Anger

I started reading Shantideva’s treatise, the Bodhicaryāvatāra or “Way of the Bodhisattva“* again. I had half-finished the book before moving to Ireland, and am going through finishing a lot of half-read stuff in my library.

Chapter 6 is a very interesting chapter that deals with anger, and its opposite, patience or forbearance. Shantideva takes a very critical stance toward his own anger, and questions why we even get angry in the first place. In Buddhism, we speak of the Three Poisons, or the three roots of suffering: greed/desire/lust, hatred/anger, and ignorance/delusion. Of the three, ignorance is the root of the other two.

Case in point: this morning, I left for work very early to catch up on some things, and since I only ate a banana for breakfast this morning, I thought I would grab a coffee and muffin at the nearby Insomnia, a local Irish chain. Because I left so early, the shop was still closed when I stopped by, and I got annoyed. Not so much angry, but annoyed.

But why did I get annoyed? The store opens and closes the same time as it always does. It wasn’t the store’s fault that I was there too early. However, in my own mind, my ego had an expectation that the store should be open for my sake, and when the expectation didn’t work out, I got annoyed. If I had no such expectation, then would I still be angry? Here, the root of the problem was my own unrealistic expectation, and the injury to my ego when I realized it was closed.

We do this mental cycle quite a bit in fact, but we’re not often aware of it.

Shantideva writes that anger is truly an illusion:

24. A person does not get angry at will, having decided, ‘I will get angry’, nor does anger well up after deciding ‘I shall well up’.

25. Whatever transgressions and evil deeds of various kinds there are, all arise through the power of conditioning factors, while there is nothing that arises independently.

The anger, in other words, doesn’t just arise on its own, but due to external factors. In my case with the coffee shop I arrived too early, I expected it to be open even when realistically it wouldn’t be, and I took it personal when it wasn’t. If these factors had not been there, I would not be angry.

Later, Shantideva writes:

33. Therefore, even if one sees a friend of enemy behaving badly, one can reflect that there are specific conditioning factors that determine this, and thereby remain happy.

In Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, Shinran spoke on this subject as well to his disciple Yui-en in the Tannisho:

XIII: …Good thoughts arise in our minds due to the effect of past good, and we are made to think and do evil because of the working of karmic evil. The late master said, “We should know that even as trifling a thing as the speck of dust on the tip of a rabbit’s hair or a sheep’s fleece is the product of past evil karma.” At another time he asked me. “Would you agree to anything I say, Yui-en?”

“Of course, I will,” I [Yui-en] replied.

“Are you sure that you won’t disobey me?,” he repeated, and when I again agreed, he continued, “Go, then and kill a thousand people and your birth in the Pure Land is settled.’

“Even though that is your order,” I protested, “and even with the capacity for evil within me, I cannot kill even a single person.”

“Then why did you just say that you would not disobey what I, Shinran, said?” And then he went on, “By this we know that if we could act according to our thoughts, we could kill a thousand people for the sake of birth in the Pure Land if so required. We do not kill, not because our thoughts are good but because we do not have the karma to kill even a single person. Yet, even though we do not want to injure anyone, we may be led to kill a hundred or a thousand people.”

By this little dialogue, Shinran is proving his point that we can’t really take credit for the good or evil we do, because a big part of it is due to external forces, conditions and past karma. There’s nothing inherently good or bad within us. This tends to disturb people because we’d like to believe that we’re really good people, but this is only deluding ourselves. In Zen parlance, who is it that’s being good?

Think of a small boy who grows up in an abusive household. His father drinks heavily, beats his wife and children, and teaches them poisonous ideas about racism, violence and hatred toward those who are different. How do you think that boy, defenseless and only aware of this life he lives, will turn out? What of a young girl sexually abused by her father, who grows up to live a life on the streets?

If you think this is an exaggeration, consider that many children grow up this way. In elementary school, my best friend had a very abusive father,** while I on the other hand never suffered that fate. My friend’s dad, when I was not around, would shout and hit his son, while my mom and dad rarely if ever even spanked me. Not surprisingly, as my friend grew up, he became very depressed and withdrawn, but I was lucky to grow up (more or less) well-rounded and living a good life now.

We’re very much at the mercy of our environment, external causes, conditions, and our own past karma. It’s certainly possible for someone to overcome this, but realistically, if someone started off on the wrong foot, the odds are quite slim. The fact that one even encounters Buddhism, the Dharma, and practice the way out of this endless cycle is also the result of external conditions, past karma, etc, so it is a cause to rejoice and be thankful. Otherwise, one could spend their whole lives mired in their own suffering and never really know it. This is why in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism we place such a heavy emphasis on gratitude, why we recite the nembutsu not as practice, but as a expression of that gratitude.

There is a lot to ponder here, so I’ll leave it at that.

Namuamidabu

* – The translator in this edition says that a more correct translation is Way to Awakening. Based on my very basic understanding of Sanskrit, I’d bet he’s right.

** – One should also reflect on the fact that my friend’s father, likewise is a product of his environment, his own external causes and past karma, and so on. The weight and consequences of karma are truly inconceivable.