Anger

Anger is one of the constructed qualities, which affect our inner freedom. Until the time we have the quality anger, we can’t have inner freedom. Unlike qualities like attachment and possessiveness which affect us just psychologically, anger affect us psychologically as well as physiologically. When we are in anger (Or just after recognizing anger within us), the blood pressure increases enormously and certain acidic substances are added into our system. Both of these physical effects of anger are harmful to our body.

Let us analyze the source of anger and this knowledge may be helpful, if we wish to avoid anger within us and hence we will be approaching psychological freedom and eliminating unnecessary blood pressure spikes and unnecessary addition of acidic substances in our physiological system. None of us really want these side effects of anger, and hence anger also. However we are unable to control anger when it arises and we are aware of our anger only after it is over. This may be due to our lack of understanding of the mechanism of anger and its source.

Whenever the projection of our mind is challenged, our mind expresses the reaction as anger. The intensity of anger depends on the intensity of challenge. When we are caught in psychological bondage, the mind always project everything it sees, make it as an image and store it back in the memory. Depend on the usage of this image for our survival, the mind seeks security for the projected image, and this will be breeding point of attachment and possessiveness. Hence the intensity of our anger depends on how far we are attached with the image projected by the mind or how far the mind seeks security of that image.

We have built an image about us within our mind, which is basically what we refer as ourselves. This includes images like I am this religion; I am this caste; I am the native of this state; I am this national; I am the follower of this leader; I am the follower of this Guru, and such endless I am…. The more the number of such identifications we have about ourselves, the possibility of bondage is more and hence the frequency and intensity of our anger. The less the identification we have about ourselves, the less will be the frequency and intensity of the anger. This leads to the conclusion that we will be nearing psychological freedom as fast as we eliminate entities with which we are identified. Once there is no more identification about ourselves within us, the “I centeredness” or “Me” or “Self” cease to exist and that will be the ultimate freedom.

To reach such a state, we need not forgo the relationships in this world; need not leave behind any possessions we have; do not cease the enjoyment the existence provides to us and need not isolate ourselves from the society and culture. What we just need is an understanding of existence. And a change within us to live synchronized with the existence. Nothing more is demanded from us to have a realized, joyful life.

Let us go some more details of relation between anger and our self identifications. Let us assume we belong to the religion “A”. This means, we have strong belief about the teaching of religion “A” due to constant and prolonged insistence of the principles and value system of religion “A” within us. We are conditioned such a way that, we started feeling a great sense of fulfillment and pride with the image of being belonging to that religion. This will give a sense of pride when we say I am the follower of religion “A” and we go to such a stage that we identify ourselves as I am an “A”ian. Now we are deeply identified with the religion “A”. Now one person belong to religion “B” and as deeply attached with that religion as we are attached with “A” comes to us and question the validity of certain principles of religion “A”, we do not need any time to reach the peak of anger. The less our identification with religion “A” the more we see the validity/invalidity of the challenge and have the capability of logical reaction. If we are not at all identified ourselves with religion “A”, any question about the validity of religion “A” is not at all a challenge to us, and there is no need for us to react for that challenge, except showing logical reaction, if we wish to do so. When we do not identify ourselves with any of the religions from A to Z, none can make us anger by challenging with respect to religion. This does not mean that we should not follow any religion or belief system. We can follow any religion or any belief system of our choice. But we should also take the choice of not being identified with the religion or belief system. It may be a bit difficult to digest this argument. But if we allow our intelligence to work, it is not a difficult task to follow something, but not identified with that something. Such intelligence will provide us ultimate freedom from all bondages. Once we are free from the bondages, we will be peaceful within us and the world projected by our mind is also in peace!

One more point we need to note about anger is that we never were aware of anger, when we are caught in anger. We realize that we were angry only after the real anger is gone. We normally refer the reaction of anger as anger. This is one of the prime reasons, due to which we are unable to get freedom from anger. If we go little deep into the quality of anger, at the time of anger, there is no identification about ourselves. We lose ourselves completely, which is desirable and we are striving to reach such a self-less state. But due to undesirable nature of cause of anger, the after effects of anger are undesirable. When our images are challenged, based on the intensity of challenge, we entered the state of anger with proportional intensity. Within moments, we get into self identification and the undesirable effects of anger will start to manifest. With the self identification with images and with the challenge, we enter into a state of desperation and we normally call this state as anger, because we are aware of only this state and not the real anger.

We will be able to recognize this fact if we analyze the instant of latest anger, its cause, reaction, effects and the state of mind during the whole of this process.

The important point here is that if we are capable of observing the real moment of anger, we will understand the cause of this anger, which is the self identification with images, and will be able to eliminate it completely. To observe the moment of anger, we have to allow our intelligence to work. For the intelligence to work, we need to bring necessary changes within ourselves so that we are free of the conditioning of ourselves, at least to the extent of neither accepting nor rejecting any of our value systems and have the openness to see the things as it comes without accepting or rejecting whatever comes to us.