THE CURE of the MUSTARD SEED

The Cure of the Mustard Seed
A Little Book on Death, Dying
and
the Loss of All and Everything
Peter Malakoff

Copyright © 2015 by Peter Malakoff
All rights reserved.
Peter Malakoff
www.petermalakoffbooks.weebly.com
The Cure of the mustard Seed
by Peter Malakoff
Title ID: 5050117
ISBN-13: 978 150 7745 359

Looking up from the bottom of the steps at Manikarnika Ghat

To my parents
who passed this way before me
You always sought to gift the world with goodness
May this help

Three bodies on the steps at Manikarnika Ghat

“This life disappears very quickly
Like something written in water with a stick”
— Buddha

View of Manikarnika Ghat

CONTENTS
PROLOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
ABOUT THE PICTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
THE CURE OF THE MUSTARD SEED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
A MODERN DAY VERSION OF THE STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
OTHER BOOKS BY PETER MALAKOFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Pallbearers carrying a body down the steps to Manikarnika Ghat

PROLOGUE
I spent the winter of 2004 in Banaras, India, the oldest still living city in
the world. In the early mornings, I would walk the stone steps along the
Ganges from where I was living at Asi Ghat, to the ancient cremation
grounds of Manikarnika Ghat. There I would devote a part of every
day and evening at the burning ground.
I witnessed a constant procession of once living people borne on
bamboo stretchers by their male relations, brought down through the
narrow lanes of Benaras to where the alleys open up at stone steps that
lead down to Manikarnika. There at the river, they were bathed one last
time in the sacred Ganges, placed on a pyre of logs and consumed by
flames; their elements separated to ether, air, fire water and earth.
11

The cremation ground at Manikarnika
12

It was a place of tremendous power. The dead bodies all around me and the
constant burning of two-armed forms just like my own, confounded the
ideas of who or what I am.
A veil was pulled back and I passed beyond the India I read of in the
ancient scriptures of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Upanishads; the
India of Buddha, Shankara, Kabir, Lahiri Mahasaya and Trailinga Swami.
I passed beyond the legends of Manikarnika and Lord Shiva’s promise of
liberation to whoever dies in Benaras. I no longer thought of the millions
of people who for thousands of years have come to Manikarnika to die and
be cremated, nor the haunting and timeworn architecture, stained by eons
of cremation smoke from the burning ground and lled with the constant
activity of death that takes place there every day and night . . .
Rather, I came into the presence of a timeless truth. I saw my own
mortality and instantly understood; this is the truth that I always needed
to see, this is the truth we all must see.
13

Burning fire tended by a Dom– the caste that carries out cremations
14

Death and suffering are the paradoxical keys to our desire for freedom;
they remain the inspiration beneath the idealism of my spiritual interest
from the time I was a youth.
Witnessing body after body consumed by fire and cease to exist, it was
no longer possible to be consoled. I discovered the liberating medicine
of the Mustard Seed, the ‘cure’ this story is about.
“Many have died; you will also die
The drum of death is being beaten
The world has fallen in love with a dream
Only the sayings of the wise will remain”
– Bijak of Kabir
15

Pallbearers traversing the last steps on their way down to the Ganges.
16

ABOUT THE PICTURES
Death is mostly hidden in the west and rarely seen. Even in the absence of
violence or accident, we consider death a terrible event, something better
not to look at; yet as we all know, death is an inescapable part of life. I have
been living in India for several years and like many other things in this
country such as disease or poverty, the witnessing of death is a common
occurrence. It begins with a loud beating of drums that noties everyone
in the neighborhood that someone has died; then a public display of the
deceased on a cot outside the house, the carrying of the corpse through
the streets and alleys past houses and shops to cremation at the burning
ground and all of it is in public view.
I lived in Benaras for months and every single day and night, I saw dead
bodies on bamboo biers carried down the narrow alleys to be
cremated. As the procession passed the houses and shops you could hear
the pallbearers chanting: Rama Nama Satya Hai, Sub ki Yahe Gate Hai.
It means: “Only the name of God is Truth. This is the fate of all.”
17

