“A student came before the Master Bankei and asked to be helped in getting rid of his violent temper.
– ‘Show me this temper,’ said Bankei. ‘It sounds very fascinating.’
– ‘I haven’t got it right now, so I can’t show it to you’, said the student.
– ‘Well then, said Bankei, bring it to me when you have it.’
– ‘But I can’t bring it just when I happen to have it,” protested the student. “I’d surely lose it again before I got it to you.’
– ‘In such a case,’ said Bankei, ‘it seems to me that this temper is not part of your true nature. If it is not part of you, it must come into you from outside. I suggest that whenever it gets into you, you beat yourself with a stick until the temper can’t stand it, and runs away.’
Source: An ancient parable of wisdom
