Indrajit Roy Choudhury (original)
- The Empty Boat - synopsis
There is a story about a monk who goes out in a boat alone to meditate on the water. While meditating, the monk feels the bump of another boat colliding with his. The monk feels the anger of being disturbed and ruminates in this anger until it is consuming and he opens his eyes to discover that the other boat is empty. The monk realized that the anger was inside himself until the bump of an external object brought it out. "The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me."
Pema Chodron
Instead of asking ourselves, "How can I find security and happiness?" we could ask ourselves, "Can I touch the center of my pain? Can I sit with my suffering, both yours and mine, without trying to make it go away? Can I stay present to the ache of loss or disgrace-disappoint in all its many forms-and let it open me?" This is the trick.
Pema Chodron
As long as we're caught up in always looking for certainty and happiness, rather than honoring the taste and smell and quality of exactly what is happening, as long as we're always running away from discomfort, we're going to be caught in a cycle of unhappiness and disappointment, and we will feel weaker and weaker.
