An inspiring story from the Jatakas, the stories of the Buddha, tells about a family in India. There were an old father and mother, with a grown-up son who had a wife and child. They were very loving to each other, caring and close so that the family was the symbol of love for the whole village.
One day, very suddenly, the son died and all the people in the village were shocked. They thought, ‘Now we must console this family because they must be completely devastated; they were so close and loving.’ so they all went to the family. When they arrived they found that nobody was mourning but the family was living naturally as though nothing was wrong. They asked the father, ‘What happened? We thought you loved your son very much? Hasn't he died?’ The father answered, ‘Yes, he died.’ The villagers asked, ‘Then why aren't you mourning? Why aren't you sad? You are here as if nothing happened. What is this?’
The father replied, ‘Well, I knew from the beginning that everything changes, nothing lasts all the time. So when I had this son, I loved him very much and I knew that there would be a time when we would have to part. because we did not know when this would happen, while we were together we tried to give our most, the best to each other. because of that we became the symbol of love. Now, what we knew would happen some day has happened. so, I am happy because I didn't do anything to upset him during his lifetime. I did everything possible for him and he did everything that was possibly good. Before I didn't have a son and I was not unhappy. Then I had a son and I was very happy. Now I have returned to the previous state when I had no son.’ The villagers asked each family member and each responded in the same manner.
--as told by Rob Nairn in Living, Dreaming, Dying: Wisdom of Tibetan Psychology
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