The Inner Chapters by Solala Towler

Author:Solala Towler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Inner Chapters
ISBN: 9781780283326
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2011-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

The carpenter said, “Enough! Not another word about that tree! Its wood is useless. A boat made from its timber would sink; a coffin would rot before you put it into the ground; any tool you made from it would snap. It has too much sap in it to make a door, and a beam made from its wood would be full of termites. Altogether it is a completely useless tree and that is why it has lived so long.”

One night, after he returned home, the ancient tree came to the carpenter in a dream and spoke to him. “What are you comparing me to,” it asked, “useful trees like cherry, apple, pear, orange, citron and all the other useful trees? Yet for these trees, as soon as the fruit is ripe they are stripped; their branches are broken and torn off. It is their usefulness that causes them so much abuse. Instead of living out the years that heaven has given them they are cut off halfway through. So it is for living things. This is why I have worked so long to cultivate the spirit of uselessness. I was almost cut down several times but I have been able to attain a great level of uselessness and this has been very useful to me. If I had been more useful I would never have attained the great age that I have, and grown so large.

“The two of us are similar. We are both just beings in the world. How is it that we go about judging other beings? You, an old and worthless man, about to die, how can you judge me and call me worthless?”

Shih the carpenter awoke then and spent a long time lying in his bed trying to understand this strange dream. Later, when he shared his dream with his apprentice the young man said, “If this ancient tree is so interested in being useless why has it allowed itself to become part of the village shrine?”

His master said, “Stop talking like that! It is only pretending to be a shrine. It is its way of protecting itself. Even though its timber is useless, if it were not a shrine it would have been cut down long ago. It is totally different from other trees. You cannot hope to understand it!”

————

Tzu Chi was wandering around in the Shang hills when he came upon a huge tree that towered over all the others. A thousand teams of horses could have rested in its shade. “What kind of tree is this?” wondered Tzu Chi, “it must be some kind of wonderfully useful tree.” But, upon looking up at the lowest branches, he saw that they were too twisted and crooked to be of any use as beams or rafters. When he took a good look at the trunk he saw that it was much too gnarled and knotted to be used for coffins. He tried tasting a leaf but it burned his mouth. He took a sniff of the sap of the tree and it put him into a drunken stupor for three days.

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