Be a Lake

A Zen Master had a disciple who was perpetually unhappy and dissatisfied. One day the disciple approached the Master and said, “Master, bless me too with your wisdom and help me find happiness.”

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it.

“How does it taste?” the Master asked.

“Awful,” spat the young man.

The Master 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 young man swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the Master said,

“Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the Master asked,

“How does it taste?” “Good!” remarked the young man. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master.

“No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said,

“The amount of pain in life remains the same, precisely the same. But the amount we taste the ‘pain’

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. Be a lake!”