LETTING GO OF SUFFERING



 


There is a story about a woman whose only son died. In her grief and sadness, she went to a local Zen Monk and asked, "What can I do to ease my suffering, to bring my son back to life?"Instead of sending her away or trying to reason with her, he said to, "I have the answer, go out and bring me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. The woman did not understand but went off anyway at once in search of the magical mustard seed. The first place she came to was a magnificent mansion, she knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me."

They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place," and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had happened to them.The woman thought to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my my own?"
So she stayed to comfort them, before moving on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hotels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.The woman became so involved in helping others cope with their sorrows that she eventually let go of her own.
She would later come to understand that it was the quest to find the magical mustard seed that drove away her suffering.