Parable of the Apples
by Roshi Hogen Berman

In my neighborhood there are now 37 homes and 36 families. One of the homes is empty and up for sale. Of the 36 families, 15 are white Caucasians, six are Afro-American, three are mixed Caucasian and Korean, two are mixed white and Afro-American, seven are mixed Japanese and Caucasian, one mixed Korean and Japanese, one mixed Caucasian and Chinese, and one Chinese family. Most, but not all, of the families have children.

Recently, I guess because everyone knows I am a Buddhist teacher and I'm the oldest person in the subdivision, it was brought to my attention, by one of the racially mixed families, that their children were being discriminated against by some of the other neighborhood children. This particular family was a mixture of Afro-American and Korean. The father of two boys asked me to speak to the other kids and try to cut the problem off before it became more serious.

I had all of the neighborhood boys and girls come and meet in my backyard (the parents were invited too, but not many showed up). All of the children came, I think because we were serving ice cream and soda, but only a few parents showed up. After everyone was settled down, I explained why we were there - because some of the children looked different from others. I told them that those who felt that way were not wrong, because if we just looked around, indeed we did all look different from each other. Even those of us that had the same colored coats and jackets were different, and some of us had different colored skin from others, even though they may have had the same racial mixture.

Then we took a short walk around my yard and the garden area. I pointed out the various fruit trees in our yard; Plum, Pear, Cherry, Pear-Apple and particularly the three Apple trees. I asked them if they could tell me how each of the Apple trees were different - other than their size. The sharp-eyed kids quickly observed that the fruit, the apples, on one tree were a deep red, on another they were yellow, and on the crab-apple tree they were green. Other than the color of the fruit we decided that all the trees pretty much looked the same, but the big difference was in the color of the apples. We discussed this difference in skin color and we all agreed that the color of the skin on the apples didn't necessarily make one apple better than the other, it just made them a little different.

After picking two or three apples from each tree, I asked them to examine the apples and see if they could find anything about them that was the same. Each child had a piece of the three different apples we had cut into pieces. They were bright children and they quickly observed that the insides were all the same. They claimed that the difference was with the skin on the outside and not what was on the inside.

I simply said, "Yes, indeed."

Nothing more was said, but I could clearly see the awakening of insight in their eyes and the eyes of the parents who were present. Some of the older kids were explaining it to the younger ones. It was not a great event, but maybe a seed was planted that some day that will bear a color blind fruit for a happier future. Maybe. After all, what would the point of this life be if it was without hope?

Please send comments, corrections, add links, information, etc. to ... khumatsarla@hotmail.com



Thank you for participating on the Buddhist Forum. Many will learn from the experiences and teachings you so graciously share.

Thank you for visiting.