An old farmer went to the Buddha
seeking help for his problems.
First, he had professional problems.
In his part of the world,
farming was extremely difficult
and his work completely vulnerable to weather.
Even though he loved his wife,
there were certain things
about her he wanted to change.
Similarly, he loved his children,
but they weren’t evolving
the way he had hoped and anticipated.
Listening carefully
as the man explained his frustrations with life,
the Buddha responded,
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
“What do you mean?”
questioned the farmer.
“You’re a highly regarded great teacher
who has insight into all of life’s problems.”
“All human beings have eighty-three problems,”
the Buddha explained.
“A few problems may go away,
but soon enough others will arise.
So we’ll always have eighty-three problems.”
The farmer, both indignant and frustrated, asked,
“So what good is all of your teaching?”
To which the Buddha replied,
“My teaching can’t help with the eighty-three problems,
but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem.”
“What’s that?” the farmer asked with great curiosity.
“The eighty-fourth problem is that
we don’t want to have any problems.”
