The Empty Boat
A monk once decided to meditate in isolation. He took a boat and travelled to the center of a tranquil lake. He anchored his boat and closed his eyes, let himself fall in deep meditation. After a while, of peaceful and undisturbed meditation, suddenly his boat was rocked and his peaceful meditation was broken. With his eyes closed, he could still understand that another boat had collided onto his, causing the disturbance. Anger, welled through him and he opened his eyes to curse the person on the other boat. He saw that the other boat had no one on it and it was just drifting along, aimlessly and had hit his boat by accident. The monk, realized that anger dwells within and empty vessels/external objects cause it to erupt. He attained self realization. From then on, whenever he bumps into a person, who irritates or angers, he reminds himself, 'The other person is an empty vessel, the anger is within us.' Moral: Control oneself to have control over others.