The five trees in paradise

Gospel of Thomas
(19) Jesus said, "Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will minister to you. For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death."

Thomasevangeliet
(19) Jesus sade: Salig är den som var till innan han blev till. Om ni blir mina lärjungar och lyssnar till mina ord, skall dessa stenar betjäna er. Ty det finns fem träd för er i paradiset som inte förändras, varken sommar eller vinter, och som aldrig fäller sina löv. Den som lär känna dem skall aldrig smaka döden.


Buddhism:
The five aggregates are: material form, feelings, perception, volition (sometimes translated as mental formations), and sensory consciousness.


The word, tree, is a creative (manifesting) symbol in Jewish and Christian sacred texts, descriptive of both ingesting (taking in) fruits and/or producing fruits (Genesis and Four Gospels).


In the Acts of Thomas, Chapter 27, during an anointing ceremony, the apostle implores, "Come, elder of the five members of mind, communicate with these young men;" the five words for 'mind' according to Theodore bar Khoni (www.gnosis.org/library/actthom.htm) are the equivalents of hauna (sanity), mad'a (reason), re'yana (mindfulness), mahshebhatha (imagination), tar'itha (intention) - considered the Five Manifestations of the Father of Greatness which may provide the clue to the meaning of the five trees. These five would therefore be the causal factors in the experience of the Real.


According to the Naassenes, paradise was the human head. It has been suggested that the "five trees" may parallel the five human senses which produce one's internal world view and belief system - knowledge of which is a requirement for purification and thus enlightenment or return to paradise/unity. However, the body's five senses - more synonymous with lower level egoism and learned misperception, would more likely be referenced as an impediment to reunion with the divine.


The "five trees" also could be interpreted as referring to the Five Worlds of the mystical Jewish Kabbalah: Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah, Atzilut & Adam Kadmon - descriptive of dimensional levels related to the soul's progress toward unity with or return to the Creator. Generally understood as developmental levels of intentionality related to man's natural "desire to receive." The methodology for accomplishing this is considered the secret Science of Kabbalah - how to receive by correcting intention until a state of unity with pure altruism is achieved. One then becomes pure Creator (experience of the divine). Related to this, the concept of "reality as a mirror of desire" (pure desire = perfect results/impure desire = negative results), would correlate to the tree symbol as "productive" of paradise.


These developmental levels are in parallel with five Partsufim. And these are same as soul levels: Nefesh, Ruah, Neshama, Haya and Yehida. Possibly these important Judaico-Biblical concepts are most similar to "five trees".