THE RED WATERMELON
It is summer now. Sunny and hot! Nothing is better than enjoying some slices of cool watermelon. That reminds us of the ancient people and a legend which told there was once upon a time when the HungVuong Kings were building up the country. One among them adopted a young, talented man as his son. Later one, due to some misunderstanding, the king ordered to exile that adoptee, Mai An Tiem, and his family to an isolated and deserted island.
At first, for survival, the whole family had to struggle very hard by catching fishes and collecting wild vegetables. One day, a bird flock flew by and dropped some seeds. Very shortly after, those seeds sprouted, young leaves protruded; and finally fruits yielded. The fruits got bigger and riper. An Tiem thought if birds could eat them, it was edible for humans. He tried to cut it open and found the crimson flesh in a cool and sweet flavor. The whole family happily enjoyed them. Since then, An Tiem diligently took care of the seeds to cultivate them. Time passed. The deserted island became a forest of red watermelons. However, isolated on the island and surrounded by the immense water, he could not see anyone, any house except the sun and the sky. He missed his homeland and his people. He kept dropping the red melons down and down the water. The fruits were floating up and down in the current toward indefinite destinations. Then, one day, a small boat stopped at the island with the question about the origin of the melons. From that time, once in a while, some boats quickly visited to trade food or utensils for the red fruits.
Until one day, King HungVuong got some melons offered by a stranger. The King inquired about the original location of the fruits. He immediately learned that they came from An Tiem who was still alive. Feeling regretful about what he had done, he sent a fleet of boats to the island to pick him up and his family back to the fatherland. An Tiem brought home the fruits and the seeds that he distributed to the farmers to start the cultivation. Right then, that red fruit turned into favorite across the country due to not only for the beautiful colors, the green skin and the red, sweet and juicy flesh, but also for the crispy texture.
Maybe it is delicious and cute, so, the Chinese say “hảo”, and we say it in the Vietnamese accent “hấu”, dưa hấu, water melon.
The ancient tale is simple in such a way. For a long time, there has been many discussions on the virtue of An Tiem and his great gratitude our people have owned since the old days.
In my hand now is a piece of watermelon with deep green peel and red, cool flesh. The images of the fruits hovering in the immense ocean amongst splashing waves thousands of years ago vaguely appeared in my insight. They were not caught in the hidden rocks, not stuck in the cliffs, not entangled in algae, not diverting towards the shore but they were smoothly moving in the current till someone on a certain boat saw them and grabbed them. That satisfied An Tiem.
Our mind culture is rather similar to the story of the red watermelons. I shared my experience of “floating myself in the sea”. The watermelons once rambled in the ocean. They were neither snagged on the shore nor impeded by anything on the wave surface. Whenever the tide rose up, they moved themselves high with it. Whenever it fell, they gently lowered down accordingly. They did not worry, or resist against anything. They neither asked the tide to constantly rise high. The watermelons flew in the life current and drifted in the harmonious operation of all the phenomena. It was so peaceful. Till they met the preconditioned people, they offered themselves and gave life their taste, fresh, sweet, cool in the brightly red color.
The red melons, the insentient beings! How come they could deal with things like the conscious human beings? They do not possess the Knowing. But they come into existent, grow up with time, develop and contain the sweet juice, tasteful texture in beautiful colors. They dedicate their best for those who need without hesitating or a tribute required. A short lifespan causes harm to no one. But anyone and anything could hurt them. Yet they tolerate all without any complaining and resentment. They stay in innocence. With good soil and plenty of water, they bring out the young shoots, green leaves and bear the fruits which are picked up when ripe. It is their repeated cycle of evolving. It is not different from the circulation of all phenomena and humanity.
Humans are loftier than non-sentient beings because they are conscious and capable for sensing and feeling. With brain, they can conduct the cognitive, intellectual activities such as differentiating between good and bad, intelligence, memory to record what having learned and experienced, reasoning and thinking, loving, communicating with others by languages. All those make humankind proud and superior to other species and haughtier over every type of nescient vegetation. That sounds correct.
But why does every person undergo his own sufferings? Why is the world an enormous ocean of boundless sorrow instead of tranquility and happiness?
We are able to point out the differences between good and bad, virtuous and sinful. But why do we prefer doing evil? The cause is the very ignorance. We are conscious but we have been behaving incorrectly. Our right view and wholesome mind have been hindered.
What is the horrible power that can obscure our crystal clear mind? Nothing but the greed. What are we greedy for? – Yearning of wealth, beauty, thirst of material properties, hunger of fame, desires of eating and drinking, resting and sleeping. The Buddhist canons also refer to the extraordinary power of cravings and call them the Mara, Devil King. This king rules the whole world. It can impede our vision to prevent us from the Buddha who might be in front of us, but we are unable to recognize him. The Lord says he has never been far away from us but being right in our mind. Yet, we do not believe what we have learned. Instead, we run from place to place in searching for him.
All the vegetations, the innocents, stay well throughout the four seasons. Too sunny, they get drooping; with rain, they are fresh and coolly green. When being seen, they are happily blooming or gracefully swinging in the breeze. We probably learn this natural rhythm of living. We should let everything move in the congruous cadence of the causal effects by themselves. When our mind is calm, our insight flashes out. Then, we can dedicate all of our best and noblest to life. If each of us is mindful, there is no more kingdom for that Evil King to reign.
And, the ocean of sufferings now turns into that of wisdom, compassion, pleasure and happiness.
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Sunyata Monastery, June 17, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2392/triet-nhu-snhp009-qua-dua-do
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