Daily Ground – – -January 9th
Stay in your lane. . .
I once heard a Buddhist Monk tell a story: A new monk entered a monastery and he witnessed the young monks washing the older monk’s feet at the end of each day. The new monk thought to himself, “How stupid. Look at these silly monks. They are really pumping up that old monk’s ego.” Day after day, 30 young monks would rush to wash this venerable monk’s feet. The new monk would continue thinking, “That is disgusting! Why are 30 monks washing his feet? I’ll never do that!” Days passed and the new monk was stuck in his head with his angry thoughts. Eventually he let go a bit, and began to think, “Why am I so angry about this? They aren’t really hurting anyone. Why is their behavior disturbing me? They aren’t even asking me to participate, and they don’t seem to be judging me. In fact, they look pretty happy washing his feet.” The next day instead of 30 monks washing feet, 31 monks washed the venerable monk’s feet.
I can find myself being outraged for things that truly don’t affect me. When I don’t create space between myself and others – it sure FEELS like it affects me, but once I can truly look at my thoughts and feelings for what they are, like the monk did in the story, I can at the very least stop my disgust and anger at others, and at best, I can join in washing feet.
Peace.
piecesofpeace1 