The Mustard Seed

The best story that I have ever heard is a Buddhist story called, "The Mustard Seed." In the beginning, a woman's infant son dies. The woman is overcome with grief, and is unable to come to terms with the death of her son. The woman goes to the Buddha, and asks him how she is to gone on living when her son has died. The buddha replied that if the woman was to find peace with the death of her son, she would have to search the land, and take a mustard seed from a person who had never experienced the loss of someone they loved. The woman thanked the Buddha, and began her search.

She went into her town and went down a row of houses, and knocked on the door of the first house she came to. When the man inside opened the door, she asked, "Excuse, I am hoping to borrow a mustard seed, but I can only take from someone who has never experienced loss." The man, looked at her sadly, "I am very sorry," he said, "I would love to loan you a mustard seed, but my wife passed last winter, so I guess that I do not fit your criteria." The women asked for the man's pardon, and went on to the next house. She knocked on the door, and a woman answered. She asked the woman, "Hello, I have a very strange request, I need to borrow a mustard seed, but I am only allowed to if the giver has never experienced loss." The woman in the door looked forlorn. "I'm sorry," she replied, "But my father passed last year, I see that I am not able to loan it to you." The woman once again asked for her pardon, and then continued on her way.

The woman went all through the town, asking people if they had experienced loss, and if she could borrow a mustard seed. Everywhere she went, she was given the same answer. Sometimes it was a brother, a sister, a cousin, a daughter, a spouse, a son. Every time a different circumstance, but every person had lost someone. As she sat and rested, the answer came to the woman. Everyone experienced loss, and everyone was sad about it, but as time went on, everyone came to accept it was it was.

I like this story because it has a moral about acceptance. It shows that you can get through some of the toughest times just by accepting that what is, is. The Buddha's simple and compassionate answer showed the woman that loss is just another part of life, and death wouldn't be without life. The story contains a Taoist concept of seeing things simply in their true honesty- the death of the woman's son was nothing but, and there was no reason for her to continually mourn it.