Story ‣ Buddha and the Angry Man

One beautiful sunny day, Buddha walked into one small village.

Suddenly, a young man approached him and started offending him.

He said: “Who are you to teach the world? You are just as dumb as everyone else, and you are a scammer!”

Buddha was not upset by this.

He asked the man: If you get a present for someone and that person does not receive it, who does this present belong to?”

To which the young man responded: “It belongs to me because I was the one who got it!”

Buddha just smiled at that and said:

“That is a right young man. But you see the present is just the same as your anger.

When you get angry, and I do not get offended, the anger only returns and stays with you.

You are the one that is unhappy, and not me. So what do you do? You hurt yourself”

The young man was confused. Then Buddha continued:

“You see in order to stop hurting yourself, the first thing you should do is eliminate your anger and convert it to love.

You see, young man, when you hate others, you are the one that is unhappy.

But when you love others, then, everyone is happy.”