Anger From The Perspective of Buddhist Psychology

 

Notes From Judy Lief's Work On Anger And Buddhist Psychology

 
According to Buddhist psychology anger is one of the six root kleshas, the conflicting emotions that cause our suffering. It's companions are greed, ignorance, passion, envy and pride.Anger is fueled by the impulse to reject, push away, or destroy.

Anger is fueled by the impulse to reject, to push away, to destroy. It's associated with the hell realm, a state of intense pain and claustrophobia. The quality of claustrophobia or being squeezed into a small corner is also reflected in the origins of the English word anger whose root means “narrow” or “constricted.”

Anger can be extremely energetic. You feel threatened and claustrophobic, and that painful feeling intensifies until you lash out like a cornered rat. Or it can manifest as a subtle simmering of resentment that you carry along with you always, like a chip on your shoulder.

Because our experience of it is so potent we usually try to get rid of it somehow. One way we try to get rid of it is to stuff it or suppress it because we are embarrassed to acknowledge or accept that we could be feeling it. Another way we try to get rid of it is to impulsively act it out through violent words or actions but that only fuels more anger.

Anger is a natural part of us so no matter how hard we try, we can't get rid of it. We can however change how we relate to it. When we do we may glimpse a sane and valuable quality hidden within this destructive force and in this way save the baby while throwing out the bath water.

The formal practice of mindfulness is the foundation for exploring the powerful energy of anger. Meditation is a helpful preventive tool here because it's so hard to deal with anger once it's exploded. In meditation we slow down and refine our observational powers so we can more readily catch the arising of anger before it overtakes us.

Because anger and other emotional outbursts thrive on being unseen, and have the ability to lurk below the surface of our awareness, the practice of sitting still, breathing naturally, and looking attentively at one's moment-by-moment experience is in and of itself and antidote to aggression.

Through meditation we learn to tune into what we;'re feeling and observe that experience with the dispassion and sympathy so the more we do our mindfulness practice, the less under anger's iron grip we will be. In turn the more we'll be able to transform our relationship to anger in the midst of daily life. As anger arises in the mind, by quieting (taming) the mind we can establish a strong base for understanding how how anger arises in us and how we habitually respond to it. We can see how it spreads and settles in our bodies and how it triggers formulaic dramas about blame and hurt. We can expose our conceptual constructs about anger and our justifications, defensivenss and cover ups.