Buddha was seated alone one day, and later, some men gathered around him. one among them who did not like his teachings and the effect it had on the people got up and started a tirade in very vulgar terms against him. Buddha sat smiling listening to all that calumny, without a single gesture of disapproval. The man got frothy in the mouth through rage, his vocabulary was fast getting exhausted, his tongue began to show signs of overwork, but, Buddha only asked him with a smile, "Brother, have you finished?" The man said, "You have no sense of shame; you do not show any trace of resentment." Then Buddha said "If a kinsman comes to your door from a far distant place, and when you see him, if you so much as say, Hallo, he will enter in, deposit his things in the house, and stay on as your guest; but if you do not notice him, if you ignore his arrival, he will return along the road that brought him and you are rid of him, isn't it? So, too I shall take no notice of this tirade; let it go the way it came". Praise and blame are but twists of verbiage, the magic words in the clever hands of flatterers or traducers. Treat both with a grand indifference; then, your real worth becomes patent.
By not getting excited over the angry words of a critic, one becomes superior to the critic. Otherwise one descends to the same level as the critic. Bear no ill-will towards anyone. That is the golden rule indicated by the Gita. Buddha carried on his mission in this spirit of equanimity and tolerance.
3 comments:
Praise be Jah!
That picture is beautiful, it's hard to believe how perfect it seems.
feel free to paint it if you like
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