"Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

Few days back, i came across a shocking news that struck my family. My sister-in-law brother passed away in a accident. Which upset me when looked into the matter in any angle.
My later Brother-in-law has a son, 4 years in age, who will not understand what has happend to hi father. And a wife, who cannot be convinced by any answers and his Mother and Father, no one can imagine the kind of suffering they are going through now. When such tragedy happens , it shatters everything in the family. No argument can ever justify this even.

Many years back, i used to spend my time with very books,.Shouts of Nothingness,
by Tsai Chih Chung was one of them. Which has a collection of Illustrated Zen stories.
And i remember one of the story...



A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations. On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies." The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?" "If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

And this story made complete sense to me today. And i could feel the significance of it.