How many people drive you a bit or a lot nuts? If you wrote a list, would there be mostly people you know well? Really well? Or people you have never met, like politicians or influencers and the like? Why do they drive you crazy? What part of yourself can you see in them? What deep down concerns you the most? From this position, our frustration can serve as a mirror – a mechanism to ask why is this bothering me so much? Why am I so triggered?
There is a Zen story about a fisherman on a misty river at dusk. As he is sitting quietly, very calmly fishing, a boat comes out of nowhere and crashes into his boat and nearly knocks him into the water. He begins to yell at the idiot in the other boat, and once he calms down and can see more clearly through the mist he discovers there is no one in the boat, and begins to laugh at his own rage at the empty boat.
People in our lives are like these empty boats – we see them intentionally bumping into us, and are quick to blame them, when really it is our equilibrium and self understanding that needs to be questioned. Every person and situation has the opportunity to be our teacher if we open our hearts.
Written with love,
Jac x