The Buddha & the Angry Young Man
From TheBuddhism.Net
“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 Blessed 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.”
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Emotional pain is not something that should hidden away and left unspoken. We must not let our anger stop us from loving others either.
There is truth in the pain. There are growth in the pain too. There is no reason to be angry and bitter when we can just move on and be happy.
Always unlearn the ways that hold us back. Let go of what is hurting our heart and soul.
This is a simple story yet a powerful teaching and message. It reminds me to let go of anger as we will never be happy with it. We created the anger and we need to suffer the cause. Also why make others unhappy. We have choices in everything we do. We should think and act in a compassionate way that brings benefit to others and not for ourselves only.
Anger is a really scary thing, it comes so fast and it can damage ourselves and others within seconds. A negative attitude that I am reminding myself to abstain everyday.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this story.
Buddha Shakyamuni, our buddha of this fortunate time is so cool and smart. May we be just like him.
I like this anecdote. It makes perfect sense, now time to apply it.
I will share this with my sister (she really need to read this). Thank you.
Simple story when we do not accept something then that gift belongs to the person giving it. Which is an insightful clue for us that we may experience a myriad of experiences but how we react to is most important.
How we react to situations determines if we experience happiness, contentment or just utter unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
I love this story. I read a story like this in a comic book. It is very true. Anything that can be learned can only be learned by people who want to learn. If they don’t want to learn and instead reject the teachings then the teachings can be taught to those who want to learn. The rejector is the only one missing out.
interested to know about ur org.
Can’t wait to share this with my friends… Hope this will help others to reduce their anger and it can actually used as an analogy for other delusions as well such as jealousy! (For me as well)…