One Life Changing Lesson from Gautam Buddha

A man approached the Buddha and asked, “Venerable Sir, how come my mind constantly wanders and yours does not? How come I indulge in gossip and back-biting and you don’t? How come I don’t have patience or compassion for others, while you have? I am filled with such questions. Please guide me.”

The Buddha replied, “Your questions are good, however, it appears to me that in twenty-four hours you will die.”

The man was shocked to hear this. He immediately got up, ready to leave.

The Buddha asked, “What happened? You came with such enthusiasm and now you seem utterly dismayed.”

The man said, “Sir, my mother told me that your words are true and are to be held in high regard. Please let me go so that I may meet my family members, friends and others for the last time before I die.”

The Buddha said, “But there are still twenty-four hours. Sit, we will talk more.”

The man said, “Sir, please excuse me. I must meet my loved ones before I die.”

So he left and went home. He met his mother and started crying. The word spread. His friends came; other relatives came; neighbors came. Everyone was crying with him. Time flew.

He was busy either crying or counting the hours. When only three hours were left, he got into bed and lay down. Although death had not yet arrived, he was already kind of dead.

When only an hour was left, the Buddha walked in and said to him, “Why are you lying down with closed eyes? Death is still an hour away. That’s a lot of time. Get up, let us talk.”

He replied, “Sir, what is there now to talk about? Please let me die peacefully.”

The Buddha said, “There is still time. Our talk will get over before then.”

“Okay, Sir. Say what you have to say.”

The Buddha asked, “In the past twenty-four hours, did your mind wander and think about inconsequential things?”

“How could I think of meaningless things? I was constantly focused on death.”

“In the past twenty-four hours, did you think or speak ill of anyone?”

“How could I do that? I was all the time preoccupied with death.”

“In the past twenty-four hours, where you mean or hurtful towards anyone?”

“Sir, how can you even ask that? I was only thinking of death, nothing else mattered.”

Finally, the Buddha said, “Do not worry. This was a way of teaching you. The truth is we are dying each moment, not just in twenty-four hours. No one knows when their time will be up, yet we are inevitably racing towards death. Understanding this truth can be very liberating. All the questions you asked me have been spontaneously answered because of the heightened awareness of death you experienced in these twenty-four hours. The difference between you and me is that you were aware of death for a few hours, I am aware of it as a living reality each moment.”

*This beautiful story curated from the web.