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FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 7

Healing Anger: The Power of solely responsible, and we hold If you look from a different angle,
Patience from a Buddhist Perspective a grudge against him or her, not then surely the person who caused
against the stick or the delusions. this anger in you will have a lot
We should also be aware that of other positive aspects, positive
since we possess a physical body qualities.
that is susceptible to pain when
hit by a stick, our own body partly But what about if you look for
contributes to our experience of the positive angles of a person or
pain. Because of our body and its event and can’t find any?
nature, we sometimes experience
physical pain even when no Here, I think, we would be dealing
external causes of pain are present. with a situation where you might
It is clear then that the experience need to make some effort. Spend
of pain or suffering comes about as some time seriously searching
a result of interaction between both for a different perspective on the
...there are generally two types of our own body and various external situation. Not just in a superficial
harm caused by others. One type factors. way. But in a very pointed and
is direct physical harm inflicted by direct way. You need to use all your
others and consciously experienced The Compassionate Life powers of reasoning and look at the
by you. The other type is harm situation as objectively as possible.
done to your material possessions,
reputation, friendship, and so on. For instance, you might reflect
Though not directed at your body, on the fact that when you are
these acts are also a type of harm. really angry at someone you tend
Let us say that a person hits you to perceive them as having 100
with a stick, and you feel pain percent negative qualities. Just as
and become angry. You don’t feel when you are strongly attracted
angry toward the stick, do you? to someone the tendency is to see
What exactly is the object of your them as having 100 percent positive
anger? If it would be appropriate Let’s say that someone makes qualities. But this perception
to feel angry toward the factor you angry. Your natural response does not correspond with reality.
that impelled the act of hitting, to being hurt, your immediate If your friend, who you view as
then you should not be angry with response, is to get angry.... You so wonderful, were to purposely
the person but with the negative might think about the event later, harm you in some way, suddenly
emotions that compelled that even much later, and every time you would become acutely aware
person to act. Ordinarily, however, you think about it you become that they aren’t composed of 100
we do not make such distinctions. angry all over again. How would percent good qualities.
Instead, we consider the person-- you suggest dealing with that
the intermediary agent between the kind of situation?
negative emotions and the act--as