A monk goes out on a boat in a small lake to meditate. After a few hours of uninterrupted silence, he suddenly feels the jarring impact of another boat bumping into his. ​ While he does not open his eyes, he feels the irritation and anger building within him. ​ “Why would someone do that? Can’t they see me here? How dare they disturb my meditation?” ​ He opens his eyes, ready to shout at the person in the other boat, only to realize that it is empty. It had come untied from the dock and was floating in the middle of the lake. ​ In that moment, his anger and frustration disappears. After all, you cannot be angry at an empty boat.

The Empty Boat Mindset is the reminder that most of these collisions you experience in life are with an empty boat. There is no negative intent. There is no desire to harm. They are simply the random collisions of objects floating along on the lake of life.