An Old Buddhist Story About Forgiveness | Gelong Thubten

There's an old Buddhist story that illustrates how we can develop forgiveness. Somebody throws a stone at you, hits you with the stone. And then the Buddhist teacher says to you, who are you angry with? And then you would say, I'm angry with the person. The teacher says, well, it was the stone that hit you, not the person, so why aren't you angry with the stone? And then you would say, I'm not angry with the stone because the stone had no intention. It's just an inanimate object. It was thrown by the person, so I'm angry with that person. Then the teacher says, well, using that logic, you should not be angry with the person. You could be angry with their pain because the person is just like the stone, helplessly thrown by their pain. So if we understand this way of thinking, this can help us to build understanding and forgiveness.