14
Anger
EGO IS AT THE ROOTS OF ANGER
Some people ask how they can get rid of their anger.
When they tell me that they try to suppress it, I ask them
whether they are trying to suppress it before or after they
understand it. I tell them that they must understand anger first,
because anger and peace coexist. If one fails to understand
anger and tries to suppress it, he may be suppressing peace
instead, so peace will die. Therefore, anger is not something
that one can suppress. One has to understand that anger is ego.
Analyze the ego that causes the anger.
If this child breaks something valuable and we get angry,
what kind of ego is it? It is the kind of ego that tells us that we
have incurred a loss from the breakage. Here the ego is of
profit and loss. We have to think about how we will go about
destroying this kind of ego. Otherwise by harboring the ego, the
anger will continue. Anger and greed at their very core, are
really only ego.
WITH WHAT UNDERSTANDING IS ONE TO
PACIFY ANGER?
Anger itself is the ego. One must examine why this is so.
Once we look into it, we will be able to grasp it. If we get angry
when something breaks, we have to question why the anger
occurs. The answer would be that the breakage means a loss.
It is because of the loss that we feel angry. If one thinks deeply
about the ego and the anger, the very process of thinking will
wash away his ego. There are circumstances that are unavoidable.
The head of the household will scold his servant for breaking
things, but he would remain silent if his son-in-law were to do
the same. He remains silent with the people he considers
important and he yells at the servant, whom he considers to be
inferior. This is egoism. Do peo ple not become silent in the
presence of their superiors? If Dada were to break something,
not even a single thought would cross their minds, but if the