If you poke your finger in a lake or ocean what do you get? More Water.
If you poke your finger in a desert what do you get? More Sand.
If you poke your finger in a watermelon what do you get? More Watermelon.

If I was to poke you – what would come out of you? Now, I do not mean the blood and physical stuff but emotionally. What will pour out of you? Will it be love, anger, jealousy, fear, happiness? What do you want to come out of you? And what input are you giving yourself? Are the input and the output in sync?

Let’s say you love a person. If this person is right next to you – do you have love towards that person? What if the person is 3 miles away from you? What if the person is at the office? What if the person is on another continent? In all these situations you are capable of feeling loving towards the person regardless of the distance.

Now, let’s say this person dies – are you still capable of loving them? Yes. So the capability of love exists within you – it has nothing to with that person. That person is just the medium through which you express your love but the love comes from you and stays within you even of the object of love is dead. [This story has been taken from inner engineering program by Sadhguru]

It does raise an interesting question. Most of the time we are under the impression that we feel something because of some other person. Like if we are angry its because the other person did not do what we wanted them to do. We are jealous because they got something we wanted. We are sad because something did not happen the way we wanted. But if we are capable of generating love within us, then it means we are capable of creating other emotions within us too without the other person being involved. Now, you might argue that even though the other person is not there – their memory is what is responsible for the emotion.

Ok, but then does it mean that everybody who sees that person feels the same emotion as you. For example, you have a neighbor who gets on your nerves. The minute you see the neighbor your mood turns nasty, and you transform into a devil from an angel. So, this neighbor is responsible for that transformation. But, then does everybody who sees him feel the same way? No, his family must adore him. His mother might think he is god’s gift to the world. So, if other people are responsible for our emotions then how come we all don’t feel the same way towards that person.

We are responsible for how we feel. Nobody else can make us feel something. It is our choice whether we recognize it or not. We react to the story that we have told ourselves within our head. We are reacting to that story and not the person. Regardless of whether the other person is a saint or a robber – we have an image, perception of who this person is and that is what we react to.

If all our stories are filled with love then only love will pour out of you if I poke you.

What do you want to come out of you when poked?