SUTRA: When the trees talk (MN 45)

The great Isaline Blew Horner, an early British translator of Buddhist sutras, originally translated this discourse from the Pali canon. It is updated here into modern English in a vernacular that Americans might find easier to understand.

45. The Lesser Discourse on the (Ways of) Undertaking Dhamma

British translator I.B. Horner

Thus have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying near the City of Sāvatthī in Jeta's Forest Grove in the billionaire's monastery.

There he addressed the wandering ascetics, saying: “Meditators!” “Revered one,” they answered. The Buddha taught:

“Meditators, these four are (ways of) undertaking this Teaching (the Dharma). What are the four? There is, meditators, the undertaking of

1. Dharma that is happiness in the present but results in suffering in the future
2. Dharma that is both suffering in the present and results in suffering in the future
3. Dharma that is suffering in the present but results in happiness in the future
4. Dharma that is both happiness in the present and results in happiness in the future.

Female wanderers are hot with their long hair

“What, meditators, is the first? There are some ascetics and priests (shramanas and brahmanas) who speak like this and hold these views: ‘There is nothing wrong with sense pleasures.’

“They indulge in sense pleasures; they gratify themselves with female wanderers (sadhvis) who tie their hair into pretty topknots; they speak like this:

Sadhvis are so very pretty!

“‘How can these worthy ascetics and priests, seeing some future danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures, lay down a full knowledge of sense pleasures?’

“Saying, ‘Happiness is in the young, soft, and downy arms of this female wanderer,’ they indulge in sense pleasures.

“They, having indulged in sense pleasures, at the breaking up of the body after dying, arise in a sorrowful state, an unfortunate rebirth, an abyss, even in hell (niraya).

Sadhvi Saraswati-ji

“Here they experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating. They say, ‘These worthy ascetics and priests, seeing future danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures and lay down a full knowledge of sense pleasures.’

“‘But we, because of sense pleasures, now experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating, their cause being sense pleasures.’

“Meditators, it is as if in the last month of the hot season, a creeper's seedpod burst and a seed of the vine known as a creeper, meditators, were to fall at the root of a sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, the spirit (devatā, dryad) residing in that sāl tree, being afraid and agitated, might start trembling.

“Then, meditators, the friends and acquaintances, the kith and kin, of that spirit who resides in that sāl tree -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods -- gathering together and assembling might give comfort to that sal tree in this way:

A worker in the wood might remove a vine seed.

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper's seed, or a deer might chew it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might never sprout.’

“But, meditators, if neither a peacock should swallow this creeper vine's seed, nor a deer eat it, nor a forest fire burn it up, nor workers in the wood remove it, nor white ants eat it, it might sprout.

The monsoon rains may come to water the land.

“Rained on by the monsoon clouds, it might grow quickly, and a young, soft, and downy creeper, clinging to it might take hold of that old sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, it might occur to the spirit residing in that sāl tree: ‘Why then did these worthy friends and acquaintances, my kith and kin -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods, seeing future danger in this creeper's seed -- gathering together and assembling, utter these comforting words:

You like that, huh, Red, my soft embrace?

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper vine's seed, or a deer might eat it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might not sprout’? Pleasant is the touch of this young, soft, downy, and clinging creeper.’

The vine gets carried away and takes over.

“It might cover that sāl tree. And doing so, it might form a canopy above it. It might produce dense overgrowth. Producing dense overgrowth, it might strangle every branch of that great sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, it might occur to the dryad (devatā) residing in that sāl tree: ‘It was because of seeing this future danger in the creeper's seed that those worthy friends and acquaintances, my kith and kin -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods, seeing future danger in this creeper's seed -- gathering together and assembling, utter these comforting words:

I'll cling to him and he'll be all mine.

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper's seed, or a deer might eat it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might not sprout.’ For I, because of this creeper's seed, am experiencing painful, sharp, excruciating feelings.’

“Even so, meditators, there are some worthy ascetics and priests who speak this way and hold these views:

There's nothing wrong with sense pleasures.

“‘There is nothing wrong with sense pleasures.’ They, indulging in sense pleasures, at the breaking up of the body after dying, reappear in a sorrowful state, an unfortunate rebirth, an abyss, even in a hell (niraya).

“Here they experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating. They say, ‘These worthy ascetics and priests, seeing danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures and display a full knowledge of sense pleasures.’

