Working with Anger
I would like to carry less anger in my heart. My motivation is in part based on something that Santideva, the 8th century Buddhist teacher, mentions. Santideva states that just one explosion of anger is enough to wipe away a lot of previous merit accumulated through working with injunctions from the Dharma. In this context, Venerable Robina Courtin, the Australian Buddhist nun, mentions advice given by the Dalai Lama. To paraphrase what he said, ‘if one is going to be selfish, one may as well be “wise selfish”’. This is something to consider when approaching dealing with anger. The main reason I must work on anger is because it benefits me. By learning to open my heart to others, and by moving past the energy of anger, I benefit myself and I accumulate karmic merit. The fact that this leads to skillful mental faculties that I can use to benefit all sentient beings is also true, but I cannot help others if I don’t first bring my own consciousness to a place of strength and stability.
Now, Santideva offers an insight on working with anger that stands out to me in its efficacy. He says that when someone acts angrily towards us or even harms us, we should recognize that their actions aren’t of their own volition. They are acting, instead, while enslaved by neurotic states of mind, including anger. If we recognize that we come to our senses when we free ourselves of neuroses, then we can also see that someone who has harmed us is gripped by neurotic thoughts and impulses when they did the harming. Since we can see the difference in our subjective state when we are free of neuroses as opposed to when we are enslaved by them, we can also opine that such is possible for those that have harmed us. Santideva goes on to say that the most appropriate response to anger is not getting angry ourselves, but instead aspiring to develop the ability to free others from emotional reactivity and confusion.
References
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Pema Chodron’s teachings on Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara
