Sweet Honey Above the Abyss

Imagine a desolate field, the scorching sun burning the skin. A man is crossing it when suddenly, from the bushes ahead, a fierce tiger leaps out, roaring with a sound that shakes the earth and sky. His heart clenches, his blood seems to freeze. He turns and flees, but behind him another tiger appears, its eyes blazing red, its white fangs bared and waiting.

With nowhere left to run, he dashes toward a sheer cliff. Below lies a bottomless abyss, pitch dark. By luck, he reaches out and grasps a slender vine root, dangling in midair. Above him, the first tiger still growls, its hot breath falling on the back of his neck. Below, the second tiger tilts its head upward, ready to tear him apart the moment he falls.

He trembles, his clothes soaked with sweat, his muscles taut with fear. Only that single vine keeps him alive. But then he discovers two mice — one white, one black — crawling out from the trunk, beginning to gnaw away at the vine root, little by little. The grinding of their teeth rings clearly in his ears, announcing that death is drawing near.

In that moment of utter despair, his eyes suddenly fall upon a ripe strawberry, plump and crimson and fragrant, just within reach. With one hand still clinging to the slowly rotting vine, he stretches out the other and picks the strawberry. He brings it to his mouth and takes a bite. The sweet, cool juice fills his mouth and spreads through his whole body.

He closes his eyes and savors that sweetness. He forgets all fear, forgets the two tigers lying in wait, forgets the two mice gnawing away at the cord of his life. In that brief moment, there is only happiness and contentment.

The Meaning of the Story

This is a parable from the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters, symbolizing the human condition. The two tigers represent ignorance, craving and anger, which constantly surround us. The abyss is the suffering (dukkha) of samsara (cycle of rebirth). The vine root is our life force, our fragile lifespan. The white and black mice are day and night — time eroding our lives hour by hour, minute by minute. The sweet strawberry symbolizes the sensual pleasures of this world. We often lose ourselves in enjoying these fleeting pleasures, forgetting that our life is running out and that death — impermanence (anicca) — waits right before our eyes. And so we waste our precious time, unwilling to practice for liberation.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang.