There is an old Sufi story…
A man was in great pain and prayed to God every day, “Why me? Everyone else seems so happy, why am I in such pain?” he says. One day in great despair he prayed to God: “You can inflict someone else’s pain on me, I am ready to accept it, but take my pain. I can’t take it anymore.” He had a beautiful dream that night – beautiful and very revealing. That night he dreamed that God appeared in the sky and said to everyone, “Bring all your suffering to the temple.” Everyone was fed up with their own pain – in fact, everyone said at some point in their life, “I’m ready to accept anyone’s pain, but take mine; mine is too much, unbearable,” he said.
So everyone packed their own pain in bags, went to the temple and everyone looked very happy; They thought that their prayers were now answered. Our man also ran to the temple.
“Put your bags by the wall,” said God. All the bags were placed by the wall and God said, “Now you can choose.” “Anyone can have whatever bag they want.”
And the most surprising thing was this: this always praying man rushed to pick his own bag before anyone else! But he was very surprised because everyone rushed to their own bag and seemed happy to pick it again. what’s going on? For the first time, everyone saw other people’s misery, other people’s pain – their bags were big, even bigger!
And the second problem was that one gets used to one’s own pain. Choosing someone else’s now—who knew what kind of pain was in the bag? Why bother? At least you recognize your own pain, you are used to them, they are bearable. You have endured them for years – why choose the unknown?
Everyone returned home happily. Nothing had changed, they were bringing back the same pain, but everyone was happy and smiling because they could get their own bag.
The next morning he prayed to God and said, “Thank you for the prayer.” “I will never ask for anything like this again. Whatever you give me is good, it must be good for me because you gave it to me.”
Osho
