I think this was a Buddhist story. There was a woman whose son died, a little baby son. And she didn't believe that he was dead. She went around asking the doctors, "Help my son, he's not moving, give me medicine, give me medicine." And, of course, nobody could help her. She went to everybody in the town but nobody could help her. She was going crazy, holding this dead baby in her arms, going around asking everyone to help her, of course nobody could. Her son was dead.
One day the Buddha comes in the village and the people encourage this woman, "If anyone can help your son, the Buddha can, go to him." She goes to the Buddha, she says, "Please, help me with my son, he is sick, can you give me some medicine?" And he said something like, "I can heal the pain, but first you must fetch me a mustard seed." Now, a mustard seed in those days in India was a very common cooking ingredient and mostly every kitchen would have a mustard seed. She got very excited, this was going to be easy.
He continued and said, "But, the mustard seed that you bring me must come from a home where nobody has died." Oh, she was just thrilled, she didn't catch this second part, she just thought, "Go and get a mustard seed and my son is going to be healthy again." So she goes to one door - knock, knock - "Can I have a mustard seed, please?" "Oh, sure," the person goes and gets it for her. "Oh, oh, I forgot, has anyone ever died in this house?" The person says, "Yes, of course. My grandmother died, my grandfather is dead." "Oh, I can't take this one."
She goes to the next house and says, "Can I have a mustard seed?" "Oh, yes." "But has anyone ever died here?" "Oh yes, my brother died only last month." "Oh, I can't take this," and another home...and another home. And if you remember in those days the homes had extended families, lots of families in one home. So, in every home she went to somebody had died, of course. Slowly, this got into her understanding that death was universal. It's a universal happening, it's not just her son who is the only one who has died, it happens to everybody.
She went and put the baby in the charnal grounds where they put dead bodies and then went back to the Buddha, he then taught her more. She became first level enlightened. She then became a nun and became fully enlightened.
So, it was part of the universality of death, or this being in our vision, which we talked to you about during the D/D (Defusing/Diffusing) Compassion and Lovingkindness meditation. Realizing the universality of death, of Dukkha, this takes away thoughts from "me, my Dukkha. I am the only one with Dukkha." It's universal, it's a law. Whether you want to accept the law of Dukkha or not, it's your choice, but if you want to get free of Dukkha you have to accept that this is the law, this is the place where we are living.
Now I will add to that, I think probably all of you have played Monopoly. Correct me if I'm wrong, they've got versions in German and everything else, and today's versions you can even ask for what city you want, it doesn't have to be New York or in English. It's a game around the world, lots of kids are probably enjoying it right this minute, having a lot of fun with it. And it often doesn't matter if you win or lose, you just start another game, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and it's quite okay. And you learn the rules and you play by the rules and everything goes smoothly.
Now imagine, that you're about 10 years old. And you're playing Monopoly with one or two friends. And, a new kid has moved in on the street, and they come to visit, you have met the kid a little bit. So they come to visit and they watch you playing Monopoly and they say, "Hey, that looks like a neat game. Can I play too? I've never played before." And you say, "Okay, just a minute we're almost done with this game. When we finish, we'll start a new one and you can join." The kid goes "Oh good!" So you end the game and you start the new game and you start teaching the kid how to play Monopoly, all the different rules and this and that. And as you're playing, the new kid lands in jail.
They look at themselves in jail and they understand what that means, and then they take themselves out of jail and put themselves next to jail. And you say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, no, no, no, you'll have to stay in jail until you roll the dice a certain way or pay the money, etc."
But the new kid goes, "No, I don't want to be in jail." And you go, "No, but look, the rules are that you have to be in jail, you have to stay in jail until..." "I'm not going to be in jail! My Daddy and Mommy told me jail's a bad place, I'm not going to be in jail!" Now, you tell me, are you going to play with that kid? Nope, you're going to tell that kid to go away. Go away. You're not going to play with that kid! Because the kid doesn't play by the rules.
Now the rules are in Monopoly, that sometimes you land in jail. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. What's the difference with life? Sometimes we land in jail, so to speak, we have Dukkha. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we get out easy, sometimes we get out hard. OK? But if you understand the rules of life, and Dukkha is one of the rules. It's just a law, it's just a simple law, the Law of Dukkha is a simple law. If we accept it, then we can play by the rules, we can learn the rules and work around it. When you understand the rules you can play the game better, so we can end Dukkha, and not have so much stress, worry and all other Dukkha.