The Mother-in-Law and Her Unshakable Faith

The sound of sobbing rose from the living room, tearing through the serene quiet of the evening. Hoa, the daughter-in-law, had collapsed onto the floor, her face buried in her hands, tears soaking through the shoulders of her blouse. Before her sat Lan, her mother-in-law, silent and composed in a way that seemed strangely out of place beside her daughter-in-law's storm of emotion.

"Mother!" Hoa choked out, her voice trembling. "I just saw him go into a hotel with a young woman. They were laughing and talking so intimately. I never imagined he would betray me like this. Our family is falling apart, Mother!"

Lan furrowed her brow slightly, showing neither panic nor anger. She looked at her pitiful daughter-in-law, then gazed out the window where the night was settling over everything. In her mind, memories of her son, from his childhood to the man he had become, came flooding back. He had always been principled, gentle, and responsible. The image of him rushing out of the house that morning with a strained expression, rather than a joyful one, had given her a feeling that something unusual was happening — but that it was not a love affair.

Lan rose, drew close, and placed a warm hand on her daughter-in-law's shoulder. Her voice rang out with quiet resolve, full of authority yet overflowing with love.

"Calm yourself, my child. I promise you, Tuan would never do such a thing. He is not that kind of person."

Hoa lifted her face, her eyes red and full of doubt. "But I saw it with my own eyes, Mother! How can you believe in him?"

Lan smiled, her eyes shining with a steadfast belief — the belief of intuition. "Because I know my son. And in the moment you were telling me all this, I felt a clean and pure energy, with nothing of deceit or concealment in it. Tuan must be facing some trouble at work, or some urgent situation that forced him to go there — not a rendezvous. Just wait. I will ask him as soon as he returns."

An hour later, Tuan came home, pale and weary. Faced with his wife's searching eyes and his mother's calm, he did not shrink away in the least. He told them what had happened: a business partner had been trapped inside the hotel because of an elevator malfunction and stood to lose a major contract, so he had rushed there to help manage the crisis and salvage the situation. The young woman was the partner's secretary, who had been in a panic. As he spoke, Tuan's face was completely earnest, his bearing steady — with not a trace of sneakiness or shame.

Hoa was stunned, then burst into tears once more — but this time from remorse and relief. Lan comforted her daughter-in-law, silently thanking her intuition for helping her stand firm, and for preventing a family tragedy that could have unfolded from nothing more than a misunderstanding.

The Meaning of the Story

The story illuminates the essential quality of intuition: when we know something through intuition, we possess an absolute and decisive confidence, without doubt or hesitation. Unlike logical reasoning, which can be shaken by fleeting emotions such as jealousy, intuition connects with the deeper nature of events and of people. Venerable Thích Chân Quang emphasizes that women often possess a keener intuition than men, serving as a natural protective mechanism. Trusting our intuition, combined with seeking out the facts, helps us avoid mistaken judgments that wound our relationships.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang