I saw a podcast with a Buddhist monk who reported that he had been in a corporate setting prior to joining the monastery and the head monk had given him the challenge to love his boss even though he disliked him. He tried all kind of tricks, like mentally superimposing the face of his brother on his boss every time he spoke to him and yes, slowly, the actions became more “lovable.” The boss started telling jokes and even opened up about his family life. The experiment worked! Slowly, but surely compassion towards his boss grew. Excited he went back to the head monk and told him how his boss had changed due to his effort to love him, but the head monk replied, “No, he hasn’t—you have!”
That’s an amazing insight! I ran similar experiments when I was still in the corporate world influenced by the teaching of A Course in Miracles. I was leading a group of investors who didn’t get along that well with a cooperative mindset and found that the positive results of our group interaction spoke for themselves. I had always presumed that I was able to influence the work interaction with the positive mindset, but then, maybe I changed my mind on that great experiment. Either way, please give this experiment a try—it worked for me too.
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