Sweet mangoes and lessons from dung!

The whole world is experiencing a tough time. When one looks at history one can’t help, but remember Emperor Ashoka who lived in India. He was very ambitious and invaded Kalinga (a coastal region in India) and conquered it. However, after doing so, he was filled with remorse, regret and grief. He realised that he had made a huge mistake. Seeing the carnage all around him he made a resolution to change, and he embraced Buddhism. He built many monuments all around India. His son and daughter Ven. Mihindu and Ven. Sangamitta (who had embraced the Buddhist monastic order and were arahants) came to Sri Lanka. They brought with them a Bo sapling from the tree under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment. This was the origin of the Buddha Dharma in our isle. This event of Buddhism coming to Sri Lanka happened on a Poson Poya day.

If Emperor Ashoka had not conquered Kalinga, his life’s altering wouldn’t have taken place. Sometimes, one has to experience the traumatic in order to transform oneself into someone truly beautiful.

Ajahn Brahm, a senior monk in modern times, has told us the following story. Someone accidently treads on some dung. He says not to wipe it off your shoes immediately. Instead, come home with it and rub it all off under the mango tree you’ve planted. You do just that and after some time you get the mangoes bearing fruit. When you cut open one, it’s so juicy and sweet- the sweetest mangoes you’ve ever eaten. And what was the secret for the sweetness? It was the dung! Similarly in life, the ‘dung’ is the fertilizer which transforms the suffering we experience into something beautiful.

We lose the people we love permanently. Ajahn Brahm lost his father at the age of 16. However, Ajahn Brahm says that he could deal with it. Yes, he grieved. But he didn’t let it ruin the rest of his life, and to a large extent, his father was responsible for it. Ajahn Brahm says how, as a young teenager, he and his father were returning home one day. After stopping the car, Ajahn Brahm’s father said, “Son, the door of my house is always open for you”. Ajahn Brahm could read between the lines.