Buddhist Practice: anger

After a month or two without anger, when it began to return I was determined not to let it stay for long. I much preferred the peaceful calmness inside of me than the raging rabidity of seething at injustice or frustration.

At first, I learned to visualize anger and blow it away - like an approaching bubble or cloud that I did not want to sit on me or sink inside. Once I had managed this, I began to recognize that smaller problems often led to anger, so I began to blow these away also.

When I sensed the seeds of frustration, annoyance, injustice, aggravation, irritation, and their kin attempt to settle down and make home within my head, I began to blow these away also.

This attitude has kept me 99% anger free, and 75% lesser contributory free for a year or so. When I review the first 40 of my almost 43 years, I realize that I was a very angry person - even if I generally controlled myself physically, it came out verbally, poisoned me emotionally, and streamed out of me in endless torrents of written word.

I now try to let only naturally arisen emotions abide within me - a step further in mental control. I see so much poison and destruction in emotions made within the regular human heart and mind, that I prefer to do without them.

I am running at around 75-80% success rate - but a little uncertain as so many texts seem to teach that we should 'recognize and accept' our emotions rather than totally wipe them out and feel emotions only of a deeper source. Yet what I am doing works for me - naturally arisen emotions may be happy or sad - but they are REAL.