Anger................

this was a problem for me in the beginning. Anger is probably one of the hardest to over come. can anger be healthy , and why?



In the Light of Theosophy

Anger marks absence of love, no matter how justified or well disguised. Anger takes many forms. The mild irritation we feel when we are bothered, made to wait or denied something, is a tiny rage in disguise. Is it all right to allow angry thoughts as long as we do not express them or act on them? Is anger or hatred ever justified? Is it necessary to get rid of even traces of anger for our moral well-being? Carol D'souza answers (Dignity Dialogue, June 2004):

Most of us indulge our angry thoughts. We dwell on them....And then finally, we express them—in a wide range of ways. This is why it's so very useful to think of any form of anger as murder. Who hasn't thought "I'm going to kill you" when vexed by people who don't do what they're supposed to do?...These mindless and seemingly harmless idiomatic expressions are confusing because they lead us to accept the notion that figurative killing is okay.

It's okay to indulge hateful thoughts in your own mind so long as you do not act on them. You can indulge in hateful thoughts whenever you want. And you can keep your hateful thoughts for as long as you like, even an entire lifetime. No legal action will be taken against you....

The rules of our legal system, the morals of our social and religious systems, and the lessons we learn about expressing our emotions are not always in sync with the code of our Higher Self. Our Higher Christ Self would have us know that all hate is the same, and that no matter what form it takes, it's all equally destructive....

There's only one conclusion...the presence of hate in your mind blocks awareness of your Higher Self....Every time you make the choice to be angry, you simultaneously make the choice to be unhappy.

What causes anger? It arises, mainly, out of too much identification with the personality. Thoughts are the basis of our actions. "Sow a thought, reap an act." Thoughts are like seeds, which sprout when conditions are conducive. Thoughts seem to be more potent than acts. "Esoterically, thought is more responsible and punishable than act. But exoterically it is the reverse. Therefore, in ordinary human law, an assault is more severely punished than the thought or intention, i.e., the threat, whereas Karmically it is the contrary," writes H.P.B. (Transactions, p. 142)

Mr. Judge warns us that anger is one of the greatest hindrances in the attainment of concentration and that it damages the astral form. He observes that it is immaterial what the cause for the anger may be. There is no such thing as having what is called "righteous anger." It does not matter if one's rights were unjustly and flagrantly violated or not, the anger is bound to cause damage. "Therefore anger must be strictly avoided, and it cannot be avoided unless charity and love—absolute toleration—are cultivated." (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 18, p. 12)

Mr. Judge advises that whenever our rights are infringed upon, we must forgive the offender. By condemning the offender we disturb the harmony. "Each punitive attitude assumed by me acts both on my brother and myself, producing in him a tendency to repeat the act condemned, and increasing in me whatever seeds of evil I may have." "Do not judge in anger, for though the anger passes the judgement remains."

This one will be hard for me as well.I was around an angry person for a long time.I was for all of my childhood.My father was a very angry man.I will have to work on this,starting now.It won't be easy.

This is a good point we need to look at things from other perspectives also as not all see things the same way!

I am going to quote Sophia from The Golden Girls, here. One time, she said, "Anger is like a piece of shredded wheat. If it gets under your dentures and you leave there, you will get a blister. BUT, IF you remove it, the blister will heal."

I remember that one,Tara.That was a good episode.

yes, it was, dear.

i still have to work on it to this day. i don't beat myself up if i fail, i strive to do better next time.

anger and anxiety will be the hardest for me to over come.It would be the biggest weight off of me if I could do it,though.

if you don't tackle it in this life you can tackle it in your next. i remember talking to my teacher and i said, i don't know if i can be that charitable and be able to control my temper. he said" if you are not able to do this on your own, and you seek help, it is not your will that has accomplished this, so you will either revert to your old habits later, or clear it up in your next incarnation. this is not a race.he said. "this is overcoming the lower self by working with the higher. just take it one day at a time." his words helped me immensely.

