Overcoming Anger

The Chemistry of Anger
'In one who dwells longingly on sense objects, an inclination towards them is generated. This inclination develops into desire, and desire begets anger. Anger generates delusion, and delusion results in loss of memory. Loss of memory brings about the destruction of discriminative intelligence, and loss of discriminative intelligence spells ruin to a man.'

Teachings in the Dhammapada In the light of what we have discussed above, we can understand
1. Let a man put away anger, let him forsake pride, let him
2. He who curbs his rising anger like a chariot gone astray,
3. Let a man overcome anger by non-anger (gentleness), let
4. One should speak the truth, not yield to anger. By these
5. This is an old saying, O Atala, this is not a saying only
6. There never was, nor will be, nor is there now to be found,
7. Anger activates our body, tongue and mind. And we can then
Beware of bodily anger, and control your body. Give up the
Beware of anger of your tongue, and control your tongue. Having
Beware of the anger of the mind and control your mind. Give
The Roots of Amity
Once when the Buddha happened to visit Kosambi he learnt about
‘Bhikkhus, you are disputing, and hurling taunts at
Bhikkhus, there are six states of consciousness which conduce
The Buddha continued: ‘1. Acts of goodwill towards fellow
These are the six states of consciousness which, being in
Listen, Bhikkhus, these six states of consciousness lead to
It is certain that those who will sincerely practise the simple
The Great Metta Sutta
There is another teaching of the Buddha which will guide us
‘May all beings be happy and secure, may they be
And let him cultivate goodwill towards all in the world, a Standing, walking or sitting or lying down, as long as he
Teachings of Western Mystics
In the Old Testament when the patriarch Joseph sent back his
St. Francis De Sales quotes this one significant advice of
St. James writes: ‘Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let
‘It is better to deny entrance to just and reasonable
In a letter to the Ephesians St.Paul writes: ‘... let
The purport of this precept is that if the mind nurtures anger,
For banishing anger which has already arisen, De Sales suggests
his direct teachings, recorded in the famous scripture, Dhammapada. Any earnest person can practise these simple precepts. A few of these maxims are:
get beyond worldly attachments; no suffering befalls him who is not attached to name and form, who calls nothing his own.
him I call a real charioteer; other people are but holding the reins.
him overcome evil by good; let him overcome miserliness by liberality; let him overcome lies by truth.
means one will certainly come into the presence of the gods.
of today. ‘They blame him who remains silent, they blame him who talks much, they blame him who speaks in moderation. There is not any one in the world who is not blamed.’
anyone who is (wholly) blamed, anyone who is (wholly) praised.
hurt others; more so ourselves, by these means. Therefore we have these teachings:
sins of the body. Practise virtue with your body.
abandoned the sins of speech, practise virtue with speech.
up the sins of the mind and practise virtue with your mind.
disputes prevailing among the bhikkhus of that locality. He called the disputing bhikkhus to his presence and addressed them thus:
one another, because you do not seem to know the states of consciousness which lead to harmony and peace.
to unity and harmony.’
beings. 2. Words of goodwill sincerely spoken. 3. Thoughts of goodwill sincerely harboured. 4. Sharing with others all that you have down to the last crumb of bread. 5. Sharing with others your higher life of flawless virtue. 6. Removing all evil around you with the noble saving creed of love.
themselves friendly and respectful, lead to accord, amity, and love.
supreme knowledge. Each of these leads successively, a step further; and while there is something further to be done, let there be no falling back in your step.’
but priceless principles of the above Sutta in their daily life, will be able to overcome anger very soon. The whole world needs these precepts for saving itself from destruction, at the individual and societal levels.
in our efforts to overcome anger, and also help us develop a disposition in which even the impulse to be angry will be absent. Controlling or overcoming anger which has arisen is certainly good. But it is better to have a mind from which only love and bliss flow to all creatures in every direction. This teaching is known as the Metta-Sutta, which was reportedly taught to Bimbisara, the Magadha king. Buddha taught that all people seeking the well being of themselves and others should cultivate this disposition of universal love:
happy-minded.
boundless (friendly) mind, above and below and across, unobstructed without hatred, without enmity
is awake, let him devote himself to this mind, this way of living they say is the best in this world.’
brothers from Egypt to his father’s house in the land of Canan in the western Palestine, he gave them only one advice: ‘Be not angry on the way.’
Joseph and writes to a devout disciple: ‘This wretched life is but a journey to the happy life to come. Let us not be angry with one another on the way, but rather let us march on with the band of our brethren and companions, meekly, peaceably and lovingly. ... Admit of no pretext whatsoever to open your heart to anger.’
every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.’
anger, than to admit to it, be it ever so little. Once admitted, it is with difficulty driven out again. It enters as a little twig and in less than no time, it grows big and becomes a beam,’ says St. Augustine.
not the sun go down upon your wrath.’
it will manufacture out of it hatred, which will be extremely difficult to get rid of. Anger is always well supplied with thousand false pretexts for nourishing it. ‘There was never an angry man who thought that his anger was unjust.’
that we must act in the following manner speedily and promptly: ‘We must invoke God’s help in the manner the apostles did when they were tossed by the wind and the storm upon the waters.’

