The Figure in the Tree and the Lesson of Continuity

**Summary:** The story of a child recalling past lives, from lingering in a tree to entering the womb, illustrating the Middle Way view that avoids the extremes of annihilationism and eternalism in Buddhism.

The afternoon air in a small village in Turkey, or a similar setting mentioned in the dharma talk, was strangely silent. The pale golden sunlight slanted through the branches, creating dancing specks of light on the dry ground. In that space, a strange yet deeply human story was gradually unfolding, not through magic, but through the vague memories of a child.

It concerned a young boy who had just turned three. He had a distinguishing characteristic from other children his age: his eyes always seemed to gaze into the far distance, as if searching for something lost. One day, as his mother walked past a path shaded by ancient trees on her way to the market, the boy suddenly ran after her, clinging tightly to the hem of her clothes, stammering words that were hard to understand:

"Mother, please don't go anymore! I see... I see myself up there. On the highest treetop. I'm so cold, so hungry, but I don't want to come down."

The mother froze, her heart constricting. She looked around, seeing only bare branches and the whistling wind. But the look in her son's eyes was terrifyingly genuine. This was not the imagination of a playful child, but a deep-seated memory, transcending the limits of the present time.

According to the dharma talk, after death, the consciousness—more accurately, the mind-stream—of this person did not immediately take rebirth. Because the karmic conditions were not yet mature enough to find suitable parents, that consciousness lingered in the intermediate state. It did not fall into a lower realm because it had committed no extremely heavy evil deeds, nor did it ascend to a heavenly realm due to a lack of great merit from blessings. It existed in a suspended state, waiting for the chance to be reborn.

The boy continued his story, his voice trembling but steady:

"I stood there for a very long time. I saw people passing by. Then I saw Mother. She looked just like the woman I had loved in my past life. When I saw her, my heart suddenly felt strangely warm. I thought: 'If I could become this person's child, I would surely be very happy.' So I flew down, entered Mother's womb, and became who I am now."

These words astonished the entire family. The story did not end there. The boy also clearly remembered details about the old house, about his relatives from the previous life, and even remembered how he had died and the feeling of loneliness while wandering in the tree. This was vivid testimony to the concept of the "intermediate being" or the transitional stage between lives that the Buddha taught.

However, the interesting point lies here: If we look with mundane eyes, we easily fall into two erroneous extremes. One is "annihilationism," which holds that death is the end and nothing persists, thus the boy's account is merely fabrication or hallucination. The other is "eternalism," believing that the soul of "Nguyen Van A" remains forever "Nguyen Van A," existing eternally in its old form. Both are wrong.

In reality, the self of the boy in the previous life and in this life is neither completely the same nor completely different. It is a continuous stream of karma. Upon rebirth, the traces of the former name, appearance, and social status are erased (hence, not eternalism), yet the karmic seeds of good and bad deeds closely follow, guiding the boy to find the family with which he has karmic ties (hence, not annihilationism).

Upon hearing the story, many began to reflect. They realized that life is neither a broken straight line nor an unchanging loop. It is more subtle than that. The "I" standing here today, looking back at the "I" in the tree from years past, feels both familiar and strange. It is this ambiguity, this suspended state, that is the truth of the Middle Way.

**Meaning of the Story**

The story illustrates the Middle Way teaching in Buddhism, rejecting the two extreme views of Annihilationism (death is the end) and Eternalism (the soul exists forever). In essence, life is a continuous process driven by karma. At death, the old self (name, form) ceases, but the karmic results remain and guide the consciousness to be reborn into an environment compatible with its causes and conditions. Understanding this helps us avoid despair when losing loved ones, while also not falling into superstitious beliefs about the immortality of a soul. Instead, we focus on cultivating good karma to move towards liberation.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang