I've been meaning to write a new blog for a couple of weeks now but suddenly this one seems very relevant again, so I'm bumping it back up.
The Zen of Anger
A good student of Zen will always meet anger with boundless patience. A good student of Zen understands the laws of karma, and that the misery people cause will always come back to them. A good student of Zen feels the truth of this story:
One day a king decided to take a stroll in the forest with his harem. In the middle of the forest, they came across a man of Zen, deep in meditation, harming no-one. The harem women were filled with awe - never had they met anyone with such an aura of calm and stillness! He greeted them and before long began to instruct them in the Dharma, or teachings.
When the king saw the man speaking with his women, he was mightily annoyed. He took out his sword and cut off the man's right hand. When the monk failed to react, the king cut off his other hand, and when he still remained calm, the king cut off his arms, ear, nose and feet! But still there was no show of fear or anger from the monk. All he felt was great compassion for undoubtedly the king would suffer intensely in the future as a result of his bad deeds.
Sometimes I'm not a good student of Zen g
For example, on a day like today I read a question like the one below, and I think a Zen master would not approve of my answer:
There are three ways to get rid of anger: kill the opponent, kill yourself or kill the anger - which one makes most sense to you?
Let's just say, I didn't choose option "C". And so I have to remind myself of the things I know to be true.
These quotes help me. Maybe they'll be of use to someone else...
"It is natural for the immature to harm others. Getting angry with them is like resenting a fire for burning." --Shantideva
"Do not hate. Hatred is a form of subjective involvement that binds you to the hated object." – The I Ching
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
"No, uttered from the deepest conviction, is better and greater than a yes merely uttered to please or what is worse, to avoid trouble." – Mahatma Gandhi
"There is anger and then there is hatred. Anger, I suggest, is a natural response to certain situations. It is not unlike pain, in that it is an immediate warning of danger, a red flag calling for focused attention. Hatred is stewing anger, Like napalm, hatred doesn’t go away, it just keeps burning. Hatred is the anger that consumes us; that takes us to unreasonable and, I suggest, poisonous places." – James Ishmael Ford
“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” Thomas Jefferson
“The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.” Josh Billings
"Where Zen ends, ass-kicking begins." -Stephen Hyde.
(Oops, not sure how that last one got in there)
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