20% off all products!   Sale ends tonight at midnight EST.

What To Do With Anger

Judith Toy

Blog #140 of 268

Previous

|

Next

January 16th, 2019 - 09:40 AM

What To Do With Anger

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patience. The winter trees wait patiently for spring. The tiniest critters dig in for the season and wait. The brooding sky abides. Emerson believed in reimagining the divine as nature--large and visible--the transcendentalist's way of perceiving with our innate senses a new God to whom we belong. Thus, we merge with our surroundings: patience at the pace of nature.

Tonight after our regular Wednesday evening meditation, we'll be reading a section of a long teaching on patience as a foil for anger. In Buddhism, patience is considered a godly abode, one of the Six Perfections. And we can also consider the patience of our Christian model of Jesus, who when attacked, did not attack back, did not react; when suffering, did not threaten, but entrusted himself completely to God. When we're practicing patience, are we waiting for something? No, we are simply abiding in the present moment. And perhaps offering up a prayer.

The 11th century Buddhist saint Shantideva, in the book we're reading as a group, says a single flash of anger can shatter the good works of a thousand ages. So it behooves us to learn patience, learn not to react. I'm struggling with a family situation into which I get unwittingly drawn. Over and over. I don't want this. So with the help of my friend B.B., I've written some scripts--actual phrases I can use when talking or texting with family, to help me unhinge from the drama.

Thich Nhat Hanh gave me the Dharma (not drama) name True Door of Peace. I long to live up to my name.

Comments

Post a Comment

There are no comments on this blog.   Click here to post the first comment.