The
old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in
a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the Master
asked. "Awful," spat the apprentice.

The
Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of
salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby
lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake,
the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As
the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How
does it taste?" "Good!" remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the
salt?" asked the Master. "No," said the young man.

The
Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said,
"The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in
life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the
'pain' depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in
pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things.....
Stop being a glass. Become a lake!"