TROUBLEMAKERS SHOW US WHERE WE’RE STUCK
Those
who give us a hard time, who are difficult to be around or who
constantly blow our cover, are the very ones who show us where we we’re
stuck. The great meditation master Atisha always traveled with his
belligerent Bengali tea-boy because it kept him honest. Without his
ill-tempered servant to test him, he might have been able to deceive
himself about his degree of equanimity. Troublemakers up the ante: if we
can practice patience with them, we can practice it with anyone.
Pema Chodrun