“‘But we, because of sense pleasures, experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating, their cause being sense pleasures.’

“This, meditators, is called the undertaking of Dharma that is happiness in the present that results in suffering in the future.” More

• Scientists unveil missing law of nature in landmark discovery
• Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, Jain nun, veteran, film maker
• I.B. Horner (trans.), MN 45 (suttacentral.net); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

How many trees are there in the world?

ScientificAmerican.com, 9/9/15; Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha's life is replete with trees: He was born under a sal tree, entered meditation under a rose apple tree, had his life saved by the women Sujata and Punna under a banyan, became enlightened under a pipal (all buddhas have a special tree), passed into nirvana under twin sals.

All those trees thriving on carbon (Getty)

How many trees? It’s a simple question, but as Nature Video describes it, getting the answer required 421,529 measurements from 50 countries on six continents.

The answer is that the world is home to over three trillion trees — with almost half of them living in tropical or subtropical forests [mainly in the Amazon and Siberia]. There are roughly 400 trees for every human.

Tropical and subtropical trees in climate chaos

But 12,000 years ago, before the advent of agriculture, Earth had twice as many trees as it does now [nearly 7 trillion]. Currently, the planet is losing 10 billion* trees a year.

Researchers represented the number of trees across the globe using bars that are taller for denser forests. This report was published in Nature on September 2, 2015.

• *Editor’s Note (11/27/18): This sentence was edited after posting to correct the statistic.

Hungarian Folk Tale: Oak Tree Fairy (video)

Hungarian Folk Tales; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Princess Yasodhara as sal tree dryad, like Queen Maya (Loriyan Tangai/Indian Museum)

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Tree spirit: deva or dryad

"Fairies" (earthbound woodland devas*) are real in Buddhism.

In this ancient Hungarian fairy tale, Prince Green goes into the forest to hunt and slaughter animals. But they persuade him to be merciful, and they reward his kindness with a secret. With the animals' help he locates a special oak tree. From its branches tree fairies (dryads) are released. He loses two due to his miscalculations, but a rabbit helps him keep the third alive. They are so "airy" (vata dosha) that they need lots of water (kapha element) to live in a denser body. He falls in love and takes her to his castle to marry. But a wicked sorceress interferes and tries to replace the fairy with the sorceress' own unattractive daughter, whom the prince marries until he realizes what has happened.

India called me a devi, Ancient Greece a dryad

*DRYAD (Greek Δρυάς) is a tree  nymph or spirit in ancient Greek mythology. Drys is Greek for "oak." While a dryad is specifically a nymph of oak, the term has come to be used for all tree-fairies and all human-tree hybrids in general (at least in fantasy). They are usually depicted as very shy creatures except around the Goddess Artemis, who is friendly to most of them. More

Did the Buddha love his mother?

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Shakya Land (Scythia) at left

In her excellent Tricycle article, Wendy Garling sounds like she is about to go off the rails, not realizing that the sexism Buddhism developed was not there in the beginning. The Buddha lived one way, overcoming the biases of his day and cultures (born in modern-day Scythia or Afghanistan to the west of "India" and teaching in Magadha and other neighboring allied kingdoms which only became "India" as we think of it with the advent of the Buddhist Emperor Asoka). Buddhists lived another, and even enlightenment did not remove all of their residual biases, just attachment to them. The Buddha's enlightenment was a kind known as supreme-enlightenment (samma-sam-buddhahood), whereas disciples awakened with their personalities and quirks intact but right view regarding the most important things: the impersonal, impermanent, and unsatisfactory nature of all phenomena and a thorough penetration of the Four Noble Truths, "noble" because they are ennobling.

 

Did the Buddha love his mother?

Queen Maya on her way to her parents gives birth in Lumbini standing, holding a sal tree

The illusory beauty Queen Maya (Maha Maya Devi) dreams of conception with royal symbols.

 

Of course young Prince Siddhartha Gotama loved his mother, Queen Maya Gotami. But that is not the question.

Queen Maya gives birth standing

She died a week after his birth. His father, King Suddhodana, chief of the Indo-Scythians/Shakya Clan/Sakas, had other wives. The palace included Queen Maya's sister and co-wife Pajapati Gotami (Sanskrit, Prajapati Gautami).

Pajapati is famous in the early Buddhist Pali language texts of the Theravada tradition not only because she loved and raised Prince Siddhartha but because she was the first woman in history to be allowed to become a Buddhist nun.

