Apple Orchard
by Ajahn Chan
If you ask people why they were born, they probably would have a lot of trouble answering, because they’re sunk in the world of the senses and sunk in becoming. For example, suppose we had an orchard of apple trees that we were particularly fond of. That’s becoming for us if we don’t reflect with wisdom. How so? Suppose our orchard contained a hundred apple trees and we considered them to be our trees. We’d then be born as a worm in every single one of them, and we’d bore into every one of them. Even though our human body may still be back at the house, we’d wend out tentacles into every one of those trees. It’s becoming because of our clinging to the idea that those trees are our own, that that orchard is our own. If someone were to take an axe and cut one of the trees down, we would die along with the tree. We’d get furious and would have to go and set things straight. We’d fight and even kill over it. The quarrelling is the birth. We are born right at the point where we consider anything to be our own, born from the becoming. Even if we had a thousand apple trees, if someone were to cut down just one, it would be like cutting the owner down. Whatever we cling to, we are born right there, we exist right there.
