Be the Buddha

A very, very long time ago, a self-righteous man, who possessed great disdain for the erudite elements of society, overheard two old men speaking of the Buddha.

"Buddha can withstand 1,000 insults from anyone and never speak one in return," said one old man.
"It is true. No man on earth can move Buddha to anger. Buddha is controlled only by himself," said the other old man.

The self-righteous man scoffed upon over-hearing the words of the two old men. "It is not possible that any man cannot be angered, especially when provoked by another. I will prove that the Buddha is not invincible to another man's words!"

And the self-righteous man began a journey to visit the Buddha, who lived very far away. When he reached Buddha, he immediately began hurling insults at Buddha in order to anger him. He called Buddha names and he spake lies and disrespected him. Yet Buddha remained silent in the face of the man's harsh words. He continued to mock and revile Buddha for hours until the man fell into silent exhaustion.

The Buddha spoke. He asked the man a single question, "If you give someone a gift, and they refuse it, who then does the gift belong to?"

"The giver, of course," the man retorted.

"Exactly."

Recommended reading for the weekend: Fletch by Gregory McDonald