My friend, temper is a sign intelligence, but it happens against ourselves. It has no use other than that. This useless intelligence is called Anger.
Anger can also be a substitute emotion. Meaning that sometimes people make themselves angry so that they don’t have to feel pain. They change their feelings of pain into anger because it feels better to be angry than it does to be in pain. This changing of pain into anger may be done consciously or unconsciously.
Becoming angry also creates a feeling of righteousness, power and being better than others which is not present when someone is in pain. When we are angry, we’re always angry with cause.
We can use anger to convert feelings of vulnerability and helplessness into feelings of control and power. Some people develop an unconscious habit of transforming almost all of their vulnerable feelings into anger, so they can avoid having to deal with them. The problem becomes that even when anger distracts us from the fact that we feel vulnerable, we still at some level feel vulnerable. Anger cannot make pain disappear, it only distracts us from it. And sooner or later vulnerability will surface in other creative methods by the subconscious mind.
So, anger generally does not resolve or address the problems that made us feel fearful or vulnerable in the first place, and it can create new problems, including social and health issues. It is essential though to understand and recognize where anger is coming from and the fact that we can use it towards a certain outcome.
When anger comes, it is the same anger that we have been through before, so nothing new. But this time we can do one thing new, which we have never done before; every time we get involved with anger is the time to just watch as if it does not belong to us, as if it is somebody else’s anger. And we are in for a great surprise if we do: it will simply disappear within seconds. It will disappear without any struggle, it leaves behind it a tremendously beautiful and silent and loving state.
In case we are unable like most people to control our anger and implement these types of techniques when anger happens, we can do a tryout. We simply try to recall an angry situation or an idea, or a person that triggered anger within us before, we try to recall that and when anger is present, we try to watch it without stopping, until anger disappears completely and replaced with a state of pure energy. By doing this we have a better chance of handling anger in certain situations which will be a very helpful thing in our lives.
The same energy that could have become a fight with the anger that is left within us, is simply transformed into pure energy of delight, just energy, without any name, without any objective. We allow energy to be pure. Either it is anger, or hate, or love, or greed, or desire, all these are backed up with pure energy, a delight. And true intelligence is to allow it to be in its purity.
So, my friend, every time anything arises in you, is a great opportunity to experience pure energy. Just watch, and the anger will go. It may raise a little dust every now and then, but that dust also settles on its own; we don’t have to settle it. we simply wait. We don’t move from waiting and watching, and soon we will find ourselves surrounded by a pure energy that has not been used in fighting, in repressing, or in being angry. Once we know the secret of using the wide spectrum of who we are, we will enjoy every emotion; and every emotion arising in us becomes a great opportunity. Just by watching, we bring a shower of delight on our being. Slowly, slowly all these emotions will disappear; they will not come anymore, usually they don’t come uninvited. Watchfulness, or alertness, or awareness, or consciousness, are all different names of the same phenomenon which is “witnessing”. That is the keyword!
Eternal Blessings,
Ziad
