The anger and rage collection: what we don’t engage we cannot transform

what we don’t engage we cannot transform

Anger is an emotion many people have so much trouble with that what happens is that is they end up denying that it’s how they feel and also then, in turn, become unable to be present to it in others.

This is not an effective way to heal if one has good reason to be angry. In fact it becomes impossible. Most people have good reason to be angry. We live in a culture of abuse and trauma and we’ve all been hurt. We also see a world where forces that feel much bigger than us are hurting many 1000s and millions of people all over the world. We also watch as our world and planet is being destroyed. So many good reasons to be angry, yes. And so many good reasons to be totally and completely aware of what is going on around us. We need to get it together! The world is a mess and it’s a mess because of us. Human beings.

So, what do we do about it?

I have collected below some quotes and then a list of links to articles dealing with anger and/or rage. There are many healthy ways to consider this dark emotion that is part of our emotional heritage. I’d like to first suggest that we not see it as negative. It is there for a reason. It helps inform us. What we have to do is understand it and embrace it. We can’t do that if we pretend it’s wrong and nasty and inhuman.

I will be including this collection among the navigation menus at the top of the page for future reference. I will also update it as I add to the topic on the blog.

So first I collected a few quotes from Robert Augustus Masters because he does a great job with shadow work. All those parts of ourselves we want to pretend are not there. His work in large part speaks to how dangerous it is to not be cognizant of these parts of ourselves. I agree with him.

So first:

Real spiritual opening is not some cleancut or antiseptic undertaking, but rather an inherently messy undertaking, as intense, unpredictable, and alive as birth, eventually necessitating full-blooded entry into everything we are, including what we dislike about ourselves. The dirt cannot be avoided, and nor should it necessarily be. In fact, it needs to be appreciated and known without gloves or a cement overlay, or else it won’t become fitting soil for our emergence.

and

Do not be so misled by endarkened feeling that you asylum it. If you keep shuttering its rooms, keep sealing it off, keep rejecting or otherwise disowning it, such feeling will become even more desperate and badly behaved, seeking your attention in whatever way it can, however destructive or painful. But reach into that subterranean cell, that limping darkness, that emotional ghetto, and reach in wholeheartedly, and what is in there will eventually start reaching out to you unfisted and vulnerably atremble, fitting into your embrace, revealing itself to be not a problematic it, but rather only reclaimed you.

and perhaps most importantly for this post:

Though aggression might seem to be an inevitable outcome of anger, it actually is an avoidance of anger and the hurt and vulnerability that are part of it. Viewing anger as aggression or as the cause of aggression provides us with an excuse to classify it as a “lower” or “primitive” emotion. Yes, anger does have a primitive side — shared with every mammal — but it’s far more than just a primitive arising, despite the fact that our use of it is often far from civilized.

All above quote by: Robert Augustus Masters

The collection:

• Mindfully taming anger

• The alchemy of anger

• On anger…

• the necessity of honoring ours and others rage

• Quote of the day ~ anger

• Fascinating video on the nature of anger and thought

• Dealing with anger

• Thich Nhat Hanh on transforming anger (as applicable to the activist)

• Spirituality and Politics (activism) — what we don’t embrace we cannot transform

• Quote of the day — Anger

• Anger — long quotes from Sally Clay and Ghandi

And some more related:

• Healing through the dark emotions

• Making the Unconscious Conscious: Embracing the Dark Night of the Soul

• How to be in the darkness

• the PRACTICE of embracing what is…  (anger too)

• Meditation, not all bliss and roses — A very common misunderstanding about meditation that can lead to discouragement is that it’s supposed to be all bliss and roses. That is simply not the case on the ground, so to speak. Sometimes meditation is about being with the dark and ugly and anxious and angry parts of our being too.

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