Lesson from a monk: The Empty Boat

A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation.

After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own.

With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared to disturb his meditation.

But when he opens his eyes, he sees it’s an empty boat that had probably got floated to the middle of the lake.

At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him.

From then on, whenever he comes across someone who irritates him or provokes him to anger, he reminds himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”

If you can empty your own boat
Crossing the river of the world,
No one will oppose you,
No one will seek to harm you.

Anger, in any form, is caused by frustration of a desire. In the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 62), Lord Shri Krishna says:

One develops attachment for the sense-objects by thinking about the sense-objects. Desire for sense-objects comes from attachment to them, and anger comes from unfulfilled desires.

In the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 5, Verse 26), Lord Shri Krishna says:

Those who are free from anger and all material desires, who are self-realized, self-disciplined and constantly endeavouring for perfection, are assured of liberation in the God in the very near future.

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The empty boat

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