“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”
~Oscar Wilde

The Gift of Abuse

By: Author Unknown

A tale is told about the Buddha, Gautama (563-483BC), the

Indian prince and spiritual leader whose teachings founded

Buddhism. This short story illustrates that every one of us

has the choice whether or not to take personal offence from

another person‘s behaviour.

It is said that on an occasion when the Buddha was teaching

a group of people, he found himself on the receiving end of

a fierce outburst of abuse from a bystander, who was for

some reason very angry.

The Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vented his

rage, and then the Buddha said to the group and to the

stranger, “If someone gives a gift to another person, who

then chooses to decline it, tell me, who would then own the

gift? The giver or the person who refuses to accept the

gift?”

“The giver,” said the group after a little thought. “Any

fool can see that,” added the angry stranger.

“Then it follows, does it not,” said the Buddha, “Whenever

a person tries to abuse us, or to unload their anger on us,

we can each choose to decline or to accept the abuse;

whether to make it ours or not. By our personal response to

the abuse from another, we can choose who owns and keeps

the bad feelings.”

This story is a great example of how we can manage our lives, our feelings and the eventual outcome of what we get in any situation, by what we CHOOSE.

Choices determine the outcomes of all events, whether we get what we are after or we settle for what someone else wants for us.

We will discuss choice more next time. Our Choices are closely linked to our beliefs and the quality and level of our thinking.

Have an awesome and joy filled week.