Conflict Resolution

I work and study conflict resolution and peace keeping methods. I imerse myself in methods of negotiation and dialogue.
I feel somehow connected to the Buddhistic way and the sense of every daily event a chance for practice.
But still I can surprise my self with irritation. Up close.
In my search for advice, I went to Johan Galtungs book on the topic, which I highly recommend, but in the end I found the teachings of the Buddha had a beautiful verse which serves inspirational and remindful, of the lovely fellow human beings we are surrounded by.

The Skilled Person

Regard the person who sees your faults
as a revealer of treasures.
Associate with that skilled person
as one who is wise, who speaks reprovingly.
Keeping company with such a person,
things get better, not worse.

He should exhort, instruct,
and restrain you from poor behavior.
To the good he is endearing,
to the bad he is unpleasant.

He would not associate with harmful friends.
He would not associate with the lowest of people.
So, you should associate with encouraging friends;
you should associate with the best of people.

He who imbibes the teaching
rests happily, with a clear mind.
The skilled person delights always
in the way revealed by the noble ones.

Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape wood.
The skilled tame themselves.

As a rock of single solid mass
cannot be moved by the wind,
so are the skilled unshaken
by praise and blame.

As a deep pond, clear, calm,
so do the skilled become serene,
having heard the teachings.

Good people stand apart everywhere.
The good do not initiate conversation
out of desire for enjoyment.
Touched now by pleasure, now by pain,
the skilled do not expose their highs and lows.

Neither for your own nor for anothers sake
should you wish for a son, wealth, or empire.
You should not wish for your own success
if acquired by improper means.
You should be virtuous, wise and honorable.

Few are those among the people
who cross to the other shore.
The rest of humanity just runs about
on the bank right here before us.

But those people who follow the way
when the teaching is well proclaimed
will go to the other shore.
The realm of death is so hard to traverse.

Having left the dark way,
the skilled person should cultivate the bright.
Coming from his home to no home,
in seclusion, where enjoyment is hard to find,
there he should hope for delight.
Having forsaken all desires, possessing nothing,
the skilled person should cleanse himself
of the afflictions of his mind.

Those whose minds are well trained
in the factors of full awakening
who delight, without clinging,
in the renunciation of grasping-
such bright ones, impulses destroyed,
are, in this very world, unbound.

-The Dhammapada (Teachings of the Buddha)