The reference here is to an incident in the New Testament. Christ and some of his apostles were at sea in a boat. When Christ had fallen asleep in the boat, there arose a great storm and tossed it about. ‘And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord save us, we perish.’ ‘And he said unto them, Why are ye fearful O Ye of little faith Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.’ When we call upon the sleeping God within us, he will awake and command our pas to be still.

Cultivating Meekness
It is written in the New Testament: ‘If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remembers that thy brother bath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.’

Anger is so destructive of the spiritual potentialities of a person. This corrosive poison should be expelled at the earliest.

For being able to perform this simple-sounding act of meekness, one will have to swallow one’s pride and transcend one’s ego.

The term ‘Christian perfection’ is the manifestation in a character of those qualities of head and heart which spontaneously blossomed in and through Christ’s life and actions.

One of the qualities which makes for perfection is meekness. Christ himself, and after him most of the celebrated Christian mystics have emphasised the wonderful efficacy of meekness in attaining spiritual perfection.

Meekness To Ourselves
Christian mystics who, following the example and teachings of Christ, teach meekness as a way of life, would not permit its dissociation from our thought and conduct, either in relation to ourselves or in relation to others.

St. Francis De Sales teaches: ‘When the subject is within ourselves, one of the best exercises of meekness we can perform is never to fret at our own imperfections.’

Meekness Towards Others
How do we make peace with others and become reconciled? In his short, yet wonderful book Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis says: ‘When a man humbles himself for his offences, he pleases others, and reconciles himself to them whom he has offended. The meek man Almighty God protects and comforts; to him he inclines himself and sends him the bounty of his grace.’

St. Abba Dorotheus, one of the Desert Fathers, who lived between the 6th and 7th centuries, writing in the ‘Directions on Spiritual Training,’ teaches about the great efficacy of humility in overcoming anger.

Greatness of Humility
Humility is neither angered, nor angers any one. Humility attracts God’s grace to the soul; and God’s grace, when it comes delivers the soul from these two grievous passions. For what can be more grievous than to be angry with one’s neighbour or to anger him? Does humility deliver one from only two passions? It delivers the soul from every passion and every temptation.

The therapeutic effect of humility is universal. Humility works as an antidote to anger for all, everywhere, and at all times. Cultivation of humility will help everyone first to discipline anger, and finally to overcome it.

Preparations to Overcome Anger
It is essential to practice prescribed disciplines to bring some order in our inner life and thus gradually overcome anger. This good work may proceed apace, on the assumption that the world and the environment will be conducive to such practices.

However, life is not always smooth, and then, within us there are hidden, unknown, unregenerate emotions which might burst forth if kindled even accidentally. It is prudent to be forearmed for a bad turn of events. Suppose your friendly overtures are unexpectedly confronted with rudeness and aggressive behaviour, and you find that you are getting enraged, how can you avoid retaliating in kind? In anticipating such an eventuality, we will be prepared to expect the unexpected.

Additionally we can master some simple techniques as taught by Lorenzo Scupoli, an Italian priest who lived and worked in the 16th century. He teaches in his book Unseen Warfare:

Make it a rule every morning, while you still sit at home, to review in your mind all the occasions you may meet with in the course of the day, both favourable and unfavourable, and visualize the passions they may provoke; then prepare in yourself beforehand how to stifle them at the very inception, without allowing them to develop.

If you do this you will never be taken unawares by any movement of passions, but will always be ready to resist them, without being troubled with anger or enticed by lust.

But suppose this preparation, which will be helpful in normal and expected situations, fails and passions are excited suddenly, what should be done?

In such a case act as follows: as soon as you feel a passionate impulse hasten to curb it by an effort of will, descend into your heart with the attention of your mind, and try in every possible way not to let the passion enter the heart. Watch to prevent the heart being irritated by what irritates, or attracted by what attracts. If, however, either the one or the other arises in your heart, to begin with try to prevent it from coming out; do not express it either by word, look or gesture.

How the mind is to be made to dive into the heart is to be learnt from an authentic teacher. While there are other methods, what is being quoted here is a non- dualistic one.

Non-dualistic Method
A disciple once put to Sri Ramana Maharshi, precisely this question: ‘How is the mind to dive into the heart?’

Other measures to be adopted for tiding over explosive situations are:

i. To invoke God’s help to throw out the passionate movement of anger or desire, and to replace by opposing good thoughts.

ii. To cut at the roots of the causes of such disastrous movements, which are our likes and dislikes, our wrong attraction, and wrong attachments.

iii. To remember the precept:
‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thin heart.’

