Life is a journey and we all have to take an inner journey to nurture our existing inner state and move towards a higher realm of consciousness. However, this journey is not always easy as we tend to resist the flow of life. The story of a young monk is a perfect example of this.
The young monk had been practicing meditation for many years but still struggled to find inner peace. No matter how hard he tried, he seemed to be constantly disturbed by the slightest noises around him. He would become easily frustrated and angry, causing him to lose focus and disrupt his meditation.
Desperate for a solution, the young monk went to see his master. The master listened patiently and then gave him a solution. He told the young monk to take his boat out to the middle of the lake and meditate there. The young monk followed the master’s instructions and as he sat in the boat, surrounded by the calm waters of the lake, he finally began to find some focus. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to clear his mind of all distractions.
Just when he thought he had finally achieved some sense of peace, he was startled by a loud noise. He opened his eyes to see another boat crashing into his own. His heart raced as he tried to steady himself and his boat, feeling a surge of anger towards the person who had dared to disturb his meditation. But as he looked around, he saw that the other boat was empty, its moorings having come loose and causing it to drift out into the lake.
In that moment, the young monk had an epiphany. He realized that his anger was not caused by external events, but by his own internal state. He remembered the words of his master and reminded himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”
The young monk discovered that he had the power to choose peace over anger and continued practicing meditation and mindfulness to cultivate inner calm and tranquility, even in difficult situations.
The moral of this story is that the journey to inner peace and a higher realm of consciousness is a personal one, and we all have the power to choose peace over anger, no matter what external events may arise.