Weekend Story- The Glass And The Lake

An unhappy young lady once went to a wise old master seeking guidance to be happier.

Pointing to a can of salt on the table, the wise master asked the unhappy young lady to pick up a fistful of salt from the can and put it in a glass of water. He then asked her to drink the water. 

“How does it taste?” the master inquired. 

“Very salty,” replied the young woman.  

“Great, let’s do the same thing differently,” said the wise master,” take another fistful of salt from the can and let’s walk to the lake nearby.” 

As soon as they reached the lake, the master instructed the lady to drop the salt into it. The lady did what the master told her. 

“Ok, now take some water from the lake in the glass and drink it,” the master instructed. 

Again, the lady obeyed the master’s instructions. She took a glassful of water and drank it. 

How does the water taste? Is it salty?” the master checked.

“No,” said the young lady, unsure of where the conversation was headed.  

Smiling gracefully, the master said to the sad lady, 

” Think of the pain everyone experiences to be like the fistful of salt you picked up. It is salty, no more, no less, for everyone.

However, the saltiness of the “pain” anyone tastes depends on how large their sense of life is. Is it small like a glass or large like a lake? The thing you can do when you are in pain is to expand and get more out of life. Do more, experience more, serve more, risk more. Transform yourself into a lake and stop being a glass. The saltiness of the pain will go away when you do that!! “