In a short but powerful teaching, Geshe Michael Roach explains a deep principle from the Yoga Sutra: the people and situations that irritate us are reflections of our own behavior. The external world mirrors our inner patterns.
“A person who is irritating is coming from your irritating behavior.”
When we complain about someone, saying how irritating they are, we are, often unknowingly, announcing our own past actions. According to the teachings, especially rooted in the ancient wisdom of the Yoga Sutra, recognizing irritation in others is a signpost pointing inward — to traits within ourselves.
At the Diamond Cutter Institute University, there is a beautiful culture of recognizing such moments. Often, conversations about others’ faults end mid-sentence, because students realize: complaining about someone else is an admission of their own karmic seeds at work.
“When you say, ‘I find her really irritating,’ you are really saying, ‘I am irritating.’”
This teaching invites us to take full responsibility for the way we perceive the world. Instead of blaming others, we can look inward and work on transforming the qualities we wish to change — knowing that the outside world will naturally reflect those inner changes.
