The Alchemy of Anger
A book that changed my life is Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames - by world reknown buddhist writer and speaker Thich Nhat Hanh - it was recommended by my friend Aimee over 10 yrs ago,
I recommend this book for everyone at all ages. One key thing Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized in the book is that Anger is the other side of the same coin of Compassion - and that feeling anger is a natural, human reaction -. The ability to feel strong emotions is by design and a privilege we earned to experience as humans. But the practice - the deep practice is for us is to learn how to transform, or alchemize our anger into compassion. If you feel anger, the energy doesn’t disappear, so you must actively work to transmute it. While this was not in his book if you take a look at the art in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayāna - for example the Yamantaka Buddha is portrayed as Wrathful and Raging look, with huge multicolored flames coming out of the head, and his face like total rage - but actually, the deeper his wrath, the greater the compassion and wisdom he can obtain.
Yamantaka Buddha (Image from https://yamantaka.org/)
I generated this image above using AI to showcase the Fire Element
Buddhists also believe that Anger and Outrage is the righteous reaction, especially at Social Injustice,or War - because you should get angry, if you’re not upset, it would be weird. You can use that anger energy to have compassion which will fuel you to perform virtuous deeds to help others out! An example of this is when the monks immolate themselves as a demonstration of the suffering that is occurring in the world - for the buddhist who decided to do this extreme action, it is not considered an act of suicide or protest but an act of compassion for humanity. Without romanticizing self-immolation as most Buddhist oppose self-immolation, it is a complex and ritualistic event and it simply cannot be reduced to a political statement or suicide. In our daily lives, it is normal to feel angry when someone cuts you off on the road or bumps into you while walking. When you can convert your anger into compassion, you will heal yourself and return to a centered and balanced state of peace, and regain patience to speak truth, regain an open heart to practice giving, even if it’s sending the person a warm thought or prayer. For example, if someone bumps into me when I feel there were plenty of opportunities to walk around me, my first reaction is “what a fucking asshole” okay - I am human and I am normal lol. But after taking 3 breaths, I’m like: “This person must have had issues and challenges in their life, or is having a bad day where they have no bandwidth left to care about who they bump into. Maybe their mom is sick, maybe they just got abused at work. I will have compassion for their plight, and I will send good wishes to them. Like Good luck buddy!” And just like that, I am not angry - even though my arm may hurt from the collision! Let me know in the comments what are some of your ways of converting or alchemizing Anger into Compassion! Have a beautiful day! I’m Liz from Athena’s Garden and see you around :)
