Not thinking of SEX in spring (video)

Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Dhr. Seven, Jen B., CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Strangers With Candy (Comedy Central); Ajahn Jotiko, Awareness Itself; Dhammapada verses

I'm here to help you! - Then why do you have that sword? - To cut your vine. - Go away!

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The soft embrace of delight

Let me climb and embrace you.

One day a vine took root at the base of an elder tree in an ancient grove of trees.

It sprang soft tendril-arms and took hold of the base of the tree. The tree sighed at the embrace. As the vine began to grow, its sweet fragrance perfuming the base of the tree as its tendrils extended and it began to climb.

At that time the spirits of the other ancient trees, dryads, came to pay their final respects to the elder tree. "It has been nice knowing you, sir tree!" they said.

The elder tree grimaced and wondered why they spoke such insolence in such a kind and respectful manner, as if mocking him.

"I am a grand old tree; moreover, I have have this gorgeous vine which I wear like a colorful robe over my old bark. What reason have they to speak to me in such a way?"

Day and night, in a solemn procession, the tree spirits came by and paid their condolences until finally the elder could take it no more. The vine had climbed all the way to the top and was beginning to enfold its canopy.

I won't get clingy!

The elder tree cried out to a particularly old, wise, and venerable tree spirit: "Why do you speak to me in such a manner, as if someone has died?!"

The venerable tree spirit looked surprised, "Why surely you know why we have all come, each in our turn, to bid you farewell and speak of our affection?"

"But I am still here! I'm not going anywhere! What have I done that you should all turn on me?"

"Friend, do you not know hat will happen when this vine you wear like a charm enfolds your canopy?"

"It will look all the more gorgeous as I support it with its soft tendril-embrace about my great trunk!"

"Then what?"

"'Then what' what? I will wear it like a beautiful gown, a magnificent, multi-colored robe!"

"Then it will weigh you down until you snap, your old, brittle body unable to support the weight of its clinging any longer."

"Ahh!" the elder tree gasped, suddenly understanding its predicament. "Then I will ask this vine to climb down!"

"Good luck with that request," the venerable spirit said full of compassion as it turned and went off into the grove.

Just so does the tender touch of sensuality delight one...until, clinging and unable to let go, it eventually fells one by its weight.

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Sex: The Great Temptation

Awareness Itself by Thai Master Ajahn Jotiko, Ven. Thanissaro/Geoffrey DeGraff (trans.)

Let's have sex? - No, let's just wrap like a vine and a tree. - OK, that's intimate, too.

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World's tallest tree, CA

Western women are often upset when they learn that Buddhist monks aren’t allowed to touch them.

They usually take it as a sign that Buddhism discriminates against women.

But as Thai Master Ajahn Fuang explained it, “The reason the Buddha didn’t allow monks to touch women is not that there’s anything wrong with women. It’s because there’s something wrong with the monks:

“They still have mental defilements, which is why they have to be kept under control.”

 

For anyone who tries to follow the celibate life [of a Buddhist monastic aiming for immediate enlightenment], the opposite sex is the biggest temptation to leave the path [that leads to awakening].

If Ajahn Fuang were teaching monks, he’d say: “Women are like vines. At first they seem so delicate and soft, but if you let them grow on you, they cling and curl up around you until they have you all tied up and finally bring you down.”

Similarly, when teaching nuns, he’d warn them about men. Once a nun was thinking of disrobing [giving up the saffron robes of a celibate Buddhist nun's life] and returning home, knowing that her father would arrange a marriage for her.

She asked Ajahn Fuang for advice, and he told her: “Ask yourself, do you want to live inside the noose or out?” As a result, she decided she’d rather stay out of the noose. More

What did I learn in life?
Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris) never learned morals on Strangers With Candy, but there were a lot of funny times. Like all "after school specials," every episode climaxed in a tidy life lesson. lol

The delicate vines blossom and wait for The One, a tall handsome tree to climb.

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What danger is a vine to a tree?

Dhammapada (Verses 163-166 334-336) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Dryads (devas) live in trees.

(163) When overspread by extreme vice -- like a sal tree by a vine -- one does oneself what an enemy would wish.

They're easy to do -- things no good and of no use to oneself. What is useful and good is really harder than hard to do.
 

(164) The teaching of those who live the Dharma, worthy ones, nobles [enlightened beings]: whoever maligns it -- a dullard, motivated by wrong view -- bears the fruit of one's own destruction, like the fruiting of the bamboo.*

• *Certain reeds of the bamboo plant family perish immediately after producing fruit.

(165) Great harm is done by oneself. By oneself is one defiled. Great harm is left undone by oneself. By oneself is one cleansed. Purity and impurity are one's own doing. No one purifies another. No other can purify one.

(166) Let one not neglect one's own welfare because of [or even for the sake of] another, however great. Clearly understanding one's own welfare, let one be intent upon the good.

Rise above like a lotus

The bigger our trees the better!

(334-336) When one lives heedlessly, one's craving grows like a creeping vine.

One runs now here, now there, like a forest monkey in desperate search of sweet fruit.

If this sticky and sucky craving overcomes one in the world, one's sorrows grow like wild grass following a rain.

But if in the world one overcomes this sucking craving, so hard to escape, sorrows roll off one like beads of water from a lotus flower.