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

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• Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, Jain nun, veteran, film maker
• I.B. Horner (trans.), MN 45 (suttacentral.net); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly