The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017 The Buddhist

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The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017: “The Buddhist”.
The author of “The Buddhist” is Alan Rossi. The main point in this particular story is that mediation reduces stress and promotes a healthy lifestyle by increasing happiness and self-awareness. Elise Grantwell seems not to be getting these benefits of mediation after she recently embraced it. It is for this reason that she has decided to contact the Buddhist to find out what the problem could be. As she explains her problem, the Buddhist learns that Elise Grantwell is not following the principles of mediation. One of such principles that she is not following is the principle of place. This particular principle states that meditation should be conducted in a quiet and undisturbed place. On the contrary, Elise conducts her meditation where her friends are. This is evidenced by their interruption greetings “Hey, Elise, you awake over there?”
The second principle that Elise Grantwell appears not to be following is the principle of attitude. This particular principle states that any individual who intends to meditate should have a positive attitude towards meditation (Rossi, p 43). On the contrary, Elise Grantwell has a negative attitude towards meditation. She explains to the Buddhist that meditation is adding her more stress. Her negative attitude is reflected in the question that she asks the Buddhist, “What if all this Buddhism stuff is bad for me? “Stuff” in this case refers to meditation.

This particular question appears to suggest that Elise is not willing to continue meditating (Rossi, p 57. One thing that Elise has failed to understand according to the Buddhist is that meditation benefits are achieved in the long term after an individual has become perfect in the game.
The third principle that Elise Grantwell appears not to be following is the principle of time. According to this particular principle, there are favorable times for conducting meditation. A good example of such a time is the time immediately after having a nap. This is because the mind is always calm during that time (Rossi, p47). On the contrary, Elise conducts her meditation in the middle of the day when she is with her friends. Her mind is never calm because of the insults she gets from her friends.
The significance of these insults is that they make her feel guilty when meditating. This is evidenced by her statement that says “But it’s hard to be with angry and obnoxious colleagues in a meeting.”Elise would not be feeling guilty when conducting meditation if she did it in during the morning immediately after waking up. This is because her friends would not be around her during this particular time.
Conclusively, mediation reduces stress and promotes a healthy lifestyle by increasing happiness and self-awareness. In our story of reference, Elise Grantwell did not get these benefits because she was not following certain principles. Some of the principles that she was violating include the principle of place, attitude and time. In my opinion, Elise Grantwell was right in her complains. This is because the Buddhist did not explain to her the principles of meditation when he was persuading her to embrace meditation so that she could end her stress. From my point of perspective, the Buddhist would have explained to Elise Grantwell that the benefits are achieved in the long term after an individual has become perfect in the game.

Works Cited
Rossi, Alan. “The Buddhist.” The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017, edited by Laura Furman. Vintage Anchor, 2017, pp. 42-61.