Anger blinded our vision...

[DS Star]

Some claim anger can be good because it gets things done faster and it could have positive energy...

In this video, HH the 14th Dalai Lama explained that the positive energy from ANGER is very little and very short. It is a 'blinded energy'.

http://youtu.be/A7_0IJTBoNA
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1. ANGER destroys our INNER PEACE;

2. ANGER destroys our ABILITY to INVESTIGATE the REALITY.

When we got angry, it blinded our ability to see the REALITY. We need a calm mind to help us see the situation objectively and to find solution to our problems.

Seems the damage done is much greater because when we got angry, we can't control our actions...

[Tenzin K]

Totally agree!

Being angry is a great push to do/act instantly but it’s blindly.
The spontaneous action from anger is without much of rational thought as it refers to HH Dalai Lama said as “Reality”. Anger makes us want to fight back for the sake of wanting to win. It really covers our mind and makes us unhappy an unable to think logically. The emotion has conquered our mind and feelings.

When listening to HH Dalai Lama teaching, I have thought of the 8 Verses of Thought Transformation.

The 3rd verses make me relate more:

In all actions, may I closely examine my state of mind, 
and the moment a disturbing emotion or negative attitude arises, 
since this may cause harm to myself and others,
may I firmly face and avert it.

This verse calls for the sincere practice of mindfulness, closely examining our state of mind throughout
all our actions. Through this practice of mindfulness, the teachings encourage us to firmly face and avert any disturbing emotions or negative attitudes the very moment they arise. The reason for this is that our delusions, disturbing emotions, and negative attitudes can provoke us to think, speak, or act in nonvirtuous ways which may cause harm to ourselves and others. This behavior brings karmic consequences and perpetuates our delusion and suffering. Therefore, throughout the day, while working, driving, walking, studying, talking with others, and so forth, we should closely examine our state of mind and heart. By training our mind in this skillful way, we will be able to firmly face and avert disturbing emotions and negative attitudes as they arise and before
they develop any further momentum or power.

8 verse of mind transformation tt creates a more meaningful life four ourselves. Transform and transcend the problem we face every day and inspire compassion in our aggressive and violent world.

[Q]

Anything and everything in this world can be used with positive energy to help us through our spiritual journey if one is skillful enough. Personally, I'm not skillful enough, therefore things like anger is something to be avoided as it not only destroyers our merits, but also causes us to create negative karma as our mind at that state is not calm or reasonable.

Anger that arise from our own selfishness will bring no good nor does it possess any positive energy to it. For most of us, anger arises only due to our selfishness... our inability to remain equinimity in our mind when something/someone disturbes our comfort or do something we perceive as 'harm' to ourselves.

[sonamdhargey]

Anger arises from ego. We all one way or another will experience anger. What is important is how we control our anger at that moment to not let it explode out of proption and create more problems and the effect is the reacting in anger lingers and most of the time the effect is forever.

There is a story I would like to share about anger:

A Bag of Nails

There once was a young boy with a very bad temper. The boy's father wanted to teach him a lesson, so he gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail into their wooden fence.

On the first day of this lesson, the little boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. He was really mad!

Over the course of the next few weeks, the little boy began to control his temper, so the number of nails that were hammered into the fence dramatically decreased.

It wasn't long before the little boy discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Then, the day finally came when the little boy didn't lose his temper even once, and he became so proud of himself, he couldn't wait to tell his father.

Pleased, his father suggested that he now pull out one nail for each day that he could hold his temper.

Several weeks went by and the day finally came when the young boy was able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

Very gently, the father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

"You have done very well, my son," he smiled, "but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same."

The little boy listened carefully as his father continued to speak.

"When you say things in anger, they leave permanent scars just like these. And no matter how many times you say you're sorry, the wounds will still be there."

[Manjushri]

I agree, when we operate from anger, the result is that whatever we do, or say, will be affected by the anger that we hold. Why do we get angry? We get angry when someome offends us, when what we say is going through to others, when we don't get our way, when our ego is being put on the line, when we are jealous...therefore the basis of anger comes from selfishness, because it utimately stems from you not having things your way and how you expect it to be. Therefore, when we get angry, we are blinded from this emotion, that our judgements and reality is affected by it. Therefore it is true, anger blinds our vision, because ultimately we are operating from the angle of how we get things our way.

[hope rainbow]

I also thought that anger can sometimes resolve solutions. But it is not true, what may have resolved a solution then is perhaps a side effect of the anger by which we were more ascertive, stern and direct.
This can be achieved without being angry, but as means to get a result.

