The Parable Of The Mustard Seed

I've been re-reading Jack Kornfield's Teachings of the Buddha lately, a bit here and there, sort of as a devotional I suppose.

Tonight I read through The Parable of the Mustard Seed. (The version Kornfield includes in the book is better than what you'll read in the link, but it's basically the same story, and I couldn't find the other version online.)

This parable was actually my first encounter with Buddhism. It was covered very quickly in my World History class when I was in 9th grade. Not much else was said about Buddhism-- a few hacked misunderstandings of the concepts of karma and nirvana. And this parable, as an example of Buddhist philosophy.

This story blew me away. Shortly after hearing it, I wrote a fantasy short story called "Death's Riddle," which earned me $100 in a local fiction contest. "Death's Riddle" was really little more than a retailing of the parable, expanded a bit, with some kings and wizards and poisonous fruit.

Hadn't read this in a long, long time. Very glad to have read it tonight.

Impermanence.

Impermanence.