A Zen student said to his teacher,
“Master, I have an ungovernable temper. Please help me get rid of it.”
The teacher looked at him calmly.
“You have something very strange. Show it to me.”
“Right now I can’t,” replied the student.
“Why not?”
“Because it appears suddenly. I never know when it will come.”
The teacher smiled.
“Then how can you say it belongs to you?”
The student thought for a moment.
The teacher continued,
“If it were truly yours, you could show it to me whenever you wished.”
The student remained silent.
The teacher said,
“Your anger is like a cloud. It comes and goes, but it is not who you are.”
The student nodded.
“So what should I do when it appears?”
The teacher replied,
“Do not fight it. Do not follow it. Simply watch it.”
The student bowed.
From that day forward, whenever anger appeared, he paused before reacting.
Slowly, his temper became weaker.
He finally understood that sometimes the best way to control anger is not to fight it, but to stop giving it control over your actions.
