| Three Papaya Trees |
| By Zhu Yan-ling Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting Photo by Liu Zi-zheng |
A friend gave me three papaya saplings, two of which I gave to my older sister and a neighbor. We each planted our young trees in our own front yards. The one my sister planted at her home grew tall and straight and yielded nearly 40 papayas. People who were lucky enough to get a taste of them raved about how yummy they were. The one grown in my neighbor’s yard was blown out of shape in a typhoon. Yet despite its bent trunk, the tree bore quite a few fruits too, each of them large and well-shaped. What about my papaya tree? Well, it didn’t end up as well. It received plenty of sunlight, water, and other nutrients, but it still wilted in the end—due to the gnawing of snails. When the friend who gave me the saplings visited me again, he confirmed that the tree was beyond hope. He gave me another sapling, and I planted it in the same place where the first one had been. Small and tender, the young papaya tree still couldn’t compare with the other two well-grown, robust trees. I thought back to the time when the three of us were planting the saplings in our yards. My sister’s husband said, “We’ll take very good care of it.” My neighbor said, “I’m sure mine will grow very well.” I said, “When this sapling grows into a big tree, it will block the sun and make our living room dark.” Our mindsets affected the growth of the plants. It may seem that the ravages of snails led to the ruin of my tree, but the reason might not be so simple. All living beings in the world can perceive the world around them. They can feel whether the world is hostile or friendly towards them. Since I didn’t like the tree’s existence, it chose to die. Master Cheng Yen teaches us to influence the world around us with a heart of sincere piety. A thought is like a seed. Whether we give rise to wholesome or bad thoughts can often determine how things turn out. Alas, foolish me. Confined by my knowledge of the physical world, I ignored the power of my thoughts. We can learn so much from the living world. There are profound principles in everything around us—this is what those papaya trees taught me. Our thoughts can impact the world around us. Whether or not we are aware of it, our thoughts lead to actions which in turn set forth a whole chain of reactions. While wholesome thoughts result in wholesome behavior, unwholesome thoughts result in unwholesome behavior, with positive and negative impacts respectively. When we harbor good thoughts, we begin to create circumstances leading to positive results. We must therefore be mindful of what we think. |
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