Last week I set aside an afternoon to attend a workshop to be led by a renowned teacher from India. I was running late so I rushed to the venue, arriving on time but feeling short of breath and slightly stressed. Then I was relieved to find that the teacher has not arrived yet. I even had time to go to the loo, sit down, have a glass of water and wipe off my sweat!
We all sat down on our mats and started meditating while waiting for the teacher. Ten minutes went by. Then twenty minutes. It’s very unusual for a teacher of this stature to be so late, I thought. The organizers said they couldn’t reach her on the phone. We gathered something must be wrong.
I meditated for a while, then pulled out my journal and started writing. The fact that I am about to waste my entire afternoon sitting and waiting for someone who may or may not show up didn’t seem to bother me.
By now an hour has passed. Finally the organizers found out that her assistant made a mistake and thought the class was meant for the following day.
My judgmental habit energy quickly took over me, and I heard its voice saying, “That is so wrong. There are people who took the day off from work to attend this workshop”!
What I did notice was that although I was disappointed, I wasn’t actually angry. It suddenly becomes quite clear to me that to identify something as wrong, doesn’t mean you have to feel wronged against.
Many of us feel angry when we see events should have happened differently. I recall vividly how furious I felt when I splurged on an expensive and long-anticipated dinner only to find half-cooked food on the table served by unprofessional staff. Something as minor as that bothered me for days……
So this time I surprised myself by not feeling angry at all.
Wow, it’s liberating!
Although the teacher didn’t show up at all, I experienced a great lesson nonetheless: Knowing something is wrong does not mean you have to be bothered by it.
A Tale of Two Ovaries 