9th Precept - Don't Get Angry

[@Howisstifflucky]

"Letting go of anger is something you do even when you're right". This was a real eye-opener for me. Thank you.

[@HardcoreZen]

It was for me too.

[@MrBreadisawesome]

I can be very prone to anger at times and something that has helped me immensely has been to ask myself “who/what am I angry at? And why?” When I am seeing it clearly I always find that there is absolutely no ground to stand on when it comes to anger. Its never logical. Even if I can pin down “someone or something” that Im angry with, I question whether they meant to make me angry or if it would have even mattered if they did... it then becomes clear that it makes absolutely no sense to hold onto anger. Of course that doesnt always stop it from coming up but it has helped a lot. This is one im still working very hard on though so my perspective/mode of navigating it will probably shift at some point. Thank you for this series, Brad!

[@HardcoreZen]

That's a great strategy!

[@sasefina]

Great one, Brad. Anger is something I have struggled with as well, but mainly because I repressed it until it bottled up so much that it exploded in passive aggression or just straight up aggression. (Which is actually common for women, as we’re conditioned to feel that anger in a woman is unforgivable.) There’s a book called The Dance of Anger that has been very helpful for me to see that anger can be a positive force in your life if you do as Kobun Chino suggested and learn something from it. I also really like your point about letting go of anger even when you are right. Yet another timely message. Thank you!

[@HardcoreZen]

Thank you, Sara!

[@t.c.bramblett617]

This is one I have been having so much trouble with. It's my worst. Sometimes I push away anger and all that remains is sadness. I guess that's better to sit with than nothing.

[@HardcoreZen]

I prefer to try letting go of things rather than pushing them away. It feels different.

[@t.c.bramblett617]

@@HardcoreZen Good point :)

[@jdwhite5892]

Thanks so much for this very insightful post. Coincidently, I'm working some "anger management" stuff in my marriage with the help of my therapist and a close Dharma friend. Your comment about anger indulgence (and the approach to anger early in Being Zen by Ezra Bayda) show me that my anger is likely yet another stealth manifestation of my old friend, Greed. Always a pleasure to sit with your posts. Keep up the great work! 🙏

[@HardcoreZen]

Good luck!

[@budgreen100]

Amazing credit to you for being able to use a great Yngwie mention in a precept talk on anger! Unleash the fury!

[@HardcoreZen]

I'm glad somebody got it!

[@buddycorbin2786]

For me, anger is a lack of acceptance of what is. Repeating the phrase, "I would not change _________ even if I could" helps a lot. This accompanied with loving kindness toward the person, place, or thing that appears to be the source of my disturbance. If I am angry there is always something in me that needs to be addressed.

[@EvanBerry.]

I don't know that I have anything worthwhile or constructive to add to your discussion -- I just want to say how much I appreciate your taking the time to make these videos, especially since you're busy writing. They've become a meaningful and inspiring part of my evenings. I think we live in a society that values anger, probably because it reifies individuality, as you said. But I think it's the stronger person who can realize they're angry and not indulge in it, as you put it, but instead recognize they're angry and use it to motivate the most appropriate response. That's how I aspire to be, though I know I have a long way to go. In the third grade I remember getting so mad I broke a pencil in half, and I was left with two halves of pencil and thought, "Well, that's was kind of dumb."

[@HardcoreZen]

You figured it out in third grade!

[@benhorner8430]

Thanks Brad. :) This seems to apply to me a lot more than I thought it would from just having read the title.

[@nathansmith7821]

I'm so glad you make these videos because I think your the only one I can actually understand when it comes to these things👍

[@josephwilson-doan4163]

Love the constipation thumbnail!

[@georgeredpath5394]

Great talk , thanks! 🤩 great about letting anger go when your right. Or wrong. I have had a similar experience with anger. I hope I can get better !

[@martynsnan]

Good description, thanks Brad. Anger can only arise from a sense of separateness. That sense, in turn, is born of clinging to ego and is the opposite of anatta. If someone is angry at me, they feel that they have a problem and it is better to respond with understanding and compassion. "Overcome the angry by non-anger. Overcome the wicked by goodness." Dhammapada 223

[@peterbgshoemaker]

Number 9, nicely done. Thank you, Brad.

[@mattrkelly]

This is the most difficult one...

