Light of Mani

Mani, what do you have to say on the phrase: They either love the tree and hate the fruit or they love the fruit but hate the tree.

Yes, this is a bold statement in your culture for many many organizations and parasitic religions follow this phrasing to a ‘T’ in their practices and teachings unto it’s students. We have all experienced this in the realms of reality as it is comforting to fit into a pattern prescribed by those that postulate to know more than you. And so you become like this tree or that tree that looks the part, but ultimately this form of the tree is so malnourished and over groomed that the tree everyone strives to be and become is rendered fruitless. Many, many aspects of the human conditioning lead down paths that are filled with these well manicured trees — but bear no fruit! Endless paths for the seeker to venture down full of promises of paradise, but the seeker keeps walking and walking never getting there and never seeing a single piece of nourishing fruit. And do they continue to walk or do they turn around?

We may tell a story here of the seeker:

Now, looking down the path there are many overgrown and gnarled trees; trees that don’t look at all like the world recommends. These trees look scary maybe even hostile so the seeker turns away to another path. But once the seeker has walked down enough fruitless paths he alas stands before this one. This path that looks so overwhelming and frightful. No one has told the seeker about this path, the seeker has no knowledge or frame of reference to comfort ones self. But, like a fool the seeker steps forth into the unknown down the path with the large unkempt trees.

And the seeker walks and walks and in doing so becomes accustom and familiar with this path. The seeker is no longer frightened by these trees as now they become known to him. And one spring day — everything flourishes and blooms for harvest in the fall. And the seeker gathers as much fruit as he can and returns to his friends. He shares the fruit and they devour it greedily and ask for more. Glady the seeker returns and picks as much fruit as he can. He returns and again the friends eat every single piece of fruit laid out under their feet.

The seeker tells his friends that they too may have the fruit, that they can go down the scary path lined with gnarly trees and pick as much as they would like! But they laugh and scoff for those trees are no good.