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In The Dhammapada, it reads:
Delightful are forests, where more worldly men find no joy.
Being free of the pull of desire,
Saints, who seek no worldly pleasures,
Find delight in such places.

As practitioners of Buddha Dhamma, we pay respect to the Bodhi tree.

The Bodhi tree, at our Centre, is about to produce its spring leaves. This tree was cultivated from seeds taken from the original Bodhi tree under which Buddha awoke over 2,500 years ago.

The Bodhi tree, which shaded Buddha over the three days and three nights, prompts us to consider following the bhavana or mental cultivation which the Buddha taught.

Devas or heavenly beings are associated with the Bodhi tree at our Centre. They are also associated with just about every other Bodhi tree at every other Buddhist Centre throughout the World. It is common practice to plant a Bodhi tree at a Buddhist temple and old temple sites can often be discovered by looking for the surviving ancient Bodhi trees.

Deva and Devati, beings in a lower heaven birth, sometimes called tree spirits, are often associated with other types of trees.

In ancient times, these devas were worshipped by other religions. Sir James George Frazer in his book, Spirits of the Corn and of The Wild, refers to a custom held in Beauce, in the district of Orleans, on the 24 or 25 April when the villagers make a straw man called "the great mondard". The straw man is carried in solemn procession up and down the village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple tree. There he remains till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and thrown into the water or he is burned and his ashes cast into water. But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds to the title "the great mondard". This person must be regarded as a representative of the tree-spirit. Primitive people are usually reluctant to taste the annual first-fruits of any crop, until some ceremony is performed that makes it safe and pious for them to do so. The reasons for this reluctance appears to be a belief that the first-fruits either belong to or actually contain a divinity.

In ancient times, the corn-spirit was observed in all the provinces and districts of China to welcome the approach of spring. Here the corn-spirit took the form of a paper effigy of an ox, cow or buffalo.

The figure was made of differently coloured pieces of paper pasted onto a framework either by a blind man or according to the directions of the necromancer performing the ceremony.

If red prevailed, there would be many fires; if white, there would be floods and rains. The effigy was filled with five kinds of grains which poured forth when it was broken.

The ploughing festival was observed in Buddha's day when his father, the king, operated the plough to break the fields up for the ploughing season.

When we share our merits of the good things we have done, we share them with the tree devas at our Hall of Assembly.

Some tree devas are not friendly towards human beings. For them the tree is their home so they resist any attempt to destroy the tree.

Trees may be considered guardians of soil and water where they predominate.

Trees provide shelters, homes and food for many animals.

The economic importance of trees is high. From earliest times wood has been employed for such purposes as homes, rafts, canoes, fuel and weapons.

Primitive people are dependent on trees for clothing and medicines, dyes and dye stuffs and edible fruits. Historically, the coconut, the oil palm and the olive trees were important sources of oils and fats used for food and other purposes.

Non-edible trees produce such things as rosin, turpentine, creosote, cork and kapok fibre.

Carbonised and fossilised wood supply coal. The coal seams are associated with another type of deva called a naga, which is like a dragon. When the coal seams are cut at certain places the naga tends to attack the human beings who are destroying his/her home.

Devas and nagas, in certain forms, have long life and are good historians of the particular area where they live.

These devas and nagas are sometimes worshipped to appease them so they do not harm human beings who dwell in their particular area.

The Buddha taught his Monks to send loving-kindness, a refreshing form of sweet mental energy, to the tree devas who were disturbing the Monks when they were doing their meditation under the trees in a forest. Today, we refer to this practice as the Metta Sutta.

Nagas are also known as preservers of Buddhist doctrine.

Nagarjuna, the famous Indian Buddhist Master, received the Satasahasrikaprajnaparamitasutra after he entered the region of the Nagas and gave a discourse on the Dhamma. He was henceforth called Nagarjuna, meaning 'he who has secured power (arjuna) from the Nagas'.

Like all beings that are born, nagas and devas pass away and take rebirth as something else.

If a tree deva happened to be born human, such a person would have a strong disposition to want to stop other human beings from destroying trees and would become a member of the green movement by karma.

If a naga associated with underground coal or mineral seams happened to be born human, such a person would have a strong disposition to want to stop other human beings from mining activities and would become a member of the anti-mining lobby.

What we do at times when we see an ancient tree cut down is to invite the deva of the tree to come and live at our Centre as we plant new trees.

At times, near very ancient rocks, colonies of nagas form and these are generally found in places which are not frequented or colonised by human beings to any extent.

Devas and nagas can see some human beings, just as we can see some animals or fishes.

When we enter a forest, we are not necessarily aware of the extent of the other sentient beings inhabiting that area.

There is an ancient dispute about who owns what land in a given place. From an animal's viewpoint, they are territorial and will fight to preserve their territory against intruders.

Humans and lower order devas and nagas are the same as animals in so far as they want to control their territory.

In past lives, most of us have been nagas or tree devas at least once within the last 500 million years.

This is part of the reason we feel comfortable with trees or quarries. The Lilydale lime quarry is one of the most beautiful sites when the sun is shining on the structured banks. Our Teacher painted the quarry a few years ago in Chinese inks on rice paper.

Land forms, similar in appearance to quarries, appear by nature through earthquake or water erosion or meteorite impact.

Waterfalls are practically universally admired as things of beauty. We have had so many lives living on or near land forms similar to quarries that we feel comfortable near them. This is karma.

They have been where we were born and where we died - our cemeteries. There is not a single square centimetre of land or sea where a being has not died in the past time.

The evolution of the first trees on this planet began perhaps 500 million years ago after the initial invasion of land by plants. It was around the Devonian Period (345 to 395 million years ago) that the first vascular plants, including some treelike forms, appeared.

It was during the next period, the Carboniferous Period (280 to 345 million years ago) when the growth of numerous kinds of trees, many of gigantic size, evolved and populated the vast forests.

These forests and most of their plant forms died out during the next period, the Permian Period (225 to 280 million years ago), when the cold and dry climate became unfavourable to tree growth. Only a few descendants, now called horsetails, club mosses and ferns, survived.

None of the early trees had flowers or seeds; they reproduced by spores. The first flowering trees, having many of the characteristics of magnolias, appeared about the time the dinosaurs were becoming extinct.

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes and Leanne Eames.

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