How to Use Anger as Spiritual Practice

"Do you imagine anger should be suppressed? Pushing anger down, below awareness, does not free us from its grip. When we do this, anger festers, and its consequences continue unabated. Whether suppressed anger resurfaces as physical symptoms, depression, passive aggression, or explosive rage—sooner or later it will rise.

Yet expressing anger in words and actions is not more skillful than pushing it down. And when we justify our anger, we get hijacked into believing our thougths are The Truth.

Without justifying anger, repessing it, or acting on it, we have only to genuinely feel our anger. When we do, we see the present moment of anger is very quiet—and also very specific. Anger is never just ANGER—which is a mental concept. Rather it is a concrete, visceral experience—perhaps of tightness, pulsing, heat, pressure—plus strongly believed thoughts.

Bringing attention to these sensations in the quiet light of awareness, you may experience a release from the constricting belief that this emotion is 'you.'"

Ezra Bayda
Saying Yes to LIfe (Even the Hard Parts)

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