If No One’s in the Other Boat …
“If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his skiff, even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer clear. If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing. And all because there is somebody in the boat. Yet if the boat were empty, He would not be shouting, and not angry.”
—from Thomas Merton’s version of The Way of Chuang Tzu
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Boy! This is SO TRUE! Why is it that we have this desire to make others feel bad … to make them “suffer” for simple mistakes, even when they do not mean to do it? Heck, sometimes I’m the one that is in the wrong! It’s as if we get some kind of satisfaction from making others feel bad. How different the world would be if we responded to everything that happened to us as if there was no one in the other boat.
Filed under: Friendship, Relationship, Self-control