Anger

2024, February, Issue 86

One goes from extreme pleasure to extreme pain, and everything in between.  Now, as a human, having an understanding of this, what sort of fool would I be if I did not practice?

HA HA HA HA HO!

An excerpt from, The Frog: A Spiritual Autobiography, Spanning Many Lifetimes, pg. 194, © 2021.

Imagine that you have been living a life that is very peaceful, maybe even quite pleasurable or even blissful.  Nothing seems to shake you.  By all accounts, you are a pillar of peacefulness and joy.  You are rock-solid in everyone’s eyes as that sort of person.  People point to you as someone they admire for never letting anything shake you up, and who seems to always be happy.

You are getting along very well with your life.  Years and years go by in this way, maybe you meditate two or three times a day.  Everything is quite wonderful.  Because you carry this energy, it makes people happy, creating causes and conditions that are very favorable for everyone in your sphere.  This karma, these subtle actions related to peacefulness, spreads throughout the cosmos, affecting beings everywhere with a sense of calm and a certain joy from time to time.

Then, one day a series of mishaps go wrong in your life.  You snap.  Anger erupts, as you shout at the top of your lungs.  Your house shakes.  People look out their windows to see what is wrong.  Your family, your neighbors, creatures in your yard, everyone around for a great distance hears this crazy person.  It sends shockwaves across the globe.

People forget about the happy joyful person they once knew.  This sort of negative karma is now in motion, spreading something quite disturbing across the cosmos.  It makes people afraid to be near you.  Your action of anger has now completely changed the world.  This is karma.  It is nothing other than action; and, action changes the causes and conditions of our entire existence.

Now, in Buddhism it is taught that there are six different classes of beings, all who have certain characteristics related to states of mind or emotions.  We can take this as a psychological metaphor, or we can be literal about it.  It doesn’t really matter, as this illusion has yet to be understood.  What matters is that we examine our own mind, looking directly, courageously, at emotion, and by quickly letting go.  By doing this, we can begin to have a little bit of control when an unexpected emotion suddenly makes us snap.

The main point is not really that various states of mind are real.  If our karma does not allow it, we won’t be able to see certain appearances.  The main point is that we observe ourselves a little bit.  Understanding the six realms, or six classes of beings, is necessary for understanding just what is going on here, now—as a human.

Humans also experience characteristics of other realms, such as ignorance, greed, jealousy, or pride; however, we are primarily governed by desire.  If we are angry, then we are experiencing the mind of a hell-being, which is the greatest level of torment we can ever experience.  It is most difficult to awaken if we are experiencing anger amid such reverberations created by that anger.  By allowing anger to manifest as karma, it sends shockwaves everywhere that will come back to hinder our awakening.  This is why we must begin to have some control over our own mind by always being present.

I’ve discussed this many times when leading groups in meditation.  It seems to me that people in the West, in general, have a most difficult time understanding this notion of the six classes of beings.  It sounds far-fetched to many Westerners, even though it is very easy to see, especially when we observe our own mind, when we see how our actions change the world. 

Many people in the West have left religion, but they still seek something that is true.  When they hear someone trying to manipulate others with fear, talking about hell and damnation, then they cry foul immediately.  It is very common for Westerners to reject religion entirely, while looking for something that they can accept.  I think this might have a lot to do with angry televangelists and preachers who are continually poisoning things for people, due to their own lack of skills related to mind.

This idea about the six classes of beings is not about hell and brimstone, even though you might hear something about the hell or the god realm.  It is about what happens in our own mind, when we are not able to control our own actions, our own karma.  We create these states of mind ourselves, through our own emotions.  Anger is what creates the most suffering and obstacles for us.  If we practice, then we can deal with all emotions as they arise.  We can develop skills that we can utilize for awakening.

As I explain this, I’m paying attention to people who are beginning their Spiritual Practice; and, also, I am reminding advanced practitioners to revisit their foundations of practice.  This is how I communicate, how I think, always paying attention to the bigger picture.  So, my audience is everyone who needs to awaken. 

Blessings in Light,               

Robert Aho