Meditation On Anger Is Not Effective For Social Change

In a moment,

We'll just sit quietly in a meditative posture.

We'll sit quietly for a few minutes.

I'll set a motivation for our time together for this meditation session.

We'll do some breathing meditation and that will be followed by some analytical meditation.

So let's get ourselves settled.

And if you want to try this position with your hands,

It's right hand resting in your left with thumbs touching.

This is optional too.

It just helps with concentration.

Your hands can rest lightly on your thighs.

You want your torso to be upright and relaxed.

So now you can lower your eyes slightly,

But don't close them completely.

That will lead to dozing off,

Going to sleep,

Being distracted.

Have your eyes open just enough so that light gets in.

And we'll start with a body scan just to help us let go of any tension that might be in the body and help our mind to calm down.

So each time you hear a section of the body mentioned,

You can just bring your attention there and relax that area.

And if you enjoy visualization,

You can also visualize that area filling with golden warm light.

So we'll begin with the soles of our feet.

Just soften and relax that area.

And we can move to the left foot from the heel to the toes,

Soften and relax.

Right foot,

Heel to toes,

Soften and relax.

And we can move into the ankle joints and relax the calves,

Relax the knee joints,

And relax the thighs.

And now we can bring our attention to the sit bones.

And this is where we can check right now to see is our torso upright or we may be tilting forward or back,

Tilting to one side or the other.

Just by shifting our weight on top of the sit bones,

We can just see that we're upright and poised and relaxed.

And we can bring our attention to the lower abdomen.

So let that area go,

Just let it relax.

And notice the difference it makes in where we breathe from when we soften that area.

We can relax the upper abdomen.

And then we can bring our attention to the area above our ribcage,

The lower ribcage,

And in front of the spine.

And make that area that houses so many organs spacious and relaxed.

And we can bring our attention to the shoulder area.

And you can move your shoulders around a bit.

Or on the in-breath,

You can raise your shoulders up as far as you can.

And on the out-breath,

Drop them quickly.

And we can try that a couple more times.

Relax the upper arms.

Relax the elbows.

And relax the hands,

From the wrist to the fingertips.

And then to relax our facial muscles,

We can either think of a slight smile,

Or we can actually do it.

And you can check it out to see how this actually works.

In fact,

It does work.

Even just thinking of a slight smile can really help relax our facial muscles.

And notice the change it brings in the tone of our mind,

Just thinking of a slight smile.

So let's cultivate our motivation for the time together this morning.

And we have this wonderful opportunity to look honestly at a mental state that causes every single one of us a lot of problems.

The mental state of anger.

And so you may have the opinion that,

Oh,

I don't think I'll ever be able to do anything about this.

This is just who I am,

So take it or leave it.

And that actually is an inaccurate view.

Our mind is changing moment by moment.

There are many,

Many,

Many techniques that we can learn,

Antidotes to work with this mental state.

We can learn how to identify it.

We can do meditation on past sessions of anger that we've had in this life,

And review how things went really off the rails in our mind,

And how we reacted,

What we said,

What we did.

And in doing this kind of an investigation,

We don't want to end up feeling shameful or guilty,

Or any of those emotions.

We want to really just accept the fact that,

I'll speak for myself,

I'm an ordinary human being.

And I'm under the control of previously created karma and afflicted mental states.

And in moments when I'm not paying attention,

Or even when I am,

I get overwhelmed.

And anger comes.

And so,

All ordinary beings have this situation.

And we can all learn how to work with this actual mental habit.

And just knowing that we can make changes is a reason for optimism.

And recognizing how this mental state causes us and others suffering.

When we really get clear with ourselves about that,

And how,

Of course,

We don't want to get angry,

Maybe none of us set out in the morning with the intention of getting angry at someone else.

We can approach this mental state with some firm intention that,

I'm going to do something about this habit.

I want to do something about it.

And how fortunate I'm learning how to do something about this mental state of anger.

And then,

Of course,

We're experts at seeing this mental state in others.

And instead of judging and criticizing others when they're under the sway of anger,

We can instead cultivate compassion.

Because we can see that in that state,

They're really suffering.

And that is a reason for compassion.

To wish them to be free of that suffering and the causes of suffering.

So let's approach the meditation session and the teachings we'll get this morning on working with anger,

With an open,

Curious mind.

Which will allow us to do what we most want to do in this life,

And that's to become a kinder and wiser person.

Bringing benefit to everyone that we encounter eventually.

And in the long,

Long term,

To eventually become a Buddha.

