According to an old Japanese legend, a combative samurai once asked a Zen priest to explain heaven and hell to him. But the priest replied contemptuously: ‘You are nothing but a brat, I do not waste my time with your kind!’ Struck in his honor, the samurai was furious, drew his sword from its sheath and shouted: ‘You shall die to me for your insolence!’ ‘That is’, the priest replied calmly, ‘hell’. Amazed by the realization of the truth of what the priest had said about anger that had taken hold of him, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed to thank the priest for the insight. ‘And that,’ said the priest, ‘is heaven.’ The samurai’s sudden insight into his own state of arousal makes the decisive difference clear whether one is caught up in his feelings or whether one realizes that one is being carried away by it. Socrates’ exhortation ‘know yourself’ addresses this cornerstone of emotional intelligence, to become aware of one’s feelings as they arise.