Outside Wat U Phai Rat Bamrung, there is a huge Bodhi tree. Someone said this Bodhi tree was a sapling of the Bodhi tree from Sri Lanka. I picked up a leaf from the ground and started to analyse it. The leaf shape was not the same as the one from Bodh Gaya. My face looked puzzle. AC saw and said: “This tree is the same species as the one in Bodh Gaya.” I asked: “How come the leaf is so big?” AC asked: “What if Buddha sat under a mango tree instead of this tree? What is the different between this leaf and a mango leaf? ” This is so true. Bodhi leaf or mango leaf it is just a leaf. Nothing more than a leaf and yet I was attached to the shape and size of the Bodhi leaf. My old habit of differentiation was telling me this is not the same tree. So what if this is not the same. Leaf is leaf and why do we place such an important to this particular leaf. Dog knows this number 7th mind is working. (Don’t worry if you don’t understand what is mean by number 7th mind.) AC was like a mirror; he showed me a reflection of my old habit inside me.
At Anuradhapura, we visited a Bodhi Tree which was brought from India by King Asoka’s daughter, the nun Sanghamittra. Our group leader requested a sapling to plant in Australia. The head of the Sri Maha Bodhi temple said we have to send in a request to be approved by the council. I told him I have the Bodhi seeds from Bodh Gaya. He said: “No, it’s not the original. If we grow from seed then it will become another tree.” Original! What is original? I thought I got STUCK in the leaf and now someone got STUCK in the tree. This is not only a tree but ORIGINAL tree.
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