This mastery moment revolves around a story of a monk who needed a time out from the monastery. So he took a rowing boat out onto the lake. It was a gorgeous day, the sun not too hot, the water a deep blue, a light breeze in the air. As he started to relax he lay down in the boat and just let his mind still, watching the clouds. His eyes closed as he just enjoyed the moment.
Then all of a sudden his boat was bumped. He was furious. How dare someone come and interrupt him! Did they have no respect at all! I bet it is the annoying new acolytes deliberately providing him.
How dare someone make him angry and destroy his hard won peace!
He bounced up eager to give the rower in the other boat a real talking to….only to discover no-one there, the other boat that had bumped him was empty. It had drifted into him.
There was no other person to provoke him!
The anger had been inside him all the time just waiting for something to bump into it so it could come out!
Have you been blaming an empty rowing boat all along ?
Challenge Your Self!
Once a day over the next week take a 5 min time out to reflect on how easy it is for others to trigger you and what the impact that has.
Ask yourself if it really was the other person or event or if this is something that is inside of you just waiting for an excuse ?
Pay attention to the stories that come up that justify how you are feeling and practice not getting sucked into them. Imagine you are watching them play out on a movie screen, you are the observer.
