Date: 11/01/2025 11/02/2025
Location: Star Lake Meditation Center
Teacher: Shilin Long
Dharma Talk
Uprooting the Cause
In the Jeta Grove of Śrāvastī, there once stood a tall, flourishing tree with lush green leaves and spreading branches. Its vast shade provided cool comfort, and visitors to the grove often rested beneath it to enjoy its beauty and peace.
However, something strange began to happen. Everyone who stayed under the tree—even for a short while—soon suffered from severe headaches or unbearable back pain. At first, people thought it was a coincidence. But one day, as a group gathered under the tree to admire the scenery, they suddenly collapsed one after another. The gardener who tended the grove began to suspect, “Could this be a poisonous tree?”
Not wanting to alarm the public, the gardener decided to quietly chop down the tree. He tied an axe to the end of a long stick and, standing at a distance, struck the trunk until it fell. Yet before long, the tree sprouted again—its leaves even greener than before, its branches more vigorous and radiant. No other tree in the garden could compare to its grandeur.
Some visitors, seeing the warning signs, admired it only from afar. But others were lured by its majestic beauty and graceful sway, ignoring all caution, and rested freely under its branches. Inevitably, they too fell ill, and some even lost their lives.
The gardener was now certain that the tree was truly poisonous. Determined to remove it, he kept chopping it down year after year, but each time it grew back stronger and taller, its branches spreading wide once more. And, one after another, more people met harm because of their desire for its shade.
Worried and desperate, the gardener thought, “What should I do? How can I completely get rid of this deadly tree?” He swung his axe tirelessly day after day, hoping to end the danger once and for all.
One scorching afternoon, as he was lamenting his failure, a wise man happened to pass by and said simply: “You must cut it at the root.”
These few words suddenly awakened the gardener. He realized that all his effort had been wasted on trimming branches and leaves—mere superficial work. No wonder he had achieved nothing. He now understood: only by removing the root itself could the poisonous tree be destroyed completely and never grow again.
