Plank in the eye

I was listening to a Buddhist podcast on how to respond to difficult people. The story goes that there was this very difficult, angry and fault finding guy who went to test out Buddha's tolerance threshold. He spewed insults on Buddha to see his reaction. Buddha asked the man what would happen if he offered someone a gift and the later did not accept it. The man replied he would have to bring it home for his own use. Likewise Buddha told the man he would have to bring home all his "gifts" as Buddha did not take them

I thought this story would be a good one to tell my teenage client who often finds people around him intolerable and difficult.  However since he came from a Christian family I thought a teaching from the Bible may be helpful. From the web I found these verses from Mathew relevant:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ....first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

The Buddhist podcast had ended with a guide on metta meditation, a meditation on loving kindness towards the person whom we find difficult, quietly saying in our heart:
May you be happy
May you be safe
May you be healthy
May you live with ease

Since it may be difficult to go straight into wishing a difficult person well, we were guided to initially wish ourselves well with the same phrases. As I practiced quietly saying these well wishes for myself my body and mind settled into a quiet peace and when I turned the metta practice on the so called difficult person the intensity of adversity towards the person had already dwindled substantially. It dawns on me it was my own mood and the constitution in my mind and body that affect the degree of 'difficulty' I perceived of the person.

The verses in Mathew may be coming from a different context of not judging others so that you will not be judged. However I find the metaphor of a plank in your own eye so very relevant. The very plank so huge but of which we are oblivious is the way we perceived others often aggravated by our mood, misunderstanding and habitual tendencies.

Be it from the Bible or Buddhist teachings, there certainly is something to share with my client. Only I 'll be glad for some divine help whichever source it comes from.