Here is my poor paraphrased rendition of a beautiful Zen story.
May the ancients forgive me for mangling it:
There once was a woman who was deeply stricken with grief.
Her son had died and she felt that her heart had been buried in the ground with him.
She sought release from her suffering.
She went to the great teacher and asked him for help.
He gave her a seed and the following task.
Go to the home of each of your neighbors and tell them the story of your deep sorrows.
When you come to the home that has never been touched by grief, leave the seed with them .
So the woman went door to door.
She told her neighbors her tale of grief, of how much she loved her son, and how broken her heart had become with his passing on.
And her neighbors invited her into their homes, sat her down, and then shared their stories of grief.
She never found a neighbor who could keep her seed.
She ended her quest and went home.
She planted the seed and watched it grow.
And her heart grew one thousand fold.
She had shared and she had listened.
She became enlightened.
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