Anger might not be a useful emotion

I originally wrote this at "The spiritual path 888" here at blogger.com  and decided it would fit here as well so decided to try to share it here also.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Anger might not be a useful emotion

My friend has a Master's degree in History of Religion from UCLA specializing in Buddhism and Sanskrit. With this he could teach at almost any college or university History in the U.S. However, he would rather live in Mt. Shasta, play music and run a music recording studio for himself and many other musicians he knows from all around the world.

This choice has served him well both as a musician, traveling all over the world playing music and being incredibly free to pursue his spiritual path as an adult.

He was telling me anger is not useful. He mentioned even the Dalai Lama thought that anger wasn't useful. Then he said that when you are angry you poison yourself with bad chemicals.

I remembered how angry I was in the early 1990s when I couldn't get custody of my daughter from my ex-wife. I always attributed my heart virus that I almost died from to this anger. So, here was another bit of evidence going in this direction.

Then I said to my friend, "But when I'm a little angry I'm always the most intelligent. In fact, I could say that all the best things in my life came from me getting a little angry and making changes that made my life an ongoing miracle."

He looked at me and said, "But this isn't the anger of rage that some people experience."

I said, "Yes. That's true."

So, just remember when you are really enraged beyond it being useful to you and your future.

Because poisoning yourself with the enraged chemicals your body makes only shortens your life and the quality of it and likely does nothing to change whatever is wrong to something better.

The fight or flight response is very short term and sometimes (like when a bus is bearing down on you) it's good to run for your life.

A little anger might make you go to college, start a business, get married, have a family or whatever. But a lot of anger is only going to kill you and other people in both the short and long run.

So, remember this, anger is always a choice. Don't be a slave to anger.

If you take responsibility for your whole life what's to be angry about unless you see yourself always as a victim of others?

So, if you are empowered you have no one to blame but yourself for anything.

After my heart virus I had to realize that I had to let go of my anger so I could raise my 2 1/2 year old daughter and to be there whenever I could for my 10 year old daughter, as well as for my then grown children.

This idea is partly why I'm still alive right now in my late 60s.