About This Teaching
In a former life the Buddha was King Mahājanaka, who saw mango trees laden with fruit from his elephant and meant to return. His ministers stripped them, beating the branches and scattering the leaves. That evening he found the fruit gone, yet a nearby tree with no fruit stood undamaged, because no one disturbs a tree without fruit.
Reflecting on the burdens of kingship, which troubled even his sleep, he resolved to be like that fruitless tree and ordained. When asked who his teacher was, he would answer, "a mango tree." He became one with few concerns, content with little and delighting in solitude.
Ajahn Chah draws the lesson that everything in the world can teach, if one is observant and has a little wisdom; trees and vines reveal the way things are. With self-composure and restraint, one sees all things as anicca, dukkha and anattā, as with trees that arise, grow, change and finally die.