Vannakkam: I believe some days seekers and sadhakas, including me, get ahead of themselves. Surely we have no hope of understanding the Self without at first having an inkling or two about ourselves. As with AA and many other self-help ideas either within the context of Hinduism, or not, usually a must on a personal level is an admission that you at least suffer from occasional bouts of the stuff.
Certainly I see a lot of irony some days ... "I'm so mad that my sadhana was interrupted!"
Lately I've been reflecting on anger: it's negative effects, its colour, what causes it, how to learn to harness it, it's variance in degrees, and more, within the context of a project I've been working on.
Of course it varies from the subtlety of a snide remark, to revenge, to rage, and comes in all kinds of ways like shunning, physical, emotional, and seems to be one certain way of either working out or accruing karma.
Some examples: When in India I witnessed a shopkeeper berating his employees to the point where if he'd have been on the west, someone may have stepped in. Certainly a cop would have.
I had to walk out of a classroom full of kids one day for fear of doing something stupid enough to lose my job.
One man at our temple disturbs the peace more by yelling at other devotees to shut up than the disturbance caused by the devotees themselves.
So I have a few questions for discussion, perhaps, if anyone else is at all interested in pursuing the low instead of the highs of consciousness.
1) Is it really all that harmful?
2) Where is it in the mind, in consciousness?
3) What are some causes, or the root cause?
4) How does dharma fall into the equation?
5) Is there more latent anger in some cultures than in others? How about ages, or genders?
6) Do different societies deal with it differently?
7) How subjective is it? Is it easier to see in others than in yourself? Do you excuse yourself but not others?
8) Are there any circumstances when its truly justified?
Just thoughts for a new discussion.
Aum Namasivaya
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