The Master and the Boulder in the Stream. by A. Paul Miller

A Master and a student were walking next to a stream when the student turned to the master and asked him about a fellow student.
“Master there is another student who is always trying to aggravate me. He goads and insults me in front of the others students, I do not know what to do.”

“What do you feel are your options?” asked the master.
The student very confused said “If I confront him and give as good as I am getting then I am no better than him. If I walk away then I’ll feel as though he wins and the others may perceive me as weak and afraid.”

The master guided the student over to the edge of the stream and asked if he could see the lone boulder in the middle of the stream.
“Is it rolling up into the stream trying to push back with the same amount of force as is impinging on?” he asked.
“No” the student replied.
“Is it being pushed down the stream by the force of the water with no control over its path?”
“No” the student replied.

“What is it doing?” asked the master.
The student thought for a moment and then said “It is just being there and letting the flow and the force of the water move around it, but how am I supposed to be like that?”

"What is it feeling?” asked the master.
“Nothing it’s a rock "the student quickly replied.

The master sighed, “You are thinking your feelings not actually feeling the rock, try to project yourself into the rock and tell me what it is feeling.
As the student imagined himself moving into the rock, the master quietly guided him to feel the river bed beneath him and ask himself what that felt like. Then he asked the student to imagine the water just flowing around him cold, clear and refreshing.

Gently, so as not to make the student loose his concentration he asked, “What is the boulder feeling”

In a voice filled with deep connection the student whispered ”Peace and stillness. A detachment from the flow and yet a part of the world of the surrounding river.”

“Good and when do you feel like that in your daily life?” the master asked.

“When I am meditating.“

“Exactly”, said the master "and that is how you should be with the other student’s discordant attitude. He is giving you a gift, a training place with which to hone yourself to be like the boulder.”