The Tree of Samsara

The Tree of Samsara

Early on, my teacher, Francis Lucille, shared a story regarding an experience, starting with a vision, which revealed the ultimate truth to him in great finality:

"I was sitting alone in silence, meditating in my living room with two friends of mine. It was too early to fix dinner, our next activity. Having nothing to do, expecting nothing, I was available. My mind was free of dynamism, my body relaxed and sensitive, although I could feel some discomfort in my back and neck.

After some time, one of my friends unexpectedly began to chant a traditional incantation in sanskrit, the Gayatri.  The sacred syllables entered mysteriously in resonance with my silent presence which seemed to become intensely alive. I felt a deep longing in me, but, at the same time, a resistance was preventing me from living the current situation to the fullest, from responding with all of my being to this invitation from the now and from merging with it. As the attraction towards the beauty heralded by the chant increased, so did the resistance, revealing itself as a growing fear that transformed into a tense terror.

At this point, I felt that my death was imminent, and that this horrendous event would surely be triggered by any further letting go on my behalf, by any further welcoming of that beauty. I had reached a crucial point in my life. As a result of my spiritual search, the world and it’s objects had lost their attraction; I didn’t really expect anything substantial from them; I was exclusively in love with the absolute, and this love gave me the boldness to jump into the great void of death, to die for the sake of that beauty, now so close, that beauty which was calling me beyond the Sanskrit words.

As a result of this abandon, the intense terror which had been holding me instantaneously released it’s grip and changed into a flow of bodily sensations and thoughts which rapidly converged towards a single thought, the ‘I’ thought, just as the roots and branches of a tree converge towards its single trunk.In an almost simultaneous apperception, the personal entity I was identifying with revealed itself in its totality. I saw it’s superstructure, the thoughts originating from the ‘I’ concept and it’s infrastructure. the traces of my fears and desires at the physical level. Now, the entire tree was contemplated by an impersonal eye  and both the superstructure of thoughts and the infrastructure of bodily sensations rapidly vanished, leaving the ‘I‘ thought alone in a field of consciousness. For a few moments, the pure ‘I‘ thought seemed to vacillate, just as the flame of an oil lamp running out of fuel, then vanished.

At this precise moment, I awakened to my eternity." 

Francis Lucille, Eternity Now

What a story and what an image: the “I’ concept as a tree. What of this tree image as seen throughout time as metaphor?  Is the symbol universal in nature, a mystical archetype, as discussed by Carl Jung?

The universal archetype is not alien to advaita, It is simply overlooked by contemporary seekers.  The influential French author on Hindu Advaita Vedanta, archetypal symbols and metaphysics, Rene Guenon wrote extensively on symbols of the “collective conscious” and specifically the tree.

There is much to learn here.

"All that exists, in whatever mode this may be, necessarily participates in universal principles, and nothing exists except by participation in these prinicples, which are the eternal and immutable essences contained in the permanent actuality of the Divine Intellect. Consequently, it can be said that all things, however contingent they may be of themselves, express or represent these principles in their own way and according to their order of existence, for otherwise they would be purely and simply nothingness. Thus, from one order to another, all things are linked together and correspond, to come together in total and universal harmony, for harmony is nothing other than the reflection of principal unity in the manifested world; and it is this correspondence which is the veritable basis of symbolism." - Rene Guenon

Jean Klein, Francis Lucille’s teacher, was greatly impacted by many sages, but held Rene Guenon, the French author on metaphysics, in special regard.

My question eventually led me to Chapter 15 of the  Bhagavad Gita, one of a triumvirate of holy texts referred to as the Vedanta, the knowledge that ends the pursuit of knowledge. Considered by many to be the most important chapter of the entire text, Chapter 15 unfolds the archetypal metaphor of the Tree of Samsara, a universal image of self realization.

It was Carl Jung who proposed that archetypal contents spring forth without our conscious cooperation, without our willingness, emerging from a realm that transcends the individual, acting with great intentionality, dynamism and autonomy, lending the deeply moving character of the numinous, comparable to the experience of... godly might.

“The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states..."behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant." This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in Chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita.”  -  Carl Jung

This jewel, Chapter 15 of the Gita, unfolds an image familiar to many: the Tree of Samsara, it's root system, and how it must be cut with the weapon of detachment.

The form of the tree of samsara is not known, although many refer to it as a sacred ficus tree, asvattha. This is a nice metaphor as asvattha literally means, “That which will not be there tomorrow.” It belongs to the banyon tree family.

Like the asvattha tree, samsara never remains the same; asvattha is both assvattha, it will not be here tomorrow, and it is simultaneously avyaya; it keeps changing but does not die away. Simply put, the names and forms continually change, but, when it finally dissolves, it incubates in its unmanifest form, returning again in each cycle. Sound familiar? The point here is that it has no beginning, only manifestation and dissolution. This is no different than our dissolution into sleep and waking up each day.

Now, the good news: this samsara can be removed simply by recognition of its root cause, ignorance.

