I am going to talk about why anger is negative. Anger is a deluded state of mind that causes suffering. Any action motivated by anger causes harm. Anger is the mindstate that wishes to harm or cause destruction to either oneself or others. You need to think well about your motivation before engaging in any action of body, speech or mind, because when you engage in actions of body, speech or mind you create either virtuous or non-virtuous karma. Karma means action and the endless round of action motivated by ignorance or wrong view causes cyclic suffering, cyclic existence or samsara.

Any action motivated by anger is considered to be negative by all beings really. No-one wants to be harmed. Everyone is wishing for happiness and it’s causes which is virtue. There are so many things to say here. Anger is ugly. It makes you look stupid. It has no valid basis. It is caused by ignorance. The three root poisons of anger, desire/attachment/lust and ignorance drive the process and experience of suffering. Anger/hatred also destroys merit that is not dedicated to the path or result of full awakening.

There are three types of suffering. There is the suffering of suffering, like getting wounded or having a headache. There is the suffering of change, where things could be going well for a while, then change occurs and you find things are doing less well, or there are more problems. Then there is the pervasive suffering. As long as your mind is afflicted with the ignorance of a self, as long as you falsely impute inherent existence and you grasp and an inherently existent I or mine, you have the three types of suffering. Pervasive suffering means things are never really perfect. Why? Because you are ignorant of the way phenomena actually exist.

All phenomena are empty of inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. When you realize the thought of the Buddha, you will understand this is the actual reality on a conventional and ultimate level.

There are three types of patience and I have explained this in a previous post. Patience has many upsides. It’s a virtue, it’s one of the six or ten perfections of body, speech and mind and it causes oneself to appear more beautiful, than those afflicted by the delusions of samsara, or anger, attachment and ignorance.

Practicing loving kindness and patience, wisdom and compassion is the way to cessate the causes of samsara or cyclic suffering. Abandon anger and adopt virtue wherever you are and no-matter what you are doing. The hellish types of consequence that arise from being non-virtuous have long been thought of by the Buddha as something the individual or community create out of stupidity. Anger never brings any benefit. It is always wrong. You need the validity of a valid cognizer to understand why you have been suffering since beginingless time and how to cut the root of cyclic existence with the wisdom realizing emptiness and compassion or the bodhimind that aspires to and engages in the path and of course causes of Buddhahood.

 

Unfortunately you can see the negative effects of anger all around the community. People do not drive these days with enough care. What I am saying is that people’s driving is crazy, stupid and of course, ridiculous. People are rude and aggressive, angry and hateful. Just look at the speed people travel with on the highway. 100km per hour is too fast for a calm mind and a virtuous mind. Anger hurtles people down the road, sometimes headlong into other objects, causing death and destruction and injury. There is a gross lack of patience and concern for one another.

Walking down the street along the pavement is difficult. Humans don’t walk in an orderly way. They push and shove. They don’t adhere to the side of the pavement that works the way cars travel in the traffic. Instead, they just barge into one another, refusing to get out of each others way. There is no patience, there is no respect.

This is the ugly way anger manifests. Of course, hatred has caused many conflicts and wars. Anger has no upside. It is a faulty and malicious state of mind that must be abandoned and cessated.

Copyright © Vanessa Anne Walsh 2018