Samyukta Āgama (283), Part Two

(2) Original text: 如人种树。初小软弱。爱护令安。壅以粪土。随时溉灌。冷暖调适。以是因缘。然后彼树。得增长大。如是比丘。结所系法。味着将养。则生恩爱。爱缘取。取缘有。有缘生。生缘老病死忧悲恼苦。如是如是纯大苦聚集。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Just like people planting a tree—a young sapling is still weak and tender after being planted, and it will die if one is not careful. It needs constant human care and protection: piling soil around it, watering it, fertilizing it, and adjusting the temperature as needed so that it can grow healthily. Only when all the conditions for its normal growth are complete can the sapling gradually grow up. Bhikṣus, the principle is the same as the growth of a young tree: with the dharma bound by the fetters, if you indulge in it, cherish it, protect it, and nurture it when it first arises, affectionate craving and greedy love will arise in your mind. With craving there arises grasping; with grasping there arises existence; with existence there arises birth; with birth there arise old age, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. In this way, in this way, the entire great mass of suffering accumulates.

The Buddha used the young tree as a metaphor for sentient beings' afflictive fetters. When afflictive fetters have just arisen, sentient beings not only fail to nip them in the bud and eliminate them, but instead cultivate them, allowing the afflictions to become ever more entrenched, and thus they sink ever deeper into the cycle of birth and death. Practice should consist of constantly turning to observe one's own mind: upon discovering that one has afflictions, one should subdue and eliminate them, rather than nurture, cultivate, cherish, and protect them. Those who have not awakened, those with insufficient power of awareness, and those who have grown accustomed to their afflictions find it difficult to discover their own afflictive fetters, and often end up acting in accordance with their afflictions. If one always follows one's afflictions, the afflictions will grow heavier and heavier, and one will sink ever deeper into birth and death. When afflictions first arise, if there is neither awakening nor restraint, the afflictions will grow increasingly heavy. Once deeply rooted afflictive habits have been formed, they will ultimately be very hard to eliminate.