The root afflictions: Anger

• Four types of clinging
• Attachment to this life, happiness in samsara
• Personal liberation, grasping to inherent existence
• Objects of anger based on self, friends and enemies
• Examining how anger functions and how we express anger
• Different forms of anger
• Anger is the mental state, not the behavior
• Discussion of righteous anger
• Anger due to attachment or fear

Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature 18: Anger (download)

Contemplation points

1. Look at your own life in terms of the “four clingings” and how you fill your time: is it centered around activities that are meaningful in the long run or that only make you more anxious?
2. Fear can be due to attachment (we may get angry to protect what we’re attached to). Bring some examples to mind from your own experience.
3. Under the influence of anger, we think, “I am right! You are wrong! You have to change!” Take some time to think back on some times when you were angry. Do these thoughts sound familiar to you?
4. Recall a situation when you vented out of anger, screamed, stormed out of a room, and so on. Did your actions meet the need you had in that moment? Why not? What was your need and how did anger lead to you act in ways contrary to meeting it?
5. Anxiety also can be due to attachment. Look at your own mind, tracing your anxiety back to the root. Do you find an attachment to something there? What are some antidotes to attachment that you can apply?