Wood brought in on boats for the cremation fires
18

I took these photographs at Manikarnika Ghat. I was befriended by
one of the Doms, the caste that perform the cremations and he gave
me permission to do this. Photographs are almost never allowed at
Manikarnika and rarely taken, yet I was able to spend a whole day
and evening on the burning ground capturing the scene on film; it
was an unforgettable experience. I approached people with
consideration and respect and usually they motioned me in closer. In
the midst of their own personal loss and the cremation of their
relations, they had no impulse to hide what was going on; this too was
life and worthy of being seen and recorded.
I wanted this story to be suitable for younger people. Aer much
consideration, for the sake of wholeness and to bring visual reality to
this teaching of the Buddha, I decided to put together the pictures you
see here (Originally, I was going to use thangkas of the Healing
Buddha). I believe these pictures od death are particularly necessary
for those of us who live in the West; they are reminders of the nature
of the world we live in. ey are not intended to be terrible or
frightening, they are simply true.
19

Last dip of the body in the Ganges at the bottom of the steps at Manikarnika
20

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
When confronted with death we are oen overwhelmed by our own
emotions; oen our grief is more for ourselves than for those who have
died and even while we mourn, the beauty and wonder of life still goes
on all around us. Is death a tragedy or a blessing? How should we feel
or act when confronted with the n ality of death? Should we weep,
rejoice, or both or neither? Because such questions arise, it is good to
hear the wisdom of the Great Teachers and that is why I share this
story.
Perhaps you know a young person who is confronting death for the rst
time. Read this story with them, look at the pictures and consider what
you have heard and seen. If you know an adult who is grieving, give
them the book or read it with them. If you are distraught and saddened
by loss, this story is medicine for your life. If you are feeling whole and
balanced, this story may remind you of what is inevitable and what
we all tend to forget.
21

Body on the pyre
22

PREFACE
A friend of mine died when I was young. I remember going to his
funeral and standing around his casket with the adults. Everybody
seemed sad, embarrassed and uncomfortable. Like many young
people, I was sensitive to this and greatly affected by the
experience. I wanted to find out more.
Growing up in America, no one taught me anything about the end
of life or what happens after someone dies. As I matured, I read
many stories and beliefs about mortality in the different cultures
and religions of the world. My exploration led me to those
whose experience and understanding transcended belief and
doubt and this is how I came to learn what the greatest of
Teachers, such as Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, said about death.
23

Buildings and wood storage for the cremation fires
(behind the burning grounds at Manikarnika)
24

The Cure of the Mustard Seed is part of the Pali Canon, the original
scripture of Buddhism. It relates an actual incident: a Mother brought
her dead son to the Buddha and begged him to restore her child to
life. Buddha responded by asking her to bring some ‘medicine,’ some
mustard seed from a house in which no one had died. We will see how
Buddha’s simple request conveyed his teaching and allowed a young
woman in great grief to accept the inevitability of death and change her
attitude towards living.
Ananda, the most intimate friend and disciple of the Buddha, said that
Buddha always taught in a way that was suitable for both children and
adults. I have tried to follow that tradition in telling this story.
“ A tomorrow when you are gone, is undoubtedly coming.”
– Shura’s letter to Kanika
25

Bathing the body one last time in the Ganges
26

INTRODUCTION
A Christian Missionary told a group of Cambodian children about the
miracle Jesus performed when he raised Lazarus from the dead. The
children asked him whether Lazarus had later died. The Missionary
replied, “Yes, Lazarus did eventually pass away.” The children thought
about that and one of them said, “Lord Buddha did not raise a man from
the dead, but he did teach human beings to accept death and awaken
beyond the cycles of living and dying.”
In Buddhist culture, from the time they are small, every child is taught:
“Life is suffering. You will die. I will die. Everyone will die. All things
will change, pass away and cease to be. Nothing is eternal.”
This is not meant to be depressing, it is an important fact; a verity so
important that Buddha proclaimed it as the “First Noble Truth,” when
he gave his very first teaching, The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma,
in the Deer Park at Sarnath, quite close to Benares where these pictures
were taken.
27

Debris from previous cremations on the riverbank below Manikarnika
28

In the original teaching of the Buddha, death is looked at directly.
Practitioners understood that death cannot be ‘cured’ through any
temporary extension of life, whether by Jesus, Buddha, medicine,
technology, or belief in anything, whatsoever; nor is there any real
consolation from death. Buddha did not believe in the salvation of
the individual. The ‘solution’ he put forth is liberation from the false
assumption of self. His was a teaching of Liberation, not salvation.
Buddha taught that every aspect of life is touched by the fourfold ills
of birth, sickness, old age and death. These co-dependently arising
attributes are inevitable corrolaries of The First Noble Truth. Like the
sunlight in the morning that falls upon our bed, they are teachers who
make us interested in waking up. Because these ‘fourfold ills’ are
woven into the nature of our world, we will come to know them, for
one day it will be our turn to experience them as well.
It is always good to start with what is real, (although there may be
better or worse ways to express and understand it), for if we do not
live with reality, one way or another, reality will come to live with us.
29