[@will_110]

This was great, the article is also great. Thanks

[@Foma_Stuppa]

Something that I don't hear from Buddhist lectures on anger (maybe I'm missing something) is that sometimes anger is a sign that action needs to take place. It is always portrayed as an internal phenomenon with no consideration of the external circumstances that caused the anger is the first place. So if someone punches you, don't get angry. What is left out is that you should probably get away from the person who just punched you. I found myself in a situation where I was being bullied two years ago. All of the advice from Buddhist sources I could find seemed to suggest that my anger was my fault and that instead of confronting the source of my anger I should just suck it up and change how I felt about it. I found that advice just as toxic as my external circumstances. Tonglen practice was particularly toxic. I've also observed this in a young Hindu woman who is stuck in an arranged marriage in a foreign country with a controlling husband who has snuffed out every bit of agency she might have had. The advice her religion seemed to offer her was to let go of her feelings and submit her fate to karma. Something that I have never gotten from Buddhist sources, is that in some cases anger can be embraced as a motivating factor to change one's external circumstances. The internal portion being that letting go of that anger without attaching to it allows one to think clearly while acting to change those circumstances. Am I missing something?

[@brianboake8884]

More on anger please...struggling daily

[@HardcoreZen]

I'll see what I can do. I wrote a chapter about my struggles with anger in my book Sit Down and Shut Up.

[@dallasdandigitalproduction393]

In the 12 step program Im in, we talk about fear being the primary emotion behind anger. Most of the time Im afraid I wont get something I want, or Im afraid Ill lose something I have. Fear is the killer. Seems like this is linked with the Buddha's idea of attachment leading to suffering?

[@brookestabler3477]

Eh, sometimes I’m in the mood for Zen, sometimes not.

[@lorenacharlotte8383]

I sat down with anger and furious rage many times in the past. Didn’t put on the side but sat down with it. Feeling, experiencing, tasting, observing it’s impact and reaction in my whole body. I went into a years process in and off with this extremely powerful emotion. I also investigated it in all the ways outside myself by asking Teachers, practitioners and people in general. Put into practice all guidance and advice by experienced people in the subject. Every time I thought I managed to tame it, transformed or letting go, something happened and all of a sudden there it was arising with enormous energy. One day while sitting down I started to talk to it. It felt as an extremely powerful energy to which I said something like: “Dear anger, you are so powerful that you are hurting me. I know that if you came with this body, there must be a reason for that. You are its guardian protecting it from any threat but instead of listening to you, see why you were crying out so loudly I tried all the ways to ignore you, to make you shut up, to suppress you...but now I’m here for you. I was always told that you were a destructor, a dangerous poison and indeed you are that but because I was not treating you with the same equanimity that those virtues which sensations give so much pleasure. Please, forgive me for discriminating all the time against you. You are on me to protect me but you are hurting me....” Then I saw in my mind how the energy of anger started to dilute like smoke and arising from the same energy a profound very peaceful and pleasant sensation of compassion. It was a very profound experience. But it doesn’t mean I overcome anger since there was anything to overcome, but to understand it.

[@HardcoreZen]

That's an interesting way of working with anger.

[@lorenacharlotte8383]

Hardcore Zen : Hi Brad, This was an attempt to put into words the memory of a first most important break through anger, rage, fury...The problem with a memory is that there is a tendency to forget details such it was in the conversation with anger, and from the experience only remains its essence. It’s very important to clarify that BEFORE DOING MY OWN THING or TAKING THE BULLFIGHTER BY ITS HORNS ( Spanish expression when one confronts something face to face), I did put into practice everything I was told, advised by the great Zen Buddhist experts but anything worked out. It doesn’t mean in any way that it was a wasted or useless. It was due to all that exploration brought to myself to experience, playing around...that one day (and it only took place one moment of about nearly three hours sitting) that I had a break through. My heart was widely opened, I felt anger as a living energy. It didn’t have any form except from a kind of universal energy that appear in my mind as visualisation. However, I was not practicing any visualisation. But it came out. It’s power was so gigantic that made my body shaking, sweeting cold coming from my skin porosity. At the same time I was at the same time overwhelmed by seeing, experiencing the enormous power of such an energy. The sensations were extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant. At that stage, I have no idea why I started to talk to “anger”. I didn’t insult it. I didn’t pushed away. I didn’t put on the side or letting go. Instead of all that, I listened to it. It was like seeing its real nature for first time. It was a very, very profound experience as could perfectly visualise how from the same source of energy this was transformed into compassion. In another words, on the other side of anger spectrum I found compassion emerging as if both were a different manifestations in their form but the same source in their purest essence.

