Action can be of two types: either it can be a reaction or it can be a response.
Somebody insults you. You become angry — he has pushed your button. In fact he is the master, you are behaving like a slave. He has managed to create anger in you.
He is in control. If he wants to change the situation he can say, "I am sorry," and things will be different. You are just a victim; you don't have any control of the situation.
When somebody insults you, you are immediately reacting out of your past experiences.
This reaction is really karma.
It is a binding force; it creates chains for you.
But a response is a totally different thing from reaction.
A response is not produced by the other person. He insults you, he abuses you — you listen to him, he is making certain statements about you.
A man of understanding, a man of awareness, a man of meditation will simply listen to it.
He is making some statements …good or bad, that is not the concern of the moment. First you listen to him without immediately going into a reaction. You allow your awareness like a mirror to reflect whatever he is saying, or whatever he is doing. And out of your mirror-like, immediate, in the present, not-from-past-experience awareness, some response comes.
OSHO
