Miscommunications, grapevine gossips, brawls, and anxiety are all

integral ongoings at the workplace. In combat against those elements,

forgiveness and accommodation and self-examination aplenty, or, as

taught in the sutras, patience paramita, are the surest measures. There

is a nice little Chan story.

A sramanera returned from an outing a little miffed. He headed before

the master to empty his load of complaints. Yapping about how someone

he encountered was in the wrong and himself in the right, he was also

desperate for response from the master, who, incidentally, kept mum

about the whole thing for a while before he started pouring tea into a

cup. He carried on doing it even when tea was overflowing the cup. The

novice, much astounded, questioned his master:

‘Why, master, are you doing that? Tea is running over.’

‘Your mind,' replied the master, ' resembles the teacup. Tea is running

over because I let it. Your mind abounds in defilement. If you' re not

clearing the mind, how is defilement therein ever to go away?’

The message finally clicked; the sramanera finally got it. The dossier

tells how the most effective management for anxiety and injustice is to

settle down, look within ourselves, forgive and forget. The strife will end

up taking care of itself.