There was this little girl sitting on a chair
She was sitting with Thich Nhat Hanh,
a Vietnamese monk, exiled during the Vietnam war to France.
She asked him: "how do I let my anger out?"
Thich Nhat thought for a while and then asked her:
"do you think the anger came from outside?"
Anger is something ugly, like the mud in a pond.
It is sitting inside the pond
Anger is not coming from outside, it sits inside of us.
But if the mud in a pond is used in the right way
it can be the source from which lotus flowers grow.
Mud is useful
So is anger! We do not have to throw it out. It is ours.
If we use it in the right way, something nice can grow off it.
We can use our anger to grow peace, forgiveness and joy
to make the world better but in a peaceful way.
The anger inside of us flares up, mostly because we lack understanding
If we look deep enough and try to understand the behaviour of the one that makes us angry,
we will understand, and understanding brings compassion, love and a will transform our anger into the lotus flower of peace and forgiveness.
People who say mean things tend to suffer.
Then we punch back and make them suffer more.
It is like taking the mud in our hands and throwing it all around.
The other person made a mess and we create a much bigger mess.
IF on the other hand we take our mud in our hands
and try to actively understand why this mud was stirred up so much,
why that other person felt the need to be mean.
Most of the time we will find that they are suffering.
With this understanding we can transform our anger in the lotus flower of compassion
love will grow and anger will settle at the bottom of the pond, just feeding the love since we have mixed it with understanding, a most important nutrient for love.
So next time we are angry, let us not start slinging the mud around.
Let us activate our ratio and try to understand instead.
Let us transform our anger and let it nourish
the beautiful lotus flowers of peace, love and forgiveness.
She was sitting with Thich Nhat Hanh,
a Vietnamese monk, exiled during the Vietnam war to France.
She asked him: "how do I let my anger out?"
Thich Nhat thought for a while and then asked her:
"do you think the anger came from outside?"
Anger is something ugly, like the mud in a pond.
It is sitting inside the pond
Anger is not coming from outside, it sits inside of us.
But if the mud in a pond is used in the right way
it can be the source from which lotus flowers grow.
Mud is useful
So is anger! We do not have to throw it out. It is ours.
If we use it in the right way, something nice can grow off it.
We can use our anger to grow peace, forgiveness and joy
to make the world better but in a peaceful way.
The anger inside of us flares up, mostly because we lack understanding
If we look deep enough and try to understand the behaviour of the one that makes us angry,
we will understand, and understanding brings compassion, love and a will transform our anger into the lotus flower of peace and forgiveness.
People who say mean things tend to suffer.
Then we punch back and make them suffer more.
It is like taking the mud in our hands and throwing it all around.
The other person made a mess and we create a much bigger mess.
IF on the other hand we take our mud in our hands
and try to actively understand why this mud was stirred up so much,
why that other person felt the need to be mean.
Most of the time we will find that they are suffering.
With this understanding we can transform our anger in the lotus flower of compassion
love will grow and anger will settle at the bottom of the pond, just feeding the love since we have mixed it with understanding, a most important nutrient for love.
So next time we are angry, let us not start slinging the mud around.
Let us activate our ratio and try to understand instead.
Let us transform our anger and let it nourish
the beautiful lotus flowers of peace, love and forgiveness.
Thank you for the beautiful inspiration story. I will always remember the most important nutrient of love.
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