One day, the Buddha was sitting with his disciples when a sad farmer passed by. A disciple asked him why he looked so sad. The farmer said, “I had 12 cows, but they all ran away. I have a few acres of sesame seed plantation, but the insects have eaten up everything. I feel like killing myself.” Then Buddha told him to look for his cows in the other direction. He then turned to his disciples and said, “You are the happiest when you do not have anything to lose. To be happy, one must learn the art of releasing ‘cows’, or our desires. In the beginning you think these desires are essential to your happiness, so you try to get more and more. When you realise they are not necessary, and are only making you unhappy, that is when you can be freed from all worries.”
Moral: Do not be attached to anything
