Once a young man came to a revered teacher, who was seated
under a tree near a beautiful lake, and asked for the solution
for his unhappiness. After some minutes of conversation
the old master kindly instructed the visitor to put a handful
of salt in a glass of water and then to drink a few mouthfuls.
"How does it taste?" the teacher asked. "Awful," said
the apprentice after he had spat out the revolting liquid
a few paces away.
The teacher chuckled and then asked the young man to take
another handful of salt and put it in the lake.
The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when
the youngster swirled his handful of salt into the lake,
the old man told him, "Now drink from the lake."
As the water dripped down the young man"s chin,
the master asked him again, "How does it taste?" "Good!" he replied.
"Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master. "No,"
said the young man. The Master sat beside the troubled youth,
took his hands, and said,
"The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less.
The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly
the same. But the level of 'pain we taste' depends
on the container we put it into. So when you are
in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge
your sense of things. Stop being a glass.
Become a lake.You can become a lake where you broaden
your outlook; when you stop looking only at yourself
and your own miseries. Look at life as a whole
and the many things without which you would not be
what you are today – your friends, family, hobbies,
nature around you.
When you are confronted with a problem, you see only
the problem and ruminate over it endlessly which only
makes the situation more tragic. Think of previous
instances when things were better. Look at all
the blessings that God has filled your life with
about which you never give a thought.
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