Once Gautam the Buddha was passing by the side of a village. The village was populated by anti-Buddhists; so much so that although Buddha had just bypassed them – he had not even entered the village for the simple reason that he did not want to create any unnecessary scene there.
As villagers know about this they came rushing out of the village behind him surrounded him and started abusing him in every possible way, using language which one should not use against another human. The followers of Buddha really became angry. They were ready to hit back, but in front of Gautam the Buddha, it was impossible for them to take any action before he said something. And what he said puzzled everybody, shocked everybody.
He turned to his disciples and said, ”You have disappointed me. Those people are doing their thing. They are angry. They think that I am an enemy of their religion, of their moral values – naturally, they are angry. And I am listening to them; they are abusing me, not abusing you. Why are you getting angry? Although you are controlling yourself, that does not make any difference. You have allowed those people to manipulate you. Are you their slaves?”
The people of the village were also puzzled. They fell into a strange silence. Buddha said to them, ”I am in a hurry to reach the other village, where people are waiting for me. If you are finished, I can go. Or if something else is still there in your mind, when I come back I will inform you ahead. At that time you can complete the whole thing. So am I allowed to go?”
Those people said, ”We have been abusing you, saying all sorts of dirty things against you; many of them are lies. But you are so calm, as if we have just welcomed you, greeted you, and you are asking our permission to go ahead.”
Buddha said, ”Whatever you have done, that is your problem. I do not react, I act. Nobody can force me to do something, nobody can influence me to do something. If I want to do it, nobody can prevent me from doing it. – they are never reactions.”
