A grandmother visited the Buddha in the middle of the day, her hair, face and clothes wet. Her beloved grandson had just died.
The Buddha asked, "Visakha, would you like to have as many children and grandchildren as there are people in Savatthi (the nearby city)?"
"Yes, Lord," Visakha replied.
"But how many people in Savatthi die in the course of a day?"
Visakha answered, "Sometimes ten people die in Savatthi, sometimes nine... eight... seven... Sometimes one person in Savatthi dies in the course of a day. Savatthi is never free from people dying."
"So what do you think, Visakha: Would you ever be free from wet clothes and wet hair?"
"No, Lord."
The Buddha replied, "Visakha, those who have a hundred dear ones have a hundred sufferings. Those who have ninety dear ones have ninety sufferings. Those who have eighty... seventy... Those who have one dear have one suffering. For those with no dear ones, there is no suffering. They are free from sorrow, free from stain, free from lamentation, I tell you."
The sorrows, and lamentations, the many kinds of suffering in the world, exist dependent on something dear. We can love a wonderful person, or a enjoy a beautiful view or a field of colorful flowers, knowing that all of these things are impermanent. Our pain in life comes to us when we expect a permanence that doesn't exist.
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