The Buddha Forgives: The story goes that the Buddha was sitting under a tree (as he did) with his monks when a man approached and spit on Buddha’s face. He wiped it away and said to the man without anger or offense, “what next?” The man left deeply disturbed; as he was use to receiving inflammatory responses when insulting another. He spent the night agonizing in confusion over the day’s event. In the morning the man returned to the Buddha, threw himself at the holy teacher’s feet and begged forgiveness. The Buddha said, “For what? The man you spit upon is gone. Men are like rivers changing from moment to moment. The river has flowed much since yesterday and though I may look the same, I am not. Likewise, neither are you the man who came to spit upon me. That man was angry, upset. This man before me bows at my feet, is open, willing. So there is nothing to forgive. Those two men, the one who spit and the one on whom he spit, are no more.”
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:01:16 +0000