An Integrated Approach
While conventional piety has its advantages, faced by real-life situations of modern society, we need to take a new look into ancient spiritual traditions in order to discover methods of meaningful and sane living. Many social scientists are looking to indigenous traditions for conflict resolution and crisis management.

Modern people need religious education and spiritual inspiration in the context of management of anger and conflict. It would appear that the need for self-discipline is much greater today than it was for our ancestors.

From the lives of the saints and from the teachings of the Gita we learn that anger can be completely overcome:

‘He who is not perturbed by adversity, who does not long for happiness, who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a man of steady wisdom.’

This is the realistic description of an attained state, to which there need be no doubt that anger can be overcome.

Need for Yama-Niyama
But experience will show us that in spite of our conscious effort to cultivate the inner climate, our attempt at developing the habit of non-anger (Akrodha) is being thwarted by some unregenerate forces being released from our subconscious. If we cannot educate those forces from within and regulate them to cooperate with our noble aspiration preserved on the surface level of the mind, our attempts at overcoming anger are most likely to be frustrated.

This hard task can be accomplished by devotedly practising two disciplines of Yama and Niyama. Yama consists of the practice of non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non- receiving of motivated gifts. Niyama consists of the practice of internal and external purification, contentment, mortification, study, and worship of God.

Great Efficacy of Gayatri
This spiritual energy needs to he channelled in a direction which is creative and beneficial, indicating to the aspirant the goal towards which he should move onward. The great prayer in the Rig-veda, known as the Gayatri Mantra, is a prayer for illumination of the Buddhi so that we are enabled to proceed to the desired destination. This, in substance, is the Gayatri prayer:’ We meditate upon that adorable effulgence of the resplendent Life giver, Savitur; may he stimulate our intellects.’

It is only the divinely stimulated intellect which can truly grasp the need to overcome anger. It can understand the methods of overcoming it and supply us with the energy to strive to that end, without allowing the efforts to come to naught on the way. Many of us had to give up unfinished good projects because of the unpredictable depletion of energy from within.

Preponderance of Sattva
After having gone through the foregoing disciplines, it will be possible to pursue the most efficient means of overcoming anger, which is to consciously bring about the preponderance of Sattva guna. Because rajas and tamas are preponderant, we cannot rid ourselves of attachment and aversion, which are the roots of anger.

As long as sattva guna is subdued in our nature, we can never overcome anger. Sri Ramakrishna teaches: ‘Under the protection of Sattva, man is rescued from anger...’

Basic Unity
If you desire to overcome anger, do not cause anger in others, It means that we learn to think, talk, and act in a manner which is conducive to unity, peace, and harmony and does not rouse anger in others. A man who sets fire to his neighbour’s house will not be able to save his house from catching fire.

How to Prevent Recurrence of Explosive Situations

1. In times of peace fill your inner consciousness with prayerful sweetness, tranquility, meekness, and mildness.

2. For failing to overcome anger do not treat yourself too harshly, violently and tempestuously, but handle yourself mildly, and yet sincerely.

3. Give up finding fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Seek God’s help for getting over them. But never dwell too much on either your own faults or those of others.

4. Eradicate egoism, self- righteousness and selfishness.

5. Develop consideration for others. Try to understand why people speak, act, and behave as they do. Pray for those who get on your nerves, for their welfare and spiritual evolution.

6. In case of a conflict, search for the intrinsic values. Sacrifice the lesser for the higher.

7. Surround yourself with watchfulness, so that evil cannot go without from within or enter within from without.

8. Cultivate sweet reasonableness.

Abiding by Angerlessness
There is a state of being in which one may be said to have attained absolute mastery over anger. One becomes confirmed in this state of angerlessness (akrodha) by realising the Atman, which is identical with Brahman.

In chapters 5 and 6 of the Gita, designated as Way of Renunciation’ and ‘Way of Meditation’ respectively, the methods of attaining this state are taught.

When one has experientially known oneself in all, and all in oneself, one loses the capacity for being angry forever. He has transcended anger and is well established in peace and harmony.

Conclusion
We can conclude with the inspiring description of this exalted person which we have in the sixth chapter of the Gita:

With the heart concentrated by Yoga, viewing all things with equal regard, he beholds, himself in all beings, and all beings in himself.’ ‘He who having been established in oneness, worships me dwelling in all beings--that Yogin, in whatever way he leads his life, lives in Me.’ ‘Him I hold to be the Supreme Yogi, O Arjuna, who looks on the pleasure and pain of all beings as he would behold them in himself.’

Only such a person, whom Sri Krishna calls as the Supreme Yogi, can never more be swayed by anger. For him, the illusion of the other person has ceased to be forever, for there is no ‘other’ to be angry with.

This exalted state is theoretically attainable by all and this state is actually attained by those who succeed in becoming perfect Yogis. To them belong eternal peace, and everlasting bliss.