Salt and Water

An old Indian master was tired of his

apprentice always complaining about

everything. One day he sent his apprentice

to buy salt. When the apprentice returned,

unhappy with everything in his life, the old

master told him to throw a handful of salt

into a glass of water and drink it. The

apprentice did as the old man told him,

but as soon as he drank it, he began to spit it

out. “How does it taste?” he asked the old

man, angrily replying, “Bitter.” The master

chuckled and took his apprentice by the arm

and led him outside. He quietly took him to

the shore of the lake a little further away and

told his apprentice to throw a handful of salt

into the lake this time and drink water from

the lake. The apprentice did as he was told,

wiping the water flowing from the corners of

his mouth with his sleeve, and asked the

same question: “How does it taste ?”

“Refreshing,” replied the young apprentice.

“Did you taste the salt?” asked the old man,

“No” replied the apprentice. Then the old

man sat down next to his apprentice, who

was kneeling by the water, and said: “The

sufferings of life are like salt, neither

more nor less.” The amount of suffering

is always the same. But the bitterness of

this suffering depends on what it is put into.

When you have suffering, all you have to

do is to expand your feeling about the thing

that is causing suffering. So stop being

a cup and try to be a lake.”