Anger

Buddha was walking into the city market one day, and near the city entrance an old bitter man was sitting on a box glaring at Buddha, who carried a bright smile on his face. At the sight of him the old man started cursing Buddha, telling him how pretentious he was, how much better he thought he was and how he was not worth of the air he breathed. But Buddha simply smiled and kept walking to the market to get what he needed.

The next day Buddha returned to the market and once again the old man was there, and this time his cursing intensified, screaming and yelling at Buddha as he walked by, cursing his mother, father and everyone else in his life.

This went on for the rest of the week, and finally as the Buddha was leaving the market the man came up to him, as his curiosity had gotten the best of him. "Buddha, every day you come here smiling and every day I curse your name, I curse your family, and I curse everything you believe in", the old man said. "But every day you enter this city with a smile knowing that I await you with my harsh tongue, and everyday you leave through the same entrance with the same smile. I know by speaking to you now that you are not deaf, so why do you keep on smiling while I do nothing but scream the worst things I can think of to your face?"

Buddha, with the same smile still on his face, looked at the old man and asked, "If I were to bring you a gift tomorrow morning wrapped in a beautiful box, would you accept it?", to which the old man replied, "Absolutely not, I would take nothing from the likes of you!". "Ah ha", the Buddha replied, "Well if I were to offer you this gift and you were to refuse, then who would this gift belong to?". "It would still belong to you, of course", answered the old man. "And so the same goes with your anger, when I choose not to accept your gift of anger, it will still remain with you only"