Mustard Seed

This is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said. "What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?" Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life."

The woman set off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me." They told her, "you've certainly come to the wrong place" and began to describe all the tragic things that had recently befallen them. The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?" She stayed to comfort them , then went on in her search for a house that had never known sorrow.

But where ever she turned, in hovels and in palaces, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune fortune. Ultimately, she became so involved in ministering to other people's grief that she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it in fact had driven the sorrow out of her life.