Kisa Gotami and the mustard seed
Kisa Gotami was a young woman in a village in India. When her only child died, she could not accept it. She carried the child from house to house, asking if anyone had medicine that would bring it back.
People turned away, sad or afraid. At last one person said, "Go to the Buddha. He may be able to help you."
She went to him and asked. The Buddha listened with kindness. Then he said, "I can help. Bring me a handful of mustard seeds. But they must come from a house where no one has ever died."
Kisa Gotami set off with hope. At every door, people were glad to give mustard seeds. But when she asked, "Has anyone died in this house?", the answers were always the same. A grandfather. A brother. A neighbour. A baby. Every family had lost someone.
By evening she understood. She was not alone in her grief. Loss comes to every home. She laid her child to rest and went back to the Buddha, and asked to learn from him.
The story is often told to say that grief is shared, and that kindness to those who mourn begins with listening. Versions differ in details from one tradition to another. See also the basics page for the teaching on impermanence.
Related pages
- Buddhist basics in plain wordsThe Three Jewels, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Five Precepts, and karma and rebirth, explained briefly and neutrally for people who are new to Buddhism.
- The poisoned arrowA short parable in which the Buddha answers a monk who wants every big question settled first. What matters most is dealing with the suffering in front of you.
- Angulimala, the road backA short story of a feared robber who stops, hears a few words from the Buddha and chooses another life. Told briefly, with differences between tellings noted.
- The Buddha's awakeningPrince Siddhartha sits beneath the bodhi tree and awakens: a short story about Bodhi Day.
Keep reading
- Buddhist basics in plain words
- Layout of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple
- The altars of a Vietnamese temple
- How to pay respects at a Vietnamese temple
- Buddhist calendar
- Uposatha, full-moon and new-moon days
- Buddhist glossary for temple visitors
- Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm), the one who listens
- The Buddha's awakening
- Two Jataka tales
- Maudgalyayana and filial gratitude
- Visiting a Vietnamese temple: common questions
- Temple etiquette: how to behave in a Vietnamese temple
- Offerings: what flowers, fruit, water, lamps and incense mean
- Festivals in Vietnamese Buddhist temples
- The blind men and the elephant
- The poisoned arrow
- Angulimala, the road back
- Ksitigarbha (Địa Tạng) and the vow
- Sujata and the bowl of milk rice