One day a student came to the teacher complaining: “I am surrounded by worries from all sides, teacher! Everything is going wrong with me. I am constricted in my chest by many problems… the work does not go well, the trade has completely stopped, and the debts have taken my breath away. I do not know how to go on.”
The teacher listened in complete silence. It didn’t stop. When the student stopped, taking a deep breath after that spiritual emptiness, the teacher slowly stood up.
He took a clean glass from the shelf, filled it with cold water and placed it on the table. Then, from a small wooden box, he took a handful of fine black ash and dropped it into the glass. The clear water immediately turned into a cloudy liquid.
“This clouded glass is you and your current trials, the teacher said in a calm but firm voice.”
Without giving the student time to reflect, the teacher took him by the hand. They went outside, walked along the stone path, until they reached the seashore. The teacher bent down, picked up the same amount of ash again and threw it forcefully onto the surface of the endless water.
The ash fell, but in a few seconds it dissolved and disappeared without leaving a trace. The sea remained as clean and unclouded as it was a moment ago.
The teacher turned to the student, looked him straight in the eyes and with a voice that carried the weight of life’s wisdom, said to him: “Do not be like the glass of water, where a speck of ash is enough to blacken your whole being. But, be like the water of the sea, wide, deep and patient, so that no external storm can change the purity of the soul. May God have mercy on you and expand it. chest!”

Source: prizrenpost