# The two mangoes

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-two-mangoes-rebirth
- Themes: rebirth, karma, character, cause and effect
- Life situations: questions about rebirth, changing habits, fear of death

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Simile for rebirth: you eat a mango, plant its seed, tend the sapling, and years later the tree gives a new mango. The two are connected by cause and effect, yet share no molecules and perhaps not even the same DNA. If the first was sweet the new one is likely sweet; if sour, likely sour. What carries across is the tendency — our inclinations and character.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

the best simile which I have manag to concoct is the SYM of the the two mangoes so imagine a mango when you eat it today don't about you but I like mangoes we use many mangoes in simes in Buddhism I don't know why maybe it says something about my cravings and desires but nevertheless imagine a mango and you eat it and enjoy it and you take the seed and you put it in your garden and you water that mango and after a while the mango germinates and a sh comes out and you look after that little sapling and it grow go into a nice tree and eventually the tree flowers and you have another mango now we know that those two mangoes the one you ate years ago and its descendant on the tree from which it grew they are connected there they're connected but it's also totally different from the first mango to the second mango if you compare those two mangoes the one you ate and the the new one from the seed there's probably not even the the same DNA in there there's always mutations you know from from time to time certainly there's no of even molecules which are in the new mango that were there in the old mango so it's a totally different mango but nevertheless you can see a connection a cause and effect process so in other words at any moment in time you can find the link between where say that sapling came from and you know where that sapling is going to and you have this whole chain this connected chain of links from the first mango and the seed inside of it to the new mango and the new tree and this actually this chain of events this cause and effect process is how even the Buddha described this life and also that that incredible time where we go over the horizon from this life into what's beyond into a new life but first of all just working on that simile of the mango you can see if the mango which you ate before was very sweet and juicy it's very likely the new mango will be juicy if the mango you ate was Sour it's very likely the new mango will be sour there has been some tender Tendencies which have gone across from one manga to its descendants and it's that tendency what we call the inclinations this is actually what we always say goes across from life to life the thing in itself there's no connection there's no there's no sameness there but there is this connection this cause and effect process which carries with it the Tendencies the character traits our inclinations which we bu up in this life

## Teaching point

Rebirth is a causal continuity of tendencies, not a thing that transmigrates.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A mango seed becomes a tree that bears a new mango, connected by cause and effect, yet not the same fruit. Sweet tends to follow sweet. What carries on, Ajahn Brahm says, is our tendencies. Character changes slowly. Be patient with yourself, and keep watering the kind, peaceful habits; they're the fruit that lasts.

## Source

- [The Process of Rebirth | Ajahn Brahm | 03-04-2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFSAFHpx_U) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:50 to 5:06: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFSAFHpx_U&t=110s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Reincarnation | Ajahn Brahm | 9 Jan 2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQ12Z2MV0Q) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 29:49 to 33:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQ12Z2MV0Q&t=1789s