The Mustard Seed

Kisa Gotami learned the hard way that we don’t always get the answers we’re hoping for. Sometimes we need to face the hard truth of things, even if it’s a truth we don’t want to hear.

In a famous Buddhist parable, Kisa was a woman overcome with grief after her young son died. Refusing to accept that he was gone, she went to the Buddha and begged him for medicine to revive her boy.

“I can cure him,” the Buddha told her, “if you will fetch me a mustard seed from a home in the village.”

Kisa was thrilled to hear that the solution was so simple. Mustard seed was a cheap and readily available spice, so every home in the village was sure to have some to spare.

But then the Buddha added a requirement: “The seed must come from a home that has never known death.”

Confident that her task would be easy, Kisa went from one home to another. Each family had mustard seed to give her – but she could not find a single family that was untouched by death. Every household had experienced the loss of a child, a spouse, a grandparent or other loved one.

Kisa eventually gave up her search and found peace by accepting the truth of impermanence: All things of this world are destined to pass away. It’s an inevitable part of life, and no one can escape this truth.

The Buddha didn’t give Kisa the cure she was looking for, but he gave her the answer she needed to hear – the answer that helped her to learn, grow and heal her pain.

It seems to me that we often ask others for advice when we're not really interested in hearing it; we simply want them to confirm the ideas that are already in our heads. Like Kisa, we’re fortunate if we have family, friends, mentors and others who tell us the truths we need to hear.

---

Photographer’s Footnote: For the first picture, I photographed mustard seeds in the palm of my wife’s hand. For the second photo, I used a macro lens and strong side lighting to show a closeup of the tiny seeds and their shadows on a plain white background.