In our modern day secular world I think anger is very often thought of as not only acceptable - but even as a virtue.

What about anger toward social injustice? Racism, prejudice, bias? Isn’t that anger justified?

What about anger toward any injustice of any kind? Isn’t that anger justified?

What about victims of crimes? Victims falsely accused? Isn’t that anger justified?

What about anger when a member of your own family is harmed? Isn’t that anger justified?

By a show of hands how many think anger is times justified?

We sometimes can feel very “self righteous” about our anger. This is especially true when fighting for a particular cause.

And what about opposing racial, religious or ethnic groups that hate one another. Each side feels very “self righteous” about their anger and their cause. They become more and more polarized until they become mirror images of each other. Like a negative and photograph.

Catholics killing Prosestants who in turn are killing Catholics. What about the Jew and Arabs in the middle east? Or any racial, religious or ethnic group that hates one another. And the ultimate form of this kind of self-righteous anger is when violence is used and even that is justified. We can see this with any group but I think of some members of the pro-life movement who have bombed abortion clinics and killed abortion doctors.

I remember back in the 70’s when there were peace protests, and I remember times when fights broke out with an opposing group of pro-war protestors. And the TV footage showed peace protestors actually hitting the pro-war protestor with their peace signs!

And if you are not particularly invested in the particular issue you can see how the “virtue” of either side is only a conventional truth established by mental labeling.

Yet throughout the Buddhist teachings it is repeated again and again that anger is never justified. The Buddha stated emphatically that anger is:

• An affliction,

• a fetter,

• A poison,

• A deluded state.

And HH Dalai Lama has also said on many occasions that anger is never justified. But I think this raises the question of why anger never justified or useful?

The issue of acting in anger as opposed to more wholesome emotions can be evaluated in the following pairs:

• Anger has little care for who it harms.

• Compassion does care so it seeks not to harm.

• Anger has no care at all for the fate of the enemy.

• Bodhichitta wishes that the enemy would find Happiness and the causes of happiness as well as becoming enlightened.

Think about a time you experienced another’s rager. Did their anger make you think that they were kind and compassionate. On the other hand, did their anger make you think that they were crude, rude, unintelligent and emotionally damaged? One has only to look at the recent meltdowns and angry outbursts of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards to see how ridiculous they looked and how it affected people’s opinion of them.

“Is anger or hatred ever justified? ‘A direct answer from Allan Wallace in “Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground up,” Righteous hatred’ is in the same category as ‘righteous cancer’ or ‘righteous tuberculosis’. All of them are absurd concepts.”

Wallace goes on to say, “This does not mean that one should never take action against aggression or injustice! Instead, one should try to develop an inner calmness and insight to deal with these situations in an appropriate way. This is the only valid mode of behavior simply because we all know that anger and aggression give rise to anger and aggression. One could say that there are three ways to get rid of anger: kill the opponent, kill yourself or kill the anger. Which one makes most sense to you?”

The Buddha spoke in many sutras about anger as affliction. I think the sutra that illustrates this the most dramatically is the following:

“Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that would not be doing my bidding. Even then you should train yourselves; ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic, with a mind of goodwill, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading these people with an awareness imbued with goodwill and, beginning with them, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with goodwill - abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill-will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.”

Majjhima Nikaya Sutra

Did you know that the US has averaged a new war every 4 - 7 years since our founding? If we had - as a species - tried to settle all of our conflicts with Compassion and Bodhicitta instead of with anger, we might indeed live in a world where peace is the norm and anger, hatred, war and violence is a statistical aberration. Instead, our use of Anger has led to a world where War is an accepted mode of accomplishing goals.

The 8th century Indian Buddhist master, Shantideva said…

“If these long lived ancient patterns of mind, which are the wellspring of only unceasing woe…….if these patterns can find their safe lodging within my heart, how can joy & peace in the world ever be found?”

So I hope I’ve convinced you anger is never appropriate.

Does it mean we simply let others walk over us? Of course not! We stand up for ourselves and what we believe in, but think must much better it is to use the motivation of compassion or bodhichitta than anger.

The next time you feel the feeling of anger arising in you - stop - take a breath (or two) and change your motivation to one of compassion. Where you are responding with care for the other person. Not only will you be helping the other person, but you will be helping yourself by instead of generating negative karma, you will be generating positive merit.

Note: Special credit is given to my good friend Rev. Van Baldwin, C. Ph.D., Director, The CrossXRoads Poets and Writers Series for his ideas, concepts and even words in parts of this talk.