Anger

The theme for today is
(social trigger alert...)
Anger and Aggression.

Relative to this
we can revisit
a story by the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu
about Confucius
giving advice to his disciple
about visiting a dangerous tyrant,
the Prince of Wei, described as
"full-blooded and entirely self-willed".

His disciple, a wise man
had many thoughts, many strategies,
but every one, according to Confucius,
would bring disaster.

Actually, this sounds familiar,
a metaphor for many human dilemmas,
both political and in the inner life of a human being.

Confucius counseled "fasting of the heart"
a kind of emptying
deeper than any effort at dropping a desire
or an attachment:

"If you can do this,
you can go amongst the men in the world
without upsetting them,
You will not enter into conflict
with their ideal image of themselves.

If they will listen,
then sing them a song.
If not, keep silent."

This story is not really about aggression
or about solving a problem.
It is about a practice

Fasting of the heart:
not easily done
something that takes time
since it is not an idea or a decision
but a change to inner world, to self

and asks us to make a leap of logic
that doing so could have an effect on the "outward" world
since our cultural wisdom is committed
to the idea that these are separate.

Sometimes anger is like visiting the Prince of Wei
it seems nothing good could come of it.

That is ONE story about it,
but a common one

We have many others,
ones that are near to hand, that easily occur
and others that need a little uncovering
experimentating,
or heart-fasting.

Some cultures have dieties
that look angry
but are helpers and protectors.

Some cultures considered anger a virtue
not a troublesome thing, a vice.

We can make some distinctions
not definitions, but perceiving differences in experience.

What is "anger" ... to me?
Or to people I know well and have insight into?

What's the meaning or difference
-- in me or my experience --
between being angry and relaxed?  Happy?
Could I be both at once?

What's the relationship between anger and aggression?

Some people use the word "assertiveness", is that different?

Using emotional imagination:
How would you like to have a protective anger diety
looking after you?

What does anger feel like
if we let go of the binding effect,
the "poison" aspect of it?
Does that seem possible?

As all experience,
anger is not a closed thing or category.

These are some personal random musings.
What are yours?
What sort of insight or resolution
do you feel drawn towards?