Walking Meditation When Angry

When anger arises, we may wish to go outside to practice walking meditation.  Practice like this:

Breathing in, 

I know that anger is here.

Breathing out,

I know that the anger is me.

Breathing in,

I know that anger is unpleasant.

Breathing out,

I know this feeling will pass.

Breathing in, I am calm.

Breathing out, I am strong enough

to take care of this anger.

To lessen the unpleasant feeling brought about by the anger, we give our whole heart and mind to the practice of walking meditation.  As we walk, we recite this verse and wait until we are calm enough to look directly at the anger.  After a while, our anger will subside and we will feel stronger.  Then we can begin to observe the anger directly and try to understand it.

Minfulness of Anger

Anger is an unpleasant feeling.  It is like a blazing flame that burns up our self-control and causes us to say and do things that we regret later.  Anger and hatred are the materials from which hell is made.  A mind without anger is cool, fresh, and sane.  The absence of anger is the basis of real happiness, the basis of love and compassion.


When our anger is placed under the lamp of mindfulness, it immediately begins to lose some of its destructive nature.  Our awareness of our anger does not suppress it or drive it out.  It just looks after it.  This is a very important principle.  Mindfulness is not a judge.  It is more like an older sister looking after and comforting her younger sister in an affectionate and caring way.  We can concentrate on our breathing in order to maintain this mindfulness and know ourselves fully.


When we are angry, our anger is our very self.  To suppress or chase it away is to suppress or chase away our self.  When we are joyful, we are the joy.  When we are angry, we are the anger.  When anger is born in us, we can be aware that anger is an energy in us, and we can accept that energy in order to transform it into another kind of energy.  We know that anger can be a kind of compost, and that it is within its power to give birth to something beautiful.  We need anger in the way the organic gardener needs compost.  If we know how to accept our anger, we already have some peace and joy.  Gradually we can transform anger completely into peace, love, and understanding.

Transforming Feelings

This first step in dealing with feelings is to recognize each feeling as it arises. The agent that does this is mindfulness.  In the case of fear, for example, you bring out your mindfulness, look at your fear, and recognize it as fear.  You know that fear springs from yourself and that mindfulness also springs from yourself.  They are both in you, not fighting, but one taking care of the other.

The second step is to become one with the feeling.  Say, "Hello, Fear.  How are you today?"  Then you can invite the two aspects of yourself, mindfulness and fear, to shake hands as friends and become one.  Doing this may seem frightening, but because you know that you are more than your fear, you need not be afraid.  As long as mindfulness is there, it can chaperone your fear.  The fundamental practice is to nourish your mindfulness with conscious breathing, to keep it there, alive and strong.  As long as mindfulness is present, you will not drown in your fear.  In fact you begin transforming it the very moment you give birth to awareness in yourself.


The third step is to calm the feeling.  As mindfulness is taking good care of your fear, you begin to calm it down.  "Breathing in, I calm the activities of body and mind."  You calm your feeling just by being with it.


The fourth step is to release the feeling, to let it go.  Because of your calm, you feel at ease, even in the midst of fear, and you know that your fear will not grow into something that will overwhelm you.  Calming and releasing are just medicines for the symptoms.  You now have an opportunity to go deeper and work on transforming the source of your fear.


The fifth step is to look deeply.  You look deeply into your baby--your feeling of fear--to see what is wrong, even after the baby has already stopped crying, after the fear is gone.  You cannot hold your baby all the time, and therefore you have to look into him to see the cause of what is wrong.  By looking, you will see what will help you begin to transform the feeling.  You will  realize, for example, that his suffering has many causes, inside and outside of his body.  Looking into your baby, you see the elements that are causing him to cry, and when you see them, you will know what to do and what not to do to transform the feeling and be free.


After recognizing the feeling, becoming one with it, calming it down, and releasing it, we can look deeply into its cause, which are often based on inaccurate perceptions.  As soon as we understand the causes and nature of our feelings, they begin to transform themselves.

Non-Surgery

We do not need surgery to remove our anger. We only have to observe it with love and attention. If we take care of our anger in this way, without trying to run away from it, it will transform itself. This is peacemaking. If we are peaceful in ourselves, we can make peace with our anger. We can deal with any unpleasant feeling in the same way

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The River of Feelings

Our feelings play a very important part in directing all of our thoughts and actions. In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence.


There are three sorts of feelings--pleasant, inpleasant, and neutral. When we have an unpleasant feeling, we may want to chase it away. But it is more effective to return to our conscious breathing and just observe it, identifying it silently to ourselves: "Breathing in, I know there is an unpleasant feeling in me. Breathing out, I know there is an unpleasant feeling in me."


We can use our breathing to be in contact with our feelings and accept them. If our breathing is light and calm--a natural result of conscious breathing--our mind and body will slowly become light, calm, and clear and our feelings also. Mindful observation is based on the principle of "nonduality": our feeling is not separate from us or caused merely by something outside us; our feeling is us, and for the moment we are that feeling.


If we face our unpleasant feelings with care, affection, and nonviolence, we can transform them into the kind of energy that is healthy and has the capcity to nourish us. By the work of mindful observation, our unpleasant feelings can illuminate so much for us, offering us insight and understanding into ourselves and society.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP -Thich Nhat Hanh

The path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life


Contents

Foreword by H. H. the Dalai Lama

Part One: Breathe! You Are Alive

Twenty-Four Brand-New Hours
The Dandelion Has My Smile
Conscious Breathing
Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
Thinking Less
Sitting Anywhere
Sitting Mindfulness
Bells of Mindfulness
Eating Mindfully
Walking Meditation
Telephone Meditation
Driving Meditation
Aimlessness
Our Life Is a Work of Art
Hope as an Obstacle
Breathing Room
Continuing the Journey



Part Two:  Transformation and Healing

The River of Feelings
Non-Surgery
Transforming Feelings
Mindfulness of Anger
Walking Meditation When Angry
The Roots of Anger
Internal Formations
Living Together
Suchness
Nourishing Healthy Seeds
What's Not Wrong?
Blaming Never Helps
Understanding
Meditation on Compassion
Meditation of Love
Investing in Friends
Community of Mindful Living
Mindfulness Must Be Engaged


Part Three:  Peace is EveryStep

Interbeing
Waging Peace
Not Two
Citizenship
Ecology of Mind
The Roots of War
Reconciliation
Love in Action
Entering the Twenty-First Century