You know, i can not control my temper, and BOY do i EVER have one. Well, when anyone gets angry, it is hard to control it, and no you do not have control over your own thoughts. Especially, when angry.

You MAY THINK you have control over your thoughts but, you do not. Now, you DO have control over what you say and do.

this is the lower animal controlling the higher self. it is like the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, which one wins?

Each one wins every once in awhile.I have a step brother who likes to aggravate people and enjoys being a certified pain in the butt so,I know I will be tested on this one.

you have picked up on that QBM and that is good.

thank you,Mrs.Bella.

you are welcome.

I have quite a lot of anger, and other emotions, and I believe they are a big obstacle for my development.
It's these emotions that prevent me from using my Mind up to it's full potential.
I just see it as another obstacle on my path of life and I have been working on it, although it goes quite slow to overcome this I am progressing : Baby steps on this one for me.

another way to look at it is by being angry at someone you are giving them your power.

Emma wrote:

another way to look at it is by being angry at someone you are giving them your power.

Totally agree with that. I used to get upset over anything people said about me to the point of rage or paranoia. I let even strangers drive me into tears. But then something in me just flipped over and I thought that they have nothing to do with me, their paths and purposes are not my own and I will not give them a single shred of my emotions anymore. What I did find useful is laughing at people like that or even events that upset you. I do not mean in a cruel or malicious way, but not taking it to heart and seeing the funny side to a lot of things. It saved my mind from going crazy. Maybe it's the child in me who finds everything funny and she was shut down for a while and then she had enough and took over

With me I try to stay objective when it comes to other people, I will make light of the situation and will not react. But then I get irritable over stupid things and I know it is only making it worse. I need to learn to laugh at myself too, which I try.
What I do find hard to handle was something I saw yesterday, there was video on youtube of a cat trying to save another cat's life and when a cat realized it was too late, he embraced his friend.
It made me cry and hit me so hard right in the middle of my chest. After that I thought of how people speak of animals of how they underestimate them, take them for granted and then act shocked that a "Cat can give CPR?!", I got boiling rage inside and told my partner how much I would want to hurt all those people. I realized it later and said that they will end up learning the pain themselves anyway.But at that moment if I saw someone laughing at that video I would've hurt them, maybe not physically, but I knew I would've attacked them with the darkest forms of rage

i feel the same way. i am an animal activist and the things i have seen and experience just breaks my heart and makes me so angry when people do this to our helpless creatures who can not defend themselves. i want to take every one who hurts an animal and do to them what they did to the animal. i was sitting there yesterday thinking of a cruelty that i had read about and started crying and could not stop. animals have souls and they are part of us. i doubt i will ever control the anger i feel against these morons who hurt another living creature, but maybe i shouldn't at least not in this life.

It makes me wish that all the bad things I've done which were so stupid I should've at least directed them properly at the people who deserved it, that would've taken out a fair few of them. This is the struggle with objective vs subjective, because when you love and care about someone it is very hard to be understanding about what people do. Righeous anger for a cause like religion or politics I can see how pointless it is and is more of a tool than anything, but then when the anger is almost like a protective instinct towards those we love, I am not sure how to take that.
I just can't understand who in the world would think of something as cruel and unthinkable as "animals have no souls" and throw it into what everyone calls "the holy book", now that person I would love to meet and slap around at least.

oh it makes me angry as well, i have heard it on television that animals have no souls, how could these people possibly know that as animals go to the other side. these people are idiots. here is Madame Blavatsky's answer to the question.




Do animals have a soul?

Like all monads or centers of consciousness, animals have souls. Within each monad, be it a rock, animal, or man, there exists a cosmic divine spark. As a being evolves, the potentials within that divine spark come forth. Each is at a stage of evolution corresponding to how much of these potentialities have been unfolded. Thus, though animals have yet to attain self-awareness, they are the expressions of a soul and spirit.