One day a Master asked his students the following: “Why do people yell at each other when they are angry?”
The students thought for a few moments: “Because we lose our cool, said one, that’s why we shout.”
“But why shout when the other person is next to you”, asked the Master. “Is it not possible to speak to him in a low voice? Why do you yell at a person when you are angry?”
The students gave some other answers but none of them satisfied the Master. Finally, he explained:
“When two people are angry, their hearts drift far apart. To cover that distance they must shout, to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the louder they will have to shout to hear each other across that great distance.”
Then the Master asked: “What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but speak softly… Why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small.”
The Master continued: “When they fall even more in love, what happens? They don’t talk, they just whisper and get closer in their love. Finally, they don’t even need to whisper. They just look at each other and that’s it. That’s right, how close two people are when they love each other!”
Then the Master said: “When you argue, do not let your hearts go away. Don’t say words that further distance you. There will come a day when the distance is so great that they will no longer find their way back.”
Photo by Afif Kusuma at Pexels
