The Parables of Matthew: Part 2
Matthew 13:31-32
Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
The Upanishads: Chandogya
A son is asking his father about the Self.
12.1 “Bring me a fruit from the Nyagrodha tree.”
“Here it is, sir.”
“Break it. What do you see?”
“These seeds, Father, all exceedingly small.”
“Break one. What do you see?”
“Nothing at all.”
12.2 “That hidden essence you do not see, dear one, from that a whole Nyagrodha tree will grow. There is nothing that does not come from him. Of everything he is the inmost Self. He is the truth; he is the Self supreme. You are that, Shevetaketu (son); you are that.”
Notes:
The Self (“self” capitalized) refers to the Father within. The divine presence in all of us, in all things everywhere. It it known by many names. Some call it “The Inward Light“, some call it the “Atman”…
Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by man.”
Commentary:
The saltness of salt is the essence of salt. The divinity and blessedness of man is the essence of man.
The Upanishads: Brihadaranyaka
13.1 “Place this salt in water and bring it here tomorrow morning.”
The boy did.
“Where is that salt?” his father asked.
“I do not see it.”
13.2 “Sip here. How does it taste?”
“Salty, Father.”
“And here? And there?”
“I taste salt everywhere.”
“It is everywhere, though we see it not. Just so, dear one, the Self is everywhere, within all things, although we see him not.”
13.3 “There is nothing that does not come from him. Of everything he is the inmost Self. He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shevetaketu; you are that.”
The son asks the father for more about this Self.
4.12 “As a lump of salt thrown in water dissolves and cannot be taken out again, though wherever we taste the water it is salty, even so, beloved, the separate self dissolves in the sea of pure consciousness, infinite and immortal. Separateness arises from identifying the Self with the body, which is made up of the elements; when this physical identification dissolves, there can be no more separate self.”
4.13 “As long as there is separateness, one sees another as separate from oneself…”
31 “Where there is separateness, one sees another, smells another, tastes another, speaks to another, hears another, thinks of another, knows another. But where there is unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahmin. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure, the supreme joy. Those who do not seek this supreme goal live on but a fraction of this joy.”
Notes:
Nyagrodha tree: Identified with the Banyan tree of tropical and semi-tropical Asia. Very large tree that can grow up to one hundred feet tall and expands by forming new trunks from branches sending growth down into the earth. Metaphor for something of great size. Symbolic for an insignificant size (seed) that can produce a great effect (tree).
This consciousness of separateness was and is called “ahamkara” in the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindu tradition. “Aham” meaning “self“ as an ego, and “kara” meaning “ness” of the state of. So it is the sense of being a separate ego.
Similar condition was called “samsara” in most of the Buddhist communities.
This unity is called Emptiness in certain sects of Buddhism. It was what the Buddha realized under the Bodhi tree. The Nyagrodha tree, the same genus and species of the tree mentioned in the above passages is from the Upanishads. In Daoist text, the “Dao De Jing“, this state of awareness, or consciousness is referred to as seeing the world of “Wu” (literally means “without”). A world without the borders and boundaries of separateness.