View from the bottom of the steps at Manikarnika looking towards burning ground.
Here the bodies await their last bath in the Ganges before cremation.
30

All the greatest Teachers considered death and all of them pointed to
an ultimate Reality or Truth that transcends the ending of the physical
body. Buddha was born into the Hindu-Vedic culture of Nepal; a
culture centered around the religious practices of sacrifice and
worship, purposed to achieve various goals of the individual concerning
heaven and earth.
Buddha criticized the Hindu religious practice of his day. He pointed
out that Vedic teaching and objectives were based on a false
assumption; the existence of an individual self, and thus, even in the
best of circumstances, everything one might attain was threatened and
would always result in suffering. Buddha acknowledged that a god or
a rich person might have longer life, finer food, better clothes,
more exquisite pleasures and a nicer house, but that life, food, clothes,
pleasure and house will pass away one day and the god or person who
experiences them will grow old, become sick, die and lose everything.
31

Three bodies on the steps awaiting cremation
32

Buddha countered the soaring idealism of Hindu thought and religion
with a realistically based teaching; he began not with the description
of an ascended or idealistic goal, but with the nature of life itself,
summarized in the First Noble Truth of Suffering.
Buddha taught that death comes to everyone, animal, men and gods.
Still, his teaching points to a Truth beyond death; a Reality that is
always and already the case. According to the Buddha, there is no
individual self that is born or ever dies, but this is not something
he asked people to believe in. He never suggested it is possible to
be consoled, but that it is possible to be free, and this freedom is a
Truth that must be realized. For the sake of this realization
and to motivate people towards it, the first thing Buddha does
is to confront his listeners with the link between the assumption
of self and the painful reality of the world. In one of his famous
talks called the Fire Sermon, he points out that everything in
life is literally burning.
33

Cremation of body being tended by a Dom
34

The ‘burning’ of desire, attraction, aversion, delusion, birth, sickness, old
age and death and all the psychological pain that goes along with them;
these are what cause us to seek relief in physical pleasure, religion or even
enlightenment.
Before Buddha speaks of the of the Second Noble Truth of the Origin of
Suffering in craving or desire, the Third Noble Truth regarding the End of
Suffering or the Fourth Noble Truth of the Way that leads to the Cessation
of Suffering, Buddha expounds the First Noble Truth of Suffering. This is
because if the nature of life as suffering is not fully felt and recognized,
if we have no sympathy with the burning nature of life, then we have not
awakened to reality; we still live in illusion and thus the religious path
cannot truly begin, nor ever be accomplished.
“Your life dwells among the causes of death
Like a lamp standing in a strong breeze.”
– Nagarjuna
35

Body about to be cremated
36

In the East, it is said there are two wings to the bird of wisdom. One
wing is the wing of experience. If we do not experience something,
we cannot know it. It does not matter whether we believe in an idea
or not, we must experience it for ourselves. However, even if we do
experience something, that is still only one wing of the bird. With
only one wing a bird cannot fly; it only goes around in circles on the
ground. The second wing of the bird is understanding, or the story by
which we interpret and understand our experience.
If the story we hear is not accurate or true, regardless of what we have
experienced, we cannot gain wisdom. If we consider the map of our
lives according to an inaccurate legend, we will follow roads that go
nowhere and waste our lives imagining and reacting to things that are
not true.
Buddha taught that while everyone will suffer, not all suffering is
necessary. A good story, the teaching of Truth, an accurate
description of Reality, can go a long way to eliminate unnecessary
suffering. The Cure of Mustard Seed is one such story.
37

View of corpse and buildings behind Manikarnika Ghat
38

The Cure of The Mustard Seed clarifies the mind and heals the heart.
It affirms that life is suffering and death an inescapable result of being
born. This may seem a simple observation, but, Buddha proclaimed
it to be a great and ’Noble Truth’. However, it is a truth that must
be realized; only realization, (not belief, doubt, acceptance or
intellectual sympathy), frees one from the cycles of birth and death.
All of us are seeking a remedy for suffering. This is the search at the
core of every human being and of every religion. Whatever we
believe, whatever faith we belong to, even if we belong to none at all,
we must pass beyond both belief and doubt and deal with reality.
Therefore, before we turn our attention to what we think we are
seeking, we must begin with what motivates us towards our chosen
goal or remedy . . . the reality of suffering.
This story begins with the refusal to accept death and ends with the
understanding of the inevitable suffering of life. It presents the
Teaching of the Buddha with a parable in which we recognize a
troublesome Truth about our own life and the life of every
being. Listen and you will learn the healing power of simple
mustard seed . . .
39

