False Notions Also Yield Real Consequences

A young widower, who was very much attached to his five year old son, was away on a business trip when bandits came and burned down the whole village and abducted his son. When the man returned, he saw the ruins and became very saddened and disturbed.

He took the scorched corpse of a child, thinking it to be his own son and cried uncontrollably. He organized a cremation ceremony, collected the ashes and put them in a beautiful little bag which he always kept with him.

Soon afterwards, his real son escaped from the bandits and found his way home. He arrived at his father's new cottage at midnight and knocked on the door. The father, still grieving asked: "Who is it?" The child answered, "It's me Papa, open the door!"

But in his agitated state of mind he was fully convinced that his son was dead. The father thought that some young boy was making fun of him. He asked him to leave and continued to cry. After some time, his dejected child left. Father and son didn’t see each other ever again.

After narrating this story, Gautam Buddha said: "Sometime you take something to be true. If you cling onto it too much, then when the real truth comes and knocks on your door, you will not open it."

Moral

We keep searching for happiness in this world. We have so firmly convinced ourselves of illusory happiness in this world that when God, veritable Happiness incarnate, descends on earth we shun Him away and continue to be unhappy. ​