Whenever we find ourselves confused, depressed, angry with someone, or upset with ourselves for whatever reasons, we must come wide awake and realize -- through our inner awareness -- that we suffer as we do because we are ruled in these moments by our own thoughts and feelings.
The degree to which we judge others, and would make them pay for their shortcomings, is inseparable from the false belief that our nature is somehow different, superior to those seen through the eyes of our disdain.
To hold a wish to punish someone begins with the unconscious embrace of the very pain we wish to inflict.
Any condition we meet that is unwanted, such as a rude person, is not the cause of our stress. All conditions simply offer a momentary mirror for us in which it is possible to begin seeing what we have brought with us, within ourselves, into that moment.
The first step in harmonious relationships is simple: We need only realize the spiritual truth that we cannot meet someone whom we are not like in some way.
The only way we can be released from any painful sense of false responsibility is to see that it is based in a false belief.