It's the last day of January, and I feel I should post something for this month. Since I'm too busy to write about something, I will just share an entry from another site which I stumbled upon. By the way, I am now currently a member of these online community of book-lovers, www.goodreads.com, c'mon check it out!
"Once a farmer went to tell the Buddha about his problems. He described his difficulties farming – how either droughts or monsoons complicated his work. He told the Buddha about his wife – how even though he loved her, there were certain things about her he wished to change. Likewise with his children – yes, he loved them, but they weren’t turning out quite the way he wanted. When he was finished, he asked how the Buddha could help him with his problems.
The Buddha replied, “I’m sorry but I can’t help you.”
“What do you mean?” railed the farmer. “You’re supposed to be a great teacher!”
The Buddha replied, “Sir, it’s like this. All human beings have eighty-three problems. It’s a fact of life. Sure, a few problems will go away now and then, but soon enough others will arise. So we’ll always have eighty-three problems.”
The farmer responded indignantly, “Then what’s the good of all your teaching?”
The Buddha said, “My teaching can’t help with the eighty-three problems, but it can help with the eighty-fourth problem.”
What’s that?” asked the farmer.
“The eighty-fourth problem is that we don’t want to have any problems.”"
— The Buddha