To be of benefit to all.

So for the next several minutes,

We're going to turn our attention to the breath.

And we'll keep this very simple.

You may want to pay attention to the expanding and contraction of the belly area as you breathe in and out.

You may want to count.

So on the out-breath,

Then in-breath,

That's one.

And if this is new for you,

Don't count higher than five.

If you've been doing the counting before,

Maybe go up to ten.

Or if you want to pay attention to the sensation of the air around the nostrils as you breathe in and out,

That's a third choice.

So choose one of those three,

And stay with it for this session.

Don't change back and forth.

And then each time the mind goes off the breath,

Chasing another topic,

It can be anything from remembering what happened on the way here to something that happened yesterday that wasn't so pleasant,

Or remembering something very pleasant five years ago,

Or planning what's coming up next week.

The topics are endless.

So every time the mind leaves the breath,

Very gently,

Without criticism or judgment,

Bring your mind back to the breath.

So we'll do that for the next several minutes until I ring the gong.

So if you need to,

You can readjust your meditation posture.

We're going to now shift gears and do some analytical meditation.

This is going to involve listening to some points on a specific topic,

Reflecting on this and connecting it to experiences in your life.

So we sometimes think that anger is the only thing that's going to get us up off the couch to correct injustice.

And it's true,

For many,

Anger may energize us to prevent or correct social injustice,

But it is not a positive motivator for social change.

So let's take a deeper look at this.

So let's consider that when we're angry,

When we're in the heat of the moment,

And even afterwards,

We in the past have had many reasons to validate our anger,

Especially if it's related to injustice of any kind.

But it can apply to any situation of anger where we validate it.

So we may think,

It's good to be angry.

If I'm not angry,

Those people are going to take advantage of me.

They'll step all over me.

They'll ruin my life.

When I'm angry,

I'm powerful,

And they will listen to me.

If I'm angry,

They will respect me.

If I'm angry,

Then I'll get what I want.

My policies will happen.

Now take some time on your own right now,

And think of the other ways you've validated your anger in the past.

And so,

When we are validating our anger,

We're actually setting ourselves up for more misery.

So let's take a look,

Honestly,

At our behavior when we're angry.

And when we use the word anger in Buddhism,

We're not just talking about full-blown rage,

Going ballistic,

Losing it.

We're talking about all the other levels too,

Right down to being irritated,

Being frustrated,

Being ticked off.

All those other areas that we might tell ourselves,

Oh,

That's not anger,

I'm just irritated.

But when the mind is in those states,

We're under the sway of anger.

So,

How do you speak to others when you're angry,

When you're frustrated,

When you're irritated?

How's your tone of voice?

Do you use sarcasm?

Harsh words?

What's happened in the past when speaking with anger?

Under the sway of anger,

We often make black-and-white statements.

Our view is extremely limited.

We cannot see the big picture.

We can't consider what's going on with the other person.

At times,

We've probably in the past accused people of things they didn't do because we thought we could read their mind and know their motivation.

And under the influence of anger in the past,

We probably haven't held back at all from dumping blame on everybody else,

Making us the pure one,

But everyone else is wrong.

And so,

Under the sway of anger,

We exaggerate things.

We're right,

They're wrong.

They need to change.

And when we're angry at whatever injustice has our attention in the moment,

Our mind actually becomes very much like the minds of the people who are perpetrating the injustice.

And so,

When we start looking at role models of people who are coming up against injustice in a non-violent way,

We can see compassion.

And we can see that this is what His Holiness the Dalai Lama manifests.

When he is in a situation of dealing with injustice,

Which he's very familiar with,

And this mental state of compassion is far more potent in the long term for stopping oppression and injustice.

And I think we often misunderstand compassion.

Some people think that it lays the groundwork for others to take advantage of us.

However,

The wish for others to be free of suffering is not a foolhardy,

Idealistic notion.

Compassion is an attitude that opens and calms our mind so that our decisions are based on wisdom.

Compassion doesn't mean doing everything everyone else does.

Everyone else wants.

Compassion,

Supported by wisdom,

Is assertive and precise.

And when we come from a place of calm,

Infused with wisdom and compassion,

That gives us clarity of mind where we can intercede and also for others to consider our views,

If not right away,

Then later on,

When their minds are calm and they can consider what we've offered as our points of view in how to move through this injustice.

And so to close this meditation,

We've generated some merit,

Some virtue in considering how anger is not a way to move towards and through dealing with injustice.

There are far better methods to invoke change that usually takes a long time.