Note that the title of this week’s musing does not suggest that you deny or attempt to squelch your anger. It is a key emotion in all humans, and needs to be recognized as such. When he was asked how to let anger out, Thích Nhất Hạnh responded that the goal is not to let the anger out, but to instead keep it in. Not quite what you’ve been told before? Since he explains this concept so eloquently, I’ll let you listen for yourself rather than summarize his response for you. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/WTF9xgqLIvI
Intrigued? Thích Nhất Hạnh also wrote a book about anger, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. As described by the publisher, “It was under the bodhi tree in India twenty-five centuries ago that Buddha achieved the insight that three states of mind were the source of all our unhappiness: wrong knowing, obsessive desire, and anger. All are difficult, but in one instant of anger—one of the most powerful emotions—lives can be ruined, and health and spiritual development can be destroyed.
With exquisite simplicity, Buddhist monk and Vietnam refugee Thích Nhất Hạnh gives tools and advice for transforming relationships, focusing energy, and rejuvenating those parts of ourselves that have been laid waste by anger. His extraordinary wisdom can transform your life and the lives of the people you love, and in the words of Thích Nhất Hạnh, can give each reader the power ‘to change everything.’”
The book is readily available online and in book stores and, as are all books written by Thích Nhất Hạnh, is relevant and easy to read and understand.