A fervent Buddhist lady made every effort to love others. But every time she went to the market, a merchant made indecent proposals to her.
One rainy morning, when the man bothered her once again, she lost control and hit him on the face with her umbrella.
That same afternoon, she sought out a monk and told him what had happened.
“I am ashamed,” she said. “I couldn’t control my hate.”
“You did wrong to hate him,” answered the monk. ” But life is about communicating our feelings to each other – and you need to understand that people are different”.
“The next time he says something, fill your heart with goodness.
“And hit him again with your umbrella, because that’s the only language he knows.”from Paulo Coelho's blog
Saturday, January 08, 2011
the importance of language
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3 comments:
Well that made me laugh out loud. I love these little stories - I'll be thinking of umbrellas in a very different way now. :-)
At my age (and relative state of disrepair),I think I might be able to find some goodness in my heart for someone who thinks I'm cute enough to hit on. And then I'd kick him in the shins.
Thanks for the laugh!
Oh funny. I'm catching up on many missed posts at once and here, just before the two posts about understanding how violence in language affects us and contributes to violence in our world, I find all this, erm, bam, pow, bazooka language! Laughing aloud.
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