Once there was a young girl who was very unhappy with her life. She felt depressed and anxious all the time. She heard about a Zen master in the next town and decided to visit him to see if he could help her. When she met him, she said, “I have so many problems in life. I am always sad. Please give me a solution. How can I be happy? The master listened carefully, then got up and left. After a few minutes he returned with a glass of water and a bowl of salt. He asked the girl to take a handful of salt, put it in the water and drink it. The girl was confused but did as she was instructed. The master then asked, “how does it taste?”
“Terrible!” said the girl. All I could taste was the salt.
Now the master asked her to take a handful of salt and come with him. They ended up at a nearby lake. Now the master told her to put the salt in the lake. So, the girl put the salt in the lake and swirled it around. The master said, “now drink the water from the lake.” The girl drank the water from the lake. The master said, how does it taste? It tastes good said the girl. Where you able to taste the salt in this water the master asked? No, said the girl.
The master took the girl’s hands and said, “the pain of life is pure salt. No more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, but the amount we taste, depends on the container we put it in.
So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. See the big picture. Stop being a glass, Become a lake.