Wisdom In a Story

I stumbled upon this story on Facebook this morning and I felt it was a worthy story to put up on this blog. It is related to a previous post titled How To Deal With Angry People which was written earlier on this blog. It emphasizes on the importace of how we respond to certain things in order to create a desirable outcome.

Story:
One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?"
The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It would belong to me, because I bought the gift."

The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself."

"If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy."

The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are right, o Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to become your follower." The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn. Come with me."

End.

This story is short but the meaning is deeper than lies on the surface. The Buddha could've easily gotten angry and reacted angrily at the young man. But that would have created more trouble. That would mean the young man had successfully infected his own mind with anger and taken away his inner peace. Buddha saw all that and his response even converted the young man.

It is important we exercise control over our response to different situations that we find ourselves. We must pause to think and decide on the best line of action before we react to anything. Reactions must not be impulsive or based on fleeting emotions, but rather based on sensible reason.

Keep winning like the Buddha.