The Merchant's Journey

There was once a rich merchant who had 4 daughters. He loved the 4th daughter the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best, satisfying her every whim.

He also loved his 3rd daughter very much. She was very beautiful and he was very proud of her and always wanted to show her off to his friends. However, the merchant was always in great fear that she might run away with some ineligible suitor and guarded her very carefully.

He too, loved his 2nd daughter. She was a very considerate girl, always patient and in fact was the merchant's confidante. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd daughter and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.

Now, the merchant's 1st daughter was full of good qualities and loyal and kind, she made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant had very little time for his first daughter and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.

One day, the merchant needed to go on a long and arduous journey. He thought of what lay ahead and thought of how lonely he would be. Thus, he asked the 4th daughter, "I have loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I am travelling, will you come with me and keep me company?"

"No! I am sorry but I prefer to stay here." replied the 4th daughter and she walked away without another word. The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd daughter, "I have loved you so much for all your life. Now that I'm leaving, will you come with me and keep me company?"

"No!" replied the 3rd daughter. "Life is so good here! I am planning on getting married very soon and having my own family.” The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd daughter, "I always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I travel, will you come with me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd daughter. "At the very most, I can only come with you to the end of town." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.

Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll come with you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first daughter. She was so thin, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant saw how little help she could be in that unhealthy state and said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !"

Actually, we all have 4 daughters in our lives and our arduous, if not dangerous, journey is our passing away from this body at death.

• The 4th daughter is our body. A precious possession to be cared for and maintained but no matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, we will leave it when we die.


• Our 3rd daughter? Our possessions, status and wealth. We prize them highly and guard them carefully but when we die, they all go to others.


• The 2nd daughter is our family and friends. No matter how close they have been while we live, the furthest they can stand by us is up to the grave.


• The 1st daughter is our spiritual life, often neglected in our pursuit of other, more transient goals, and the only possession we have that we take with us when we leave our bodies, continuing on our eternal journey.
  Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen our spiritual lives now rather than waiting until we're on our deathbed to lament.
  
  

Our Fleeting Life.

Once there was a very wealthy king who had recourse to everything anyone could possibly want in life. He was surrounded by courtiers to amuse him, by sages to advise him and servants to attend to his every whim. One of his great amusements was to set seemingly impossible tasks for his underlings and enjoy the wonderful ways in which they fulfilled those tasks. One day he said to the 20 great sages who attended his court, ‘I want you to make me a ring which when I look at it will make me happy when I’m sad, and sad when I’m happy.’ The sages spent many hours consulting with one another as to how such a ring could be produced. Finally they came up with an answer and presented a small gold ring to the king on which was engraved , ‘This too will pass!’
The king realized that when he looked at the ring while he was sad he would happily remember that his suffering would soon pass and when he looked at the ring when he was happy he would sadly remember the temporary nature of this world.


According to Buddha the lack of acceptance that things are
temporary and always changing is one of the main sources of
suffering for humanity.