The Buddha, and a face full of spit.

Steven Barnes
7 min readSep 30, 2019

There is a story that the Buddha was lecturing a group of interested people, and one man in the crown heckled him, asking obtuse questions, mocking, even directly insulting. Finally, the Buddha paused. “Excuse me, sir. You have asked many questions, and I have attempted to answer. I would now like to ask you a question.”

“Sure,” the guy smirked.

“Very good. If someone offers you a present, and you decline to accept it, to whom does the gift belong?”

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Steven Barnes

Steven Barnes is a NY Times bestselling author, ecstatic husband and father, and holder of black belts in three martial arts. www.lifewritingpodcast.com.