The truth is that without anger we can still use skillful ways and raise our voice if we recognize it would benefit a situation or somebody. Then we have so many options at hand, we can also not raise our voice, or speak gently, or whatever else... Because when we are free from anger, we can be in control; we can scream without having lost our peace of mind, and so we can stop screaming easily too.

When we scream and scold out of anger, we are out of conrol already, and our options are very limited.
Our peace of mind has gone, and we inevitably will feel even more unhappy, triggering more yelling and bashing and all, more anger...

Anger is not yelling and get intense at solving a problem, no, that is not anger.
Anger is WANTING TO HURT, or WANTING FOR SOMEONE (or something) TO BE HURT and suffer. that is anger

[ratanasutra]

I agree, Anger is one our delusion so definitely it blinds our vision. 

When i have anger, i out of control and will do anything without think about it results. Anger destroy everything ie relationship, yourself, job, opportunity and hurt people around us. When i was young i was taught to count 1..2..3..4.. till 10 when i feel anger before act or talk with anyone and it work when i catch myself anger but most of the times i had responded it before count the number... That's a skill full way to let us increase our awareness in what is happening with our mind and realise it in order to deal with it and not fall to the emotion, delusion that arising.. I really amaze with the skill full way they put in without using religions aspect even tho it is.

Thank you for sharing the VDO.


 
   

[negra orquida]

This is a powerful 2 minute video.  Thanks for sharing.  When I listen to it, I think.. yes, yes, this is the truth.

But when I do get angry... all hell breaks lose!  Though not as chaotic as before I learned more about from Buddhism...

When i have anger, i out of control and will do anything without think about it results... When i was young i was taught to count 1..2..3..4.. till 10 when i feel anger before act or talk with anyone and it work when i catch myself anger... That's a skill full way to let us increase our awareness in what is happening with our mind and realise it in order to deal with it and not fall to the emotion, delusion that arising...

Yup... counting to 10 when we're angry is basically to practice patience, which is a opponent to anger.  I find that one of the best ways for me to shorten the duration of anger is to hold my tongue when I am angry.  Basically wait till the dark cloud passes, and deal with the problem if it is still there.  Usually there was no real problem, just an attack at the ego at that moment of anger.  During those times when I was angry and I just HAD to say something, it always made things worse and I'd say more and more things which made things more and more worse!

[Carpenter]

Anger is a push for complete things faster, no doubt, but when we do things with anger, we might complete the task with the wrong way.

It affected our

1.   Decision making – when we are angry, we can’t analyze the situation properly, because during that time, our mind can only focus in 1 thing, which is what makes us angry.

2.   Speech – When we are angry, we tend to talk loud, we even say things that hurt other people, because when we are angry, we only tend to solve the problem and get rid of our anger, so we might use word that hurts people to solve the problem faster.

3.   Action – When we are angry, we will use whatever way to solve the problem, sometimes we might even try methods that are not suppose or dangerous, but during that time, we can’t think so much already.

4.   Vision – When we are angry, our vision will become narrow, it narrowing our view on seeing things and it also narrowing our heart that affect our measurement of acceptance.

Anger will not only destroy our inner peace, it also destroy peace between the people around us and it could be a decision that there has no return…

[Midakpa]

Anger, being one of the root poisons, must certainly be overcome because it destroys all our merits. How can we get rid of anger? Here are some suggestions taken from a book entitled "Dhamma Practice 3" by Phra Tajsuddhinanamongkol:

1. Reflect on the harm of anger
2. Think of the person's good points
3. Reflect on the truth that being angry will just create suffering for yourself
4. Reflect that all beings fare according to their karma
5. Reflect on the conduct of Buddha (before he became enlightened, he built up the parami over many lifetimes, even giving up his life)
6. Reflect on the fact that we have probably had relationships with all beings throughout the infinite history of samsara (Buddha: "monks, it is not easy to find a being who has not previously been our mother, or father, our older or younger brother, our older or younger sister, our son or daughter.")
7. Reflect on the benefits of loving kindness
8. Analyse the elements - reflect on the level of ultimate reality.

[Manjushri]

This is a powerful 2 minute video.  Thanks for sharing.  When I listen to it, I think.. yes, yes, this is the truth.

But when I do get angry... all hell breaks lose!  Though not as chaotic as before I learned more about from Buddhism...

When i have anger, i out of control and will do anything without think about it results... When i was young i was taught to count 1..2..3..4.. till 10 when i feel anger before act or talk with anyone and it work when i catch myself anger... That's a skill full way to let us increase our awareness in what is happening with our mind and realise it in order to deal with it and not fall to the emotion, delusion that arising...