[@seanmaccotter1068]

I'm always working on patience. Lack of patience leads to angry outbursts. Sometimes I'm "calm like a bomb" usually some conscious breathing wins out, but sometimes the dashboard gets crap beat out of it!

[@davidazoulay5591]

Im a sure you have a ton of videos suggestions, but i am really curious to hear your take on Joko Beck !

[@HardcoreZen]

I like her books a lot. But I don't know a lot about her apart from what she writes.

[@Samuli69]

Keep up the good work👍

[@nathansmith7821]

Can you make a video about sitting because I can't sit still for very long because I get cramps and I'm not sure if I'm sitting properly.

[@HardcoreZen]

I did one called "How to Sit Zazen Every Day." The posture can be difficult. Have you tried seiza posture? Or a seiza bench?

[@wadecleveland9001]

The three poisons are desire, hatred, and ignorance. Tantra takes those impure things and transforms them into pure things. For example, most tantras are desire tantras that transform lust into bliss. There are also illusiory tantras that transform ignorance into wisdom. However, the Buddha never taught any anger tantras. Anger seems to be too uncontrollable to even try to use it as a path to enlightenment. Shantideva says that even a single moment of anger destroys many good deeds worth of karma. So, it is best to just abandon anger all together instead of trying to justify being angry because you have good intentions. Anger never works.

[@osip7315]

more borg talk, let me guess, no real life experience of buddhism, never meditated, just writes crazy shit

[@wadecleveland9001]

@@osip7315 I still have the Vissudhimagga and safron you sent me. I love you brother.

[@osip7315]

@@wadecleveland9001 "saffron" bizarre, why do you do this crazy shit ?

[@wadecleveland9001]

@@osip7315 You sent it to me, lol.

[@marknoble2030]

I often find myself getting pleasure from anger. It is one of the three poisons. A poison has to taste good to work.

[@DavidFerguson62]

Instead of letting go, which is very difficult just let things be.

[@ErinWi]

Imagine trying to hit a god with a club or a knife

[@HardcoreZen]

You'd have to be really angry to even try!

[@raysherry9598]

Undoubtedly anger can be hilarious and being squeaky clean can be boring

[@haaskaataikaasi]

"If you could just somehow kick that alcohol habit." Well. I had 4&+ weeks sober. Negatiivi karma came my way. But i just turned 35. This is like the pinnacle of my understanding. There was just too much of reality. I just could de-focus from it. Lovin you. Couldn't and could not. The reality was just too much reality. Non-stop reality. Can't possibly be p:

[@lani0]

Alan watts says when you announce to the world your good intent,all your past karmas queue up at your door like debtors.work through them

[@gra6649]

Agreed but wasn't it Zen Master Ummon Bun'en who said that "I love anger, and I love joy? If everyday mind is the way, wouldn't that include all the emotions like love, hate, anger, joy, and so on? Wouldn't all that just be "Grist for the mill"?

[@HardcoreZen]

Wel... Yeah... But....

[@gra6649]

@@HardcoreZen I guess that maybe the point is to not get too carried away, and that there is no set formula for awakening.

[@haaskaataikaasi]

Zazen didn't take me into religiosity. It made me understand and feel. I am the great beast 666

[@aurora3655]

60 is pretty old to be playing head games with other ppl on line...But , at least you're letting go of your comic book and action figure collections. I assume that level of maturity is due to the influence of your boyfriend and his dog. Keep the good work ( ꈍᴗꈍ)! Never too late! ✌

[@ehrenschopenhaur9159]

But Dragon Ball Z taught me that anger was a great source of power

[@benhorner8430]

If there was a precept about Rock'n'Roll, you could have hit the 3 click peaks of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll! :)

[@HardcoreZen]

In Theravada there is a precept about watching or participating in entertainment. That could cover rock and roll.

[@sheldonvideos]

Get as angry as you like. Don’t let some zen fools tell you how to pretend not to feel.

[@michaellyle8769]

I'll stop being angry when they bring back Coca Cola Blak.

[@MakeDemocracyMagnificientAgain]

Anger is so important! wtf?! Those precepts are nonsense! This precept makes me angry! ...At least I don't understand it ;) That means, I'm highly curious about it

[@aurora3655]

You're still a very angry "dude" though.