Somnambulists
Reaction is of the mind; response is of the no-mind.
Somebody insulted Buddha. His disciple Ananda asked him, “I was getting very angry and you kept quiet. You should have at least allowed me; I would have put him right.” Buddha said, “You surprise me. First he surprised me, now you surprise me. Whatsoever he was saying is simply irrelevant. It is unconnected with us, so why get into it? But you surprise me more: you have become very annoyed, you look angry. This is foolish. To punish oneself for somebody else’s error is foolish. You are punishing yourself. Cool down. There is no need to be angry — because anger is fire. Why are you burning your own soul? If he has committed some mistake, why do you punish yourself? It is stupid”…but we react.
One man was saying to one of his friends, “To please my wife, I have given up smoking, drinking, and playing cards.”
“That must make her very happy,” said his friend.
“No, it has not. Now, every time she begins to talk to me, she can’t think of anything to say.”
People live mechanical-robot-like lives. If your wife has been continuously nagging you to stop smoking, and you think that she will be happy if you stop, you are wrong. If you smoke she is unhappy, if you stop smoking she will be unhappy, because then she will not find any excuse to nag you.
Watch yourself, watch others, and see how they are behaving in a mechanical way: unconscious, like somnambulists, sleepwalkers.
Reaction is of the mind; response is of the no-mind.