Yup... counting to 10 when we're angry is basically to practice patience, which is a opponent to anger.  I find that one of the best ways for me to shorten the duration of anger is to hold my tongue when I am angry.  Basically wait till the dark cloud passes, and deal with the problem if it is still there.  Usually there was no real problem, just an attack at the ego at that moment of anger.  During those times when I was angry and I just HAD to say something, it always made things worse and I'd say more and more things which made things more and more worse!

True. The case is the same for everyone of us, I feel. During times when I am angry, or boiling up, and just Had to say something, to defend what I feel was threatening me, then it always made things worst. Then I'd try find a solution to "make things better", but then it'll end up back in square one. haha. And.. counting 1-10, doesn't really work for me. By numerico 5, my silly mouth would lash back already, doing no good.

Patience really is a direct counter to anger. We get angry because we have no patience to clarify, to teach, to rectify, so we raise our voice, and find an immediate solution, which is to "win the case" and "shut the other party up". If we had patience, we would have patience to see our anger broiling... we would have patience to realise the basis/root of the problem, and instead of making things worst, we would, compassionately try to make things better, because anger isn't good for both parties. Ultimately, what would you gain from acting out of anger? Nothing...but a habituation of more inert anger.

[Aurore]

There is no doubt that anger can blind us from seeing the truth. Anger that turns to hatred do cause not only delusions but phobias, addictions, manic behavior, and obsessive behavior. All this can lead to mental illness.

We should always look at why we are angry about something in the first place? Anger is very natural and should not be suppressed but to be dealt with healthily. Finding the causes of anger is a good way to deal with anger. Here's one of the cause of anger whether we realise it or not and it is FEAR. Fear of losing someone, fear of being hurt, fear of not being accepted.

An advice from the old wisdom one, Yoda. Hehe.

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate.. to suffering"	Small | Large

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads? to suffering.

[jeremyg]

For me anger is like a disease. The more of it inside of you, the more it spreads. So it is important to rectify the disease as early as possible. How many of you know people who were angry, and as time went by they only got more angry. It obviously doesn't lead to happiness, just a dull, dark pit of unhappiness. During our times of anger, we often hurt people, and this isn't good in the long run. Channeling anger into energy is also energy that is not good. If we get this energy from anger, then we will rely on anger more and more, bringing us further into the pit of unhappiness.

[hope rainbow]

Anger is a push for complete things faster, no doubt, but when we do things with anger, we might complete the task with the wrong way.

It affected our

1.   Decision making – when we are angry, we can’t analyze the situation properly, because during that time, our mind can only focus in 1 thing, which is what makes us angry.

2.   Speech – When we are angry, we tend to talk loud, we even say things that hurt other people, because when we are angry, we only tend to solve the problem and get rid of our anger, so we might use word that hurts people to solve the problem faster.

3.   Action – When we are angry, we will use whatever way to solve the problem, sometimes we might even try methods that are not suppose or dangerous, but during that time, we can’t think so much already.

4.   Vision – When we are angry, our vision will become narrow, it narrowing our view on seeing things and it also narrowing our heart that affect our measurement of acceptance.

Anger will not only destroy our inner peace, it also destroy peace between the people around us and it could be a decision that there has no return…

Thanks for this post Carpenter,

But what is anger?
Anger is the wish to HURT others, to DESTROY others!
It's that voice in our head that says: "I wish he'd drop dead!"
It's the feeling of "pleasure" we feel when someone we really don't like suffers; when the person who "stole" something from us looses his job; when the person who was screaming at us just now gets a scolding in turn; when the guy who was starting to squeeze into the queue just in front of us scratches his car on a concrete curb... You know what I mean... It's every day, it's most moments, it's vicious, it has many covers, but it's always anger, and it is always destructive, it never is helpful.

So I don't think that anger is ever "a push to complete things faster", I don't think so, unless of course what we want to complete faster is:
-the burning up of all our merit,
-the descent in the lower realms,
-the increase of other's suffering.

[vajraD]

I agree that anger do somewhat blind our vision. Anger arises because of ones jealousy, ego, selfishness and etc…

For instance when the anger arises shoot up to the head we scold or shout, scream and etc… thinking that throwing anger get things done. Sometimes it works but it may not be the result we want. I don’t know about others but for me I always regret and get angry at my self after throwing one hence I try my very best not to throw one or walk of when thing are shooting up, so that I don’t hurt others with my speech and when cool of talk again.

Throwing anger does not help situation to become better instead it become worse if is not handle properly.

Dharma practices have helped me a lot in reducing my anger.