Author: Vladimir Pyatsky
Translation: Natasha Tsimbler
After settling for a time in a large city, I began searching for work. At first, I took a job as a laborer at the central bus station. The work was hard and poorly paid, but I valued the income it brought me, hoping to later find something more suitable. However, just a few days in, the shift supervisor rudely berated me and fired me for arriving a few minutes late to the start of the shift. He had more workers than he needed and seized the chance to use my tardiness during the lineup as an opportunity to teach everyone a lesson in discipline.
I was furious and frightened – where would I find the means to survive now? I could sense that this man was weak and insecure, someone I could have easily humiliated in front of the others to assert myself. But I remembered the story The Tiger in the Thickets, and held my tongue, stepping silently out of line. A storm raged within me, but I understood that I was its conductor.
As I walked home, lost in thought, I passed the hospital where I had left my information a week earlier. On a whim, I decided to check in with the HR department. The secretary – who clearly didn’t remember me – immediately asked me to go see the head nurse. As it turned out, they urgently needed someone to work in the sterile materials supply department starting that very morning. That someone became me. Fifteen minutes later, I had already started the job – a position I would hold for nearly three years, until I moved to another city.
This story is a reminder that the tiger is the master of its mountain – and must never leave it. Just so, the mind is the master of the senses and must cherish restraint and inner peace. The weak and unpleasant man who insulted me was, in truth, a messenger of the guardian deities, who found me the place that best suited the next step of my spiritual practice.
Author
Author: Vladimir Pyatsky
Translation: Natasha Tsimbler
After settling for a time in a large city, I began searching for work. At first, I took a job as a laborer at the central bus station. The work was hard and poorly paid, but I valued the income it brought me, hoping to later find something more suitable. However, just a few days in, the shift supervisor rudely berated me and fired me for arriving a few minutes late to the start of the shift. He had more workers than he needed and seized the chance to use my tardiness during the lineup as an opportunity to teach everyone a lesson in discipline.
I was furious and frightened – where would I find the means to survive now? I could sense that this man was weak and insecure, someone I could have easily humiliated in front of the others to assert myself. But I remembered the story The Tiger in the Thickets, and held my tongue, stepping silently out of line. A storm raged within me, but I understood that I was its conductor.
As I walked home, lost in thought, I passed the hospital where I had left my information a week earlier. On a whim, I decided to check in with the HR department. The secretary – who clearly didn’t remember me – immediately asked me to go see the head nurse. As it turned out, they urgently needed someone to work in the sterile materials supply department starting that very morning. That someone became me. Fifteen minutes later, I had already started the job – a position I would hold for nearly three years, until I moved to another city.
This story is a reminder that the tiger is the master of its mountain – and must never leave it. Just so, the mind is the master of the senses and must cherish restraint and inner peace. The weak and unpleasant man who insulted me was, in truth, a messenger of the guardian deities, who found me the place that best suited the next step of my spiritual practice.