In the Bhagavad Gita, this is no normal tree. The roots are above, due to their being subtler than even time. The branches are represented as being below, adhah, because they are located in time and space.

The foliage of the tree is it’s source of vitality and protective covering. If one keeps clipping the leaves, it eventually dies.The leaves of the tree of Samsara are the Vedas, or chandamsi. It’s leaves are designed to protect the jivas and perpetuate samsara.
 
Lest we confuse you, we refer to the ancient texts of the Rig Veda. They are a collection of inspired songs or hymns and are our main source of information on the Rig Vedic culture. To place these texts in context with other spiritual texts, the Rig Veda is the oldest book in any Indo-European language and contains the earliest mantras, dating back to 1500 B.C. Some scholars date the work all the way back to 12000 BC-4000 BC.  There are no older spiritual texts.

The Vedas we are referring to here are three of the four original texts: RK, Yajus and Sama, which protect and sustain jivas and perpetuate samsara. They are like the leaves of a tree, because they provide knowledge of all means and ends. The hymns are the work of authors, also known as “seers” called “rishis”.  Each of the rig Vedas detail the social, religious, political and economic background of civilization at that time. They were designed as guides for “doers”, to assist them in obtaining worldly things they desired.

Even those without any knowledge of the Veda continue to perform actions, thus, maintaining samsara.

Opposed to this, there are the texts of Vedanta, the end of knowledge: The Brahma Sutras, The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. For the Vedas to continue, the karmas must continue; Vedanta destroys karma.

So, why would the Vedas be considered the leaves of the tree of samsara? Because, even though they may contain knowledge of the most favorable karmas, they perpetuate karma, none the less. Thus, the jiva, the supposed human being (and, isn’t our belief that we are human beings on a journey through time and space, the actual crux of the problem?) either uses or doesn’t use the prescribed remedies of the Vedas to achieve his ends, either positive (punya) or negative (papa). The results cause the world to manifest and thus, form the basis for creation. Just as leaves keep the tree alive, karma, actions, keep the tree of samara alive.

The good news is that, as a tree can be felled, so can samsara, the process of coming into existence as a differentiated, mortal creature. How is this done? Samsara is born of ignorance, also known as avidya or ajnana. It’s dissolution is the realization that we are both the root and tree; we let go of our belief that we are the body, the mind operating in a world; we release the “I sense”, atma-buddhi, in what is not “I”.

The tree of samsara is repeated throughout the Upanishads,the Mahabarata and the Gita. In the Upanishads, the Kathopanishad, samsara is described as the tree with it’s roots in Brahman (Presence) and branches below, in the quagmire of the time space continuum.  

“This is that (Brahman), eternal Asvattha Tree with its root above and its branches below. This root, indeed, is called the Bright; That is Brahman, that That alone is the Immortal. In That all worlds are contained, and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That.”
- Katha Upanishad 2.3.1

In the purana Mahabarata, the epic story of the Kurukshetra War, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, the tree allegory is used again.

The inverted tree also appears in the Jewish Kabbalalist text, the Sefer-ha-Zohar: “Now, the tree of life extends from above downward, and it is the Sun which illuminates all.”

Islamic tradition refers to “The Tree of Happiness”, with it’s roots planted in the furthest heaven and whose branches extend all  over the Earth. Dante painted a picture of the celestial heavens combined in a garland of a tree whose roots are directed upwards. Plato declared man a plant turned upside down with it’s roots extending into heaven and branches burrowing into the earth. Finnish folklore  celebrated the same archetype in their ritual sacrificing an ox to the God of vegatation, at which time a tree was placed upside down near the alter with it’s roots facing upward and branches down.

This is to say that the symbol appears to be archetypal, born of the causal mind or “collective conscious.”

In truth, the “cosmic tree” unfolded in Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Gita represents nama-rupa, name and form; there is no tree at all. This is true of all objects.There is only the one consciousness, caitanya. So, it is important to note that the entire tree is mythia, sometimes defined as “illusion”, “apparent reality’ or “dependent reality” or “seemingly real”.

In Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita, mythia is described thus: the world rests in Brahman (Consciousness) but, Brahman does not rest in the world. The second part of this statement underscores the absolute position, denying the presence of the world in Brahman; in this way, it reveals that the world is just an appearance of Consciousness. Without consciousness, there is no world possible to appear. Thus, consciousness is all.

The one who has uncovered  the mystery of the tree of samsara along with it’s root, Brahman, consciousness, knows that the entirety of samsara is mythia and it’s root is satya, or absolute truth. He knows the ultimate truth, the karana, the instrumental cause.

The exploration of the archetypal symbol of the Tree of Samara leads one to the well spring of the Vedanta, Chapter 15 of the Bhagavd Gita. A further discussion on this chapter will be shared at StillnessSpeaks in the future.

We hope you enjoyed this short synopsis on The Tree of Samsara. The author would like to acknowledge the work and assistance of Francis Lucille, James Swartz and the comprehensive efforts of Swami Dayananda Saraswati  (www.arshavidya.org) through his Bhagavad Gita Home Study Courses, which were liberally used in this effort.