Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

The mango tree with no mangoes

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Simple Happiness and Contentment | Ajahn Brahm | 7 February 2025

2 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

one of the kings in his Buddhist story he went went this is in the time of the Buddha he went with his soldiers to train and as he was coming back to his Palace after doing the training he saw two mango trees one of those mango trees had so many ripe mangoes on them the other tree had no mangoes at all and he thought what's the point of being a mango tree if you don't have any mangoes so he almost cursed that mango tree with no mangoes and the tree with lots of mangoes he thought that when I finished and got back to the palace and got changed I'll come out and enjoy some of these R mangoes that's what he did so he changed and got on his horse and came out to taste some of those right mangoes and only then he saw that his soldiers who's helping train they never bothered to get changed they stripped that mango tree which had the mangoes of every fruit which was on there and as they were stripping every mango they broke so many branches and stripped off so many leaves that mango tree which was once full of succulent mangoes was actually destroyed he looked at the mango tree which had no mangoes and that's the still had all its branches and leaves intact and he thought I'm going to renounce being a king if you have power and wealth there's other people who want it isn't it more happy to be someone who has enough to live but not too much so other people will never want to break into your house they never want to steal anything that's just like Monastery you know right now where I live the door of my coutti is open I never locked it this after oh it's actually this morning when I left bodana to come here my cave those doors are open too there's nothing in there just space there emptiness who can steal emptiness we can't st

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 29:53 (to 32:37)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A king admired a mango tree laden with fruit and scorned a bare one. When he came back, his soldiers had stripped and broken the full tree; the bare one stood untouched. Having less is safer. Ajahn Brahm's hut and cave stay unlocked; nobody can steal emptiness. When thieves took monastery tools, he said: don't let them steal your peace.

In brief (our summary)

A king sees two mango trees — one laden, one bare — and almost curses the bare one. Returning for fruit he finds soldiers have stripped and ruined the laden tree; the bare tree stands intact. He renounces kingship: power and wealth invite plunder; emptiness cannot be stolen.

Teaching point

Having less can be safer and freer than having more that others want.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Simple Happiness and Contentment | Ajahn Brahm | 7 February 2025 · 2025-02-07 · ▶ watch from 29:53 to 32:37 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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