Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in a Kingdom full of luxury and wealth. He had an easy life. But Buddha was moved by suffering in the outside world.
By all accounts, Buddha found enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. He went on to become one of the great spiritual teachers.
In today’s world, we live in a situation where we are tenant by stress, ego, greed, and many other negative emotions.
Buddha’s teachings will help us to overcome this.
One day Buddha went to a village with his disciples. Hearing Buddha’s visit, many villagers turned out to seek his blessings.
A businessman running a business with his children was furious with Buddha.
He thought Buddha was doing something wrong by simply drawing his children and other people in the village to meditate without doing anything.
And he felt spending time just seeing Buddha, whose eyes were always closed, was a complete waste of time.
Instead, his Children should help his business to make more money.
He said, “Today, I will teach him a lesson.”
He went angrily towards Buddha. As soon as he approached Buddha, he felt some difference. But the anger in him did not dissipate.
He was speechless and was not able to express his emotions in words. He slaps Buddha’s face.
Buddha, in return, smiled back at him.
Seeing this, his disciples and the villagers were furious with the businessman.
But in Buddha’s presence, they controlled their emotions and kept quiet.
The businessman noticed that his action had not drawn any reaction from the people around him.
Then he thought, “If I continue staying here, I will explode again.”
So he walked away from that place.
He returned to his home. The image of a smiling Buddha occupied his mind.
In his life, for the first time, he met someone who controlled their emotions for a disrespectful action.
He went to sleep but could not sleep throughout the night. He was shivering.
Businessman felt that something was happening to him and the whole world turned upside down.
The next day, he went to Buddha and fell at his feet, “Please forgive me for my action.”
Buddha replied, “I cannot forgive you.”
Hearing Buddha’s reply, his disciples and villagers were shocked.
Buddha has been compassionate throughout his life and accepted everyone in his ashram regardless of their past. And now he is saying he could not excuse businessman behavior.
Sensing everyone’s shock, he explained, “Why should I excuse you when you have not done anything.”
The businessman replied, “It is me yesterday slap on your face.”
Buddha said, “That person is not here anymore. If I ever meet the person on whom you slap, I will tell him to excuse you!.
Now to the person here in this moment, you are glorious, and you have not done anything wrong.”
Moral of the story:
In life, true forgiveness is not just saying, “I forgive you!.
When we forgive a person, that person should never know. They should never feel guilty about their mistake.
Instead, if we forgive them and keep reminding them about their mistake will make them guilty. Then it is not true forgiveness.
It is a punishment.
Thankyou for Reading............