Buddha Teaching his disciples - Chinese Thangka
40

THE CURE OF THE MUSTARD SEED
Once, long ago, when Gautama Buddha was speaking with monks and
nuns in the forest there was a disturbance in the back of the small group
assembled.
There appeared a young woman, Kisagotami by name, weeping and
distressed and carrying a small dead child in her arms. Kisagotami was
seeking for someone to restore her baby to life. Her little boy had died
and she had gone to all her neighbors seeking some medicine, but they
thought she was mad. Finally, a wise old man said to her, “I do not have
the medicine you need, but I know a physician who does.” The young
woman said: “Oh please tell me sir; who is this person?” And the man
replied: “Go to the Buddha. He will help you.”
Kisagotami hastened to the forest and came to where the Buddha sat.
Bowing before him she cried, “Oh Lord Buddha, please, I pray you,
help me!”
41

Kisagotami in front of the Buddha
42

The Buddha asked her, “What is it that you desire?”
“My child, this boy that I carry in my arms, has died,” cried the woman.
“I beg you, bring him back to life.”
A gasp went through the assembly, as people heard what she had
requested. They had seen many miracles around the Buddha. But, his
teaching was one of understanding and realization, not of miraculous
cures or powers.
Buddha sat quietly for a moment and then said: “Bring me some
mustard seed from a house in which no one has lost a parent, a child, a
husband, wife or friend.”
43

Small Indian Village near Benaras
44

Kisagotami was relieved at the simplicity of the task. This was remarkably
easy and something she could immediately accomplish. “I shall do as you
ask,” she replied. Then, taking her dead child with her, she hurried off
to the village to seek the mustard seed.
Now in India, mustard seed is one of the most common of things. It is like
salt or sugar in a home in the West today.
45

Woman standing at the doorway of her house
46

Kisagotami went up to the first house she saw. Bowing at the door to the
woman who stood there, she asked, “Do you have any mustard seed?
Please, do you have any mustard seed?” The lady of the house saw
the urgency of the young woman’s request and went to fetch some
mustard seed. She brought it back and gave it to Kisagotami, pouring
it into her hands. “Here my child. May it give you respite from all that
ails you.”
Kisagotami hardly thanked her, so excited was she to receive the
mustard seed. Her child could come back to life! But, as she hurried
back to the Buddha she remembered the last part of his instructions; she
needed to bring the mustard seed from a house in which there had been
no death and she had forgotten to ask! Kisagotami immediately turned
around and went back to the woman who still stood at her doorway.
“Please,” Kisagotami said, “Has anyone ever died in your house?”
47

Man about to cast a pot of Ganges water over his left shoulder onto the cremation
fire of his relative. After the pot breaks on the smoldering fire he is finished with
the body. Then, he walks away and does not look back.
48

“Oh yes, my child. Only last year my mother died. But why do you
ask?” “Oh, I cannot take your mustard seed,” Kisagotami said. And she
poured the seed back into the woman’s hands and hurried off to the next
house.
There, Kisagotami again asked for mustard seed. The mistress of the
house brought her some and before she received it, Kisagotami asked,
“Has anyone ever died in your house?” “Yes, my husband died here two
years ago.” Here, too, she could not take the mustard seed.
At the next house, they had mustard seed. But, when Kisagotami asked
if anyone had ever died in the house, she heard, “We lost our parents
only this year.” At another house a mother said, “My daughter died only
last month.”
Time after time, Kisagotami received similar answers; although in every
household there was mustard seed, in every household there had been
death.
She realized that death comes to all beings and the dead are more
plentiful than the living.
49

Body being placed on the pyre for cremation
50

Finally, Kisagotami accepted the death of her own child. Later that
evening, she went deep into the forest and left her dead baby.
The next day she returned to the Buddha. He asked her, “Have you
brought any mustard seed?”
“No,” she replied, “I could not find a house in which no one had died. I
have buried my child in the forest.”
The Buddha said:
“The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined
with pain. For there is not any means by which those that have been
born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a
nature are living beings. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling,
so mortals when born are always in danger of death. As all earthen
vessels made by the potter end up being broken, so is the life of mortals.
Both young and old, both those who are fools and those who are wise,
all fall into the hands of death; all are subject to death.
51