The question is, What happened to Queen Maya? And while Siddhartha loved his foster mother, did the supremely-enlightened Buddha (which is who Siddhartha became when he awakened) love Maya?

 

Afghanistan/Shakya Land upper left

The Shakyian/Scythian/Saka queen, having passed away seven days after the birth of the Prince Siddhartha, had been reborn in Sakka's celestial world, the "World of the Thirty-Three" (Tavatimsa). 

• Imagine that! The warrior Sakas' titular god was a deva was a celestial-ruler and King of Kings Sakka? [Sakka not only was the most eminent deva, the "Lord of Lords," among the 33 in the "World of the Thirty-Three" devas but was at the same time the "King of Kings" of the next lower space plane, the "Realm of the Four Great Space Kings" (Catu-maha-rajika deva loka) of the four cardinal directions in the sky.]

Burmese Theravada Buddhist depiction of the Four Great Sky Kings of the quarters (W)

 
From there she saw Siddhartha grow into a young man, marry at 16, become a father at 29, renounce the world and become a wandering ascetic on the same day, and awaken to buddhahood at 35.
 

Now completely detached, risen above bias and affection for friends and family, did the Buddha still love his biological mother?

The aunt who raised Prince Siddhartha

Yes, he was so grateful to her and loved her so much that he traveled to the World of the Thirty-Three expressly to teach her the Dharma -- that is, the "Path to Liberation" he had discovered that makes an end of all rebirth and suffering.
 

He repeatedly visited that "heavenly" world and proclaimed the "Higher Teaching" (Abhidharma) to the devas ("shining ones") living there, particularly the beautiful Maya now reborn as a deva (a devaputra, lit. a "son of god" more correctly "offspring of the devas").

Yes, the Buddha loved his mother, both of them.
 

The Saka Queen in Sakka's Heaven

Ven. Nyanaponika from The Life of Sariputta adapted by Wisdom Quarterly

One of the most important contributions made by the Venerable Sariputra to the Buddhist Teaching is that, according to tradition (e.g., in the Atthasalini), the Buddha preached the "Higher Doctrine" or "Ultimate Teaching" (Abhidharma) in Tavatimsa heaven to his biological mother, Queen Maya, who had been reborn as a deva in that world after passing away from this world.

The Buddha did this for three months. When returning to earth from that celestial plane daily for his meals, the Buddha gave Ven. Sariputra the "method" (naya) of the portion of Abhidharma he had taught.

The Atthasalini says: "Thus the giving of the method was to the chief disciple, who was endowed with analytical knowledge, as though the Buddha stood on the edge of the shore and pointed out the ocean with his open hand. To the elder the doctrine taught by the Blessed One in hundreds and thousands of methods became very clear." Thereafter, the elder passed on what he had learned to his five hundred disciples.

 

Further it is said: "The textual order of the Abhidhamma originated with Sariputra; the numerical series in the Great Book (Patthana) was also determined by him. In this way the elder, without spoiling the unique doctrine, laid down the numerical series in order to make it easy to learn, remember, study, and teach the Dharma."

 

The Atthasalini, the Commentary to the Dhammasangani, also ascribes to Ven. Sariputra the following contributions to the canonical Abhidharma:

(a) the 42 couplets (dyads, duka) of the Suttanta Matika, which follows the Abhidhamma Matika, both of which preface the seven Abhidhamma books. The 42 Suttanta couplets are explained in the Dhammasangani and this likewise has probably to be ascribed to the Elder. (b) the fourth and last part of the Dhammasangani, the Atthuddhara-kanda, or "synopsis."
(c) the arrangement for the recitation of the Abhidhamma (vacanamagga).
(d) the Numerical Section (gañanacara) of the Patthana.

In the Anupada Sutra (MN 111) the Buddha himself speaks of Ven. Sariputra's analysis of meditative consciousness into its chief mental concomitants, which the elder undertook from his own experience, after rising from each of the meditative attainments in succession.

This analysis may well be either a precursor or an abridgment of the detailed analysis of absorption (jhana) consciousness given in the Dhammasangani. More

• Iconography: the Buddha's mother is a salabhanjika
• Prince Siddhartha was born in Afghanistan, and he traveled from Scythia (Shakya Land) to "India" to find a teacher and become enlightened

Would it be better to give birth to a buddha and go to heaven or stay on earth and become an enlightened nun, paving the way for other women to enter the Buddha's Female Order?