Ancient Chinese philosopher, Zhuang Zhou wrote about a boatman cruising on a river when he noticed a boat on a collision course. He began calling out to the boat’s owner to change course. As the boat closed in on him, he cursed and shouted louder.
As the two boats collided, he screamed out, threatening the other and calling him names. But he discovered that the other boat was empty. The man stopped yelling as there was no point in screaming at an empty boat.
The man’s rage reduced when he realized no one was at fault. When there is no one to blame for a mishap, we behave calmly. But when we perceive someone is at fault, we feel justified to angrily jump into the blame game.
Most of the time, we are screaming at an empty vessel. Even if the boat is not empty, rage is not a good. Actually, we punish ourselves when we allow our perceptions of others’ behaviour to affect us negatively. So we can scream at an empty boat or we can reach out, support and encourage others.
We have choices all the time. We can shout at an empty or occupied boat or we can choose to be kind and make our world a better place as we respond to people at work, at home and in the community. It is best to empty our boat of reactionary behaviour. After all, empty boats do not find fault with other boats, empty or otherwise.
Don’t treat every mishap as assault
Empty boats
don’t fight to find fault!
- Pravin K Sabnis
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