[Daily OM]: There are many stories of spiritual
masters embracing the presence of an annoying student in their
community. There is even one story that documents a teacher paying an
irritating person to live among his students. From an everyday
perspective, this is difficult to comprehend. We generally work hard to
avoid people and things that we find annoying so they don't bother us.
From a deeper spiritual perspective, however, irritation can be an
important teacher and indicator that we are making progress on our path.
Being able to remain centered and awake even when we feel uncomfortable
is much more impressive than doing so in an environment where
everything is to our liking. No matter how good we are at controlling
our circumstances, there will always be factors and people that we
cannot control. How we respond to these experiences to a great degree
determines the quality of our lives. The goal of spiritual development
is not to learn to control our environment--which is more of an
ego-driven desire....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...