Under the kalpataru tree

The thinker is creative with his thoughts. This is one of the most fundamental truths to be understood. All that you experience is your creation. First you create it, then you experience it, and then you are caught in the experience — because you don’t know that the source of all exists in you.

There is a famous parable:

Once a man was traveling; accidentally he entered paradise.

In the Indian concept of paradise there are wish-fulfilling trees there, kalpatarus. You just sit underneath them, desire anything and immediately it is fulfilled – there is no gap between the desire and its fulfillment. There is no gap between a thought and a thing. You think and immediately it becomes a thing; the thought realizes automatically.

These kalpatarus are nothing but symbolic for the mind.

Mind is creative, creative with its thoughts.

The man was tired, so he fell asleep under a kalpataru, a wish-fulfilling tree. When he woke up he was feeling very hungry, so he simply said, ”I am feeling so hungry, I wish I could get some food from somewhere.” And immediately food appeared out of nowhere – just floating in the air, delicious food.

He was so hungry that he didn’t pay much attention to where it had come from – when you are hungry you are not philosophic.

He immediately started eating and the food was so delicious that he was caught up in the food. Once his hunger was gone, he looked around.

Now that he was feeling very satisfied, another thought arose in him: ”If only I could get something to drink…” And there is still no prohibition in paradise; immediately precious wine appeared.

Drinking the wine relaxedly in the cool breeze of paradise under the shade of the tree, he started wondering, ”What is the matter? What is happening? Have I fallen into a dream or are some ghosts around and playing tricks with me?”

And ghosts appeared. And they were ferocious, horrible, nauseating. And he started trembling and a thought arose in him: ”Now I am sure to be killed. These people are going to kill me.” And he was killed.

This parable is an ancient parable, of immense significance.

It portrays your whole life. Your mind is the wish-fulfilling tree, kalpataru – whatsoever you think, sooner or later it is fulfilled. Sometimes the gap is such that you have completely forgotten that you had desired it in the first place; sometimes the gap is of years, or sometimes of lives. So you can’t connect the source.

But if you watch deeply you will find all your thoughts are creating you and your life. They create your hell, they create your heaven. They create your misery, they create your joy. They create the negative, they create the positive. Both are illusory — the pain and pleasure, the sweet dream and the nightmare, both are illusory.

What is meant by calling these things illusory? The only meaning is that they are your creation. You are creating a magic world around yourself – that’s what is meant by the word maya. Everybody here is a magician. And everybody is spinning and weaving a magic world around himself, and then is caught – the spider itself is caught in its own web.

There is nobody torturing you except yourself. There is nobody except yourself; your whole life is your work, your creation.

Osho, Take It Easy – Talks on Zen Buddhism, Vol 2, Ch 5

Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales