The Four Princes and the Tree: A Lesson in Perspectives

Once, the Bodhisatta was a wise king with four sons. One day, the princes asked the charioteer to show them the famous flame of the forest tree. The charioteer took each son to the tree at a different stage of its life. The eldest son saw it when the buds were just sprouting, the second when the leaves were fully grown, the third when the flowers were blooming, and the youngest when the tree was bearing fruit.

Later, the four brothers sat together and were asked about the flame of the forest tree. Each one gave a different description. The first said, “It’s like a burnt stump.” The second said, “It’s like a banyan tree.” The third, seeing the red flowers, said, “It’s like a piece of meat.” The fourth, who saw the tree with its fruit, said, “It’s like an acacia tree.” Annoyed by the contradictions in each other’s answers, they went to the Bodhisatta to discuss the matter.

The Bodhisatta explained, “You should have asked the charioteer to describe the tree at all its stages, not just the one you saw. Each of you saw only one part of the tree, and so you made different judgments.”

In the Lifetime of the Buddha
In a later life, four of the Buddha’s disciples went on solitary retreats, each with a different meditation topic. One focused on the “six spheres of touch,” another on the “five elements of being,” the third on the “four principle elements,” and the fourth on the “eighteen constituents of being.” All four reached enlightenment and became arahants.

When they returned to the Buddha and shared their experiences, one of them asked, “How is it that these four different paths led to the same nirvana?” The Buddha replied, “It is like the four sons who each saw the flame of the forest tree at a different stage. Though their views were different, they were all describing the same tree. Similarly, different paths lead to the same truth.” He then told them this story to illustrate his point.

Moral
Different perspectives can all lead to the same truth. What one sees depends on their vantage point, but the essence remains unchanged. Wisdom lies in understanding that all paths can lead to enlightenment, and no single view holds the entire picture.