Acknowledging Faults

lobster

We all have faults when manifesting in the world

One of my many flaws is anger.

Due to the prevailing culture I had started swearing, something I have never done. mantras seem to have (almost miraculously) washed out my mouth with amrita . . . so there is a solution.

However anger, blind fury and explosive breaks in equanimity are still there . . . and over pretty quickly . . .
The expression of emotion may be a necessary evolvement for the repressed but it still needs skilful channeling . . .

The point is not to deny or pretend one is flawless but to work on the gross or subtle reminders of our karma.
I know the solutions. I am working on them . . .

At a more compassionate and subtle level we begin to recognise that our perception of 'other' reflects on our inner correspondence.

footiam

lobster said:

We all have faults when manifesting in the world

One of my many flaws is anger.

Due to the prevailing culture I had started swearing, something I have never done. mantras seem to have (almost miraculously) washed out my mouth with amrita . . . so there is a solution.

.

I don't understand how the prevailing culture could be so damaging. It is a culture, isn't it? Not, 'unculture'.

lobster

Well despite some tendencies to reclusive behaviour, I watch films and TV and am therefore partly in a bad environment. A lot of the media now takes bad language as almost everyday acceptability. I am weak and fickle and easily influenced.

If I only watched dharma talks I might be a lot better off.
Maybe I should go to the opera and find a higher influence?

music

I have an explosive temper myself, and yeah it's an exhausting problem. These are what Hindus call 'impressions' left over from previous lives, which is why certain reactions persist no matter what we do. These are like habits which are formed through repetitive behavior, only these 'habits' stretch over many births - and all the more difficult to overcome.

Jeffrey

@music, I spent a lot of time working on anger. I don't know about you, but I used to just go along with things even though they annoyed me. I didn't express anger in appropriate timing and then I would blow up at some time and be totally inappropriate. So for me learning to express anger helped me from bottling it up.

lobster

I think it is about appropriate times and outlets. A lot of anger gets locked in the body, hence a physical outlet is useful.

federica

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the remnant of the wound is still there."

Jeffrey

@federica, nice I always screw that story up haha.

music

Anger management via carpentry. Two birds, one stone, and all that.