Anger Be Gone
The other day I had a chance to go to a temple unlike others in that the monk does not simply chant the buddhist prayers during the funeral, but instead he'll spend roughly half an hour teaching us some of the philosophies in plain language for all to understand. I think it's great and I although the journey there was long and the journey back included wading through the flood and having my car at times turn into a boat, a lot of interesting thoughts remained in mind. So much so I thought it'd be great to share a little of it here with you today. It's about anger.
Now we humans all have emotions. We feel happiness, sadness, fear, anger, jealousy and a zillion other feelings. Sometimes we feel more than one at the same time and cannot quite distinguish which is which. Sometimes they get the better of us and start influencing our actions.
It's how we control those emotions though that make all the difference. The monk's example was on "Anger." For example, he said, if you light a match, the flame at the end of the match is but a small flame and you can easily distinguish it with a fling of the hand or a little blow. However if you let the flame catch onto other things, it can grow to be so powerful that it'd burn down houses or even rows of houses. By that time, a single firetruck would not be sufficient. You'd need a couple firetrucks and a team of firefighters.
Likewise, if we get angry and cannot control it, our anger can grow to be so powerful and strong it will overshadow our life and our actions. We might spend lifetimes seeking revenge or retribution for a remark once heard, or an action once done. We might kill lives, destroy things around us, or even misplace our anger on those who love us most. Because of our anger, we do things that have utterly no benefit to our life. We waste a good portion of our energy feeling "angry" and plotting revenge. Then in the end, we all die with nothing left but that feeling of "anger."
Of course it'd be great if we could all just turn off our emotions at a flick of a hand, but it's something that is achievable with practice. It's not easy, but if you stop, pause, take note of your emotions before it becomes a storm, then perhaps you'd have added a little more happiness to your life. Count one to ten before you send of some remarks in anger or seek revenge. Life is so short. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Why waste time being angry when you can be happy? Look up and smell the roses :) Life is beautiful.
Now we humans all have emotions. We feel happiness, sadness, fear, anger, jealousy and a zillion other feelings. Sometimes we feel more than one at the same time and cannot quite distinguish which is which. Sometimes they get the better of us and start influencing our actions.
It's how we control those emotions though that make all the difference. The monk's example was on "Anger." For example, he said, if you light a match, the flame at the end of the match is but a small flame and you can easily distinguish it with a fling of the hand or a little blow. However if you let the flame catch onto other things, it can grow to be so powerful that it'd burn down houses or even rows of houses. By that time, a single firetruck would not be sufficient. You'd need a couple firetrucks and a team of firefighters.
Likewise, if we get angry and cannot control it, our anger can grow to be so powerful and strong it will overshadow our life and our actions. We might spend lifetimes seeking revenge or retribution for a remark once heard, or an action once done. We might kill lives, destroy things around us, or even misplace our anger on those who love us most. Because of our anger, we do things that have utterly no benefit to our life. We waste a good portion of our energy feeling "angry" and plotting revenge. Then in the end, we all die with nothing left but that feeling of "anger."
Of course it'd be great if we could all just turn off our emotions at a flick of a hand, but it's something that is achievable with practice. It's not easy, but if you stop, pause, take note of your emotions before it becomes a storm, then perhaps you'd have added a little more happiness to your life. Count one to ten before you send of some remarks in anger or seek revenge. Life is so short. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Why waste time being angry when you can be happy? Look up and smell the roses :) Life is beautiful.
Comments
Post a Comment