.

Stephen Buhner's writing style is captivating, humble and poetic, and mirrors the non-linear beauty of Nature. He invites you to skip around the book and read whatever interests you, and if you love all things in Nature like I do, you will surely end up reading everything twice, just like I did. This is honestly, one of the most incredible books I have read in quite some time. I am a currently enrolled in a Master's program in the Health Arts and I think this book should be required reading.

Though there are so many people in society today that take credit for something that has, in fact, been around for years, this is not the case with Stephen Buhner. His intentions are genuine as he writes for and about Nature. He never claims ownership of any of the ideas presented in his book, rather, he takes the words of the wise people who came long before him, and weaves them eloquently through-out his own, demonstrating how the idea of the heart as an organ of perception is not new. That we all have the capability, it has simply been unintentionally taught out us out.

I am also the Director of a medical research foundation, and often times I am appalled by how close minded so many in the realm of medicine/science can be. Though their intentions may once have been sincere, the unfortunate truth is, somewhere along the way, their motivations changed and they lost the ability to see the big picture.

I highly recommend this book. Society is ready for this book. The environment needs for society to read this book. I found the following quote by G. Leonard, in Mu Soeng's commentary on the Heart Sutra, and I think it is appropriate to insert it here:

At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, a complex of waveforms and resonances, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet which connects us to everything in the universe. The act of getting in touch with this pulse can transform our personal experience and in some way alter the world around us.

By reading this book, perhaps we can learn to come out of our heads, and back into our hearts. By doing so, I am hopeful we, like Stephen Buhner, will be able to feel once again, hear what Nature has to teach us...and listen.

I hesitated to buy this book at first, the publisher's weekly review was so bad, but I had liked the author's other work, so I bought it and am I glad I did. It is wonderful. I don't know what the reviewer was thinking of, perhaps we did not read the same book. I can only think that he or she so fundamentally disagrees with the concepts of heart cognition and the livingness of the world that this book was just too uncomfortable for them. And it is true, reductionists will hate this book, as the author says many times in the text. However, if you have felt deep feelings upon coming upon magnificient rock formations in a forest, felt knowledge come to you through stirrings of your heart, known that there was more to life than working and retiring, or ever felt drawn to the teachings of medicine people in indigenous cultures, you will be so glad you bought this book. I have never seen these processes of perception and healing explained, nor spoken of with such reverence and love. This is truly a bible for Earth-centered people who wish to learn the power of depth perception and shape their lives through the deep teachings of the sacredness of Earth.

A scene takes place in the film Patton, where the General stands on the site of an ancient battlefield and describes his experiences as a combatant in a previous life on that very field. In THE SECRET TEACHING OF PLANTS, Stephen Harrod Buhner describes a similar experience on a battlefield here in Virginia where the narrator "felt" the presence of the dead and dying soldiers. While this episode might seem farfetched, Buhner has woven a story that will lead you to believe this event can and did take place, no matter how rational you think you are.

Buhner's book is about plants, but more than that it is about the human heart and its capacity to understand more than the head. The heart does indeed have its own reasons, and has much to communicate if we would listen. As one who has a deep affinity for living organisms especially, birds, dogs, cats, and trees, and having lived with said creatures all my life and knowing for a fact that they all communicate with me, I do not believe that humans are the "be all end all" they believe themselves to be no matter how much they have recorded their own self importance in ancient texts. In the end, belief is belief, but Buhner suggests there is much one may be missing if she does not listen to her heart. THE SECRET TEACHING OF PLANTS is a delicious wonderful treat, and I have taken weeks to read and reread a man who may indeed be a reincarnation of Thoreau or Goethe.

If you have ever wondered how indigenous peoples learned the uses of plants, if you have ever wondered how people such as Manuel Cordova Rios, the South American healer, could look inside people's bodies in his healing work, if you have ever wondered about the world Kabir described in his poems, if you have ever wondered what Thoreau was really talking about, or how Masanobu Fukuoka's farming did what it did, then this book is for you.

I have read exhaustively in this field and I have never read a book that took me through the process step by step, explained it so well, or showed how innate the ability to read the sacred geography of the world is in each of us. The book takes the reader through the five steps of direct perception, revealing how anyone can do it, that it is the simplest thing, inherent in all of us, in the very beating of our hearts.

The book explores in more detail than any other text I have read how the heart works as an organ of perception and intelligence. But this book explores these things in some of the most poetic and powerful language I have encountered, putting the author in the same category of work as Barry Lopez, Robert Bly, and Alice Walker.

If you have ever wondered about all those subtle feelings you sense each day, about the power of the Earth to move you, and how all our ancestors and predecessors did the things they did, then buy this book. You will not regret it.