Cremation fires burning
52

“A father cannot save his son, nor kinsmen, their relations. Look!
While relatives are crying and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals
are carried off, like oxen led to the slaughter. So the world is afflicted
with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the
laws of the world. In whatever manner people think a thing will come
to pass, it is often different when it happens, and great is the
disappointment; see, such are the ways of the world.
“Not from weeping nor from grieving will any one obtain peace of
mind; on the contrary, his pain will be made greater and his body
will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale and still the dead are
not saved by his lamentations. People pass away, and their fate after
death will be according to their deeds. If a person lives a hundred
years, or even more, he will at last be separated from the company of
his relatives and loved ones, and leave the life of this world. He who
seeks peace should draw out the arrow of lamentation, complaint
and grief
53

View of the burning grounds
54

Kisagotami realized whatever arises will cease to be. Her mind became
clear and her eyes were opened. Convinced of the First Noble Truth, she
entered the stream of the way that leads to Nirvana.
“Better than a hundred years in the life of a person who does not
perceive the Deathless State of Nirvana, is a day in the life of one
who perceives the Deathless State of Nirvana.”
This true story is called: The Cure of the Mustard Seed.
55

Three bodies on the steps at Manikarnika:’the living and the dead’
56

The first Teaching of the Buddha as well as the last words he spoke,
dealt with the reality of death. The First Noble Truth, stated that all life
was dukkha or suffering.
Just before he died, the Buddha returned to a similar theme:
“Behold, O’ monks, this is my last advice to you. All component
things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Strive to
work out your own salvation.”
Buddha taught that although everyone dies, no one is dead. It may
be comforting to believe in this, but, it is a great Truth that must be
Realized.
The root of Realization is the First Noble Truth of Suffering. To
Realize the nature of life is a great blessing for the living and the dead
and that is the message of this book.
57

Ramana Maharshi
58

A MODERN DAY VERSION OF THE STORY
I live part of the year at the foot of the holy mountain, Arunachala, in
Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, home of the ashram of Ramana Maharshi
(1879-1950), one of the greatest saints of the twentieth century. Like the
Buddha, Ramana or ‘Bhagavan’ was asked a similar question by a
distraught mother; here is that story, told by Vajreswari, the daughter of
Ganapati Muni:
“Once a devotee brought her dead son in a box and prayed intensely
to Bhagavan to bring him back to life. Bhagavan could readily see the
faith and hope behind her prayer. Tenderly, he told her, Amma (Mother),
don’t you see that if I restore your son’s life, Sri Ramanashram would
be flooded with corpses? Then he spoke to her at length about life,
death and the need to be conscious of the state transcending both. He
explained that all experiences were centered around the individual and
that the search for the source of the self alone would end all suffering.
59

Ramana Maharshi
60

These soothing words and advice went home and the lady returned, consoled at
heart. This was only natural since Bhagavan’s words were loaded with power
and grace. After the lady left, a devotee asked, “Is it possible to revive the dead?
Bhagavan replied, Jnani’s, siddhas and yogis can restore life, but is it for this
purpose that they have come?”
— Face to Face with Ramana Maharshi
61

Peter Malakoff
62

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I have been a Religious Studies scholar, poet, Ayurvedic consultant,
Ghee Maker, woodworker, teacher and writer. For the past several
years, I resided in the high foothills of the Himalaya near
Ladakh during the spring, summer and fall and then, as the
weather turns cold, travel south to Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, to
live near the ashram of Ramana Maharshi where I stay for the winter
months.
I have been in this ancient land for only a few years and am gracefully
drowning in the ocean of wisdom Realized by the great Beings that
once lived here and the stories they have told.
Mark Twain called India, “ . . . the cradle of the human race, the
birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother
of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition; our most valuable
and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up
in India” . . . this is but one of them.
63

Trash and Debris from the cremation ground in the Ganges
64

OTHER BOOKS BY PETER MALAKOFF
How Thoreau’s Walden Pond Mixed with the Ganges and Yoga Came
to America with Swami Vivekananda (2012) (Apple ibook)
The Man Who Built the Taj Mahal (2015)
Manikarnika Ghat (2015)
A Hanuman Story for Ram Dass (2019)
Misericords: The Return of the Repressed (2019)
Tragedy Fate and Nemesis (2017)
Line Drawing of Kisagotami in front of the Buddha by Juhiro Mashiko
All photographs of Manikarnika Ghat by Peter Malakoff
Peter Malakoff
http://www.petermalakoff.com
petermalakoff@gmail.com
65

Corpse on pyre
66

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