This is a book to read and reread. As an experienced herbalist and intuitive healer, Stephen Harrod Buhner knows what he is talking about first hand. The author leads workshops in the Green Mountain State (Vermont). That must be a feat to attend.

The first part of this book talks to the left side of your hemisphere as it is based in science, proof and logic. He discusses among other subjects the basis for an energetic field of the body and of the heart.

The second part of the book appeals to the right side of the brain as it is based on experience, visions and intuition. The ressource section is impeccable with plenty of material to chew on and an appendice with explorations to exercise the perception of the heart.

When I saw the title of the book I got really excited. I've been waiting for someone to address this topic. Stephen is one of my favorite authors, but I thought this book was dreadfully boring. The first section is where Stephen gets analytical about science being linear and nature being non linear. I agree 100 percent but I don't think it's necessary to debate the issue for 70 pages. The second section is supposed to be his more heartfelt, non linear writings but, Thoreau and Goethe and Burbank etc. quotes were interspersed so many times that there was no flow in Stephen's writings. All in all, this book didn't resonate with me. However, if you are interested in the using your heart as a mode of perception, maybe something in this book will click with you.

This book represents an exciting synchronicity for me. However, I can understand that some of those drawn by the title would find it challenging to digest, and others might balk at the paradigm shift it requires of anyone who dares to pursue it's suggestions. The author would not be surprised since he knows that he is treading tricky ground in reviewing the suppressed significance of bioelectromagnetism and claiming that the extensive knowledge of ancient indigenous cultures was gained not by trial and error but by far more subtle and sophisticated means. Yet Buhner is tracking the footsteps of some very admirable, independent thinkers and he quotes them at length.

These people have sometimes been called 'mystic scientists', and all of them were true naturalists since their insights came directly from their own experience of immersion in the natural world. At the end of the book, Buhner provides short and inspiring biographies as well as topic summaries and good further reading lists. I have degrees in botany/genetics and plant-breeding, so I was shocked for example to realize that my studies did not include Luther Burbank who last century created by non-scientific selection food plants we now take for granted, or Masanobu Fukuoka who has grown rice crops that yield consistently more than any produced by scientific method.

And I certainly did not learn that Barbara McClintock, who won the Nobel prize for her work with transposons and corn genetics used, like Einstein and many genius 'scientists', unconventional methods to make her most important discoveries. Many 'scientific breakthoughs' have in fact been made by people who schooled themselves; devoted students of nature, their methods were far from sloppy. With current concerns about genetic engineering of crop plants and the diminishing diversity of potential medicinal plant species on the planet, the nature-based approach Buhner describes reminds us that there may be an alternative to the harmful effects of so-called human advancement.

Buhner's purpose is to show why the verbal/intellectual/analytic methods of gaining knowledge and understanding that prevail in our culture are limited, and limiting, without the holistic/intuitive/depth mode of cognition in which our ancestors and indigenous peoples were well versed. Also called direct perception or biognosis (knowledge from life), this method of gaining accurate and sustainable information about the world is, he says, more than anything a way of being and our birthright. Unfortunately, it is a way of being that is hard to sustain in an world where human's seek dominion over, and separation from, the natural order of life.

Almost half the book is devoted to the topic of 'heart intelligence' with which I am familiar through it's relevance and application in my practice of aquatic bodywork. Recent research indicates that the heart is an organ of perception that is superior to the brain in terms of the speed, accuracy, and effectiveness of it's responsiveness to the environment. Buhner's account of this work is very good, if lengthy, and what I appreciate is that he emphasizes the importance of these findings for our ability to interconnect with the natural world, and specifically plant medicines.

SECRET TEACHINGS is equisitely written, inspiring and offers new hope for the human species and ultimately for the planet. Buhner's poetic writing is often trance inducing. He superbly describes the territory of the sacred and makes navigation of interspecies communication easily accessible. He lays out the map so all we have to do, is the work. Reading this book, I kept hearing a voice inside saying, "I want this." I knew to what the voice was referring, a life of vastly rich and varied experiences that went far beyond the surface of ordinary daily life. The teachings in this book have become my life guide.

This work is an integration of well documented research on the heart as an organ of perception, writings by those, such as Kabir, Geothe,Thoreau, James Hillman, and others, past and present, who have travelled this way as well as the authors own poetry and life experiences.

SECRET TEACHINGS is a must read for anyone who is intersted in deepening their life experience, who is inclined to go beyond reductionist methods of being in the world and for those who hunger to feel the touch of spirit on their body.

The book is easy to read and easy to skip around in from section to section, following your heart and interests. Buhner lays out in fine detail the process of depth perception; of seeing beyond the surface of things with "the unworn sides of your eyes."

At the end of the book there are several exercises to enhance your awareness of the world while reclaiming the parts of you that have been sequestered away so that with practice, we can once again walk in the world as an integrated 360 degree personality, with joy and sponteneity.