INSPIRING WISDOM

Anger

If someone held a mirror, a looking glass, up to your face, at the high moment when anger had seized you, you would not like the image that you saw therein. You would not like the blazing eyes, shooting out flames and madness, you would not like the distorted features, belying their divine origin, you would not like the hectic flush on your skin, the open mouth, the distended nostrils, the tense jutting chin, the whole formidable transformation of that which was once your placid and pleasant countenance. You would not like yourself at all... You would know abhorrence and revulsion at the face which confronted you. While in anger, man loses possession of his rational faculties; his softness, his tenderness, his humanity are overpowered and banished, temporarily at least. The angry man becomes oblivious of his relationships, of his duties, of the standards of society; he commits acts which in his serene moments he would scorn others for perpetrating.

The passion of anger, while in action, distills an actual poison, which may spread throughout the system or settle in one of the organs - to its great detriment. It is a fire which one kindles against an enemy, but which consumes one's heart. Anger may or may not incite anger in others, but in either case, it unfailingly breeds hatred and contempt. Anger either chills or inflames the heart against which it is directed; it creates an atmosphere of bitterness and resentment which poisons and destroys.

When a man is in anger, he is not himself, he is only a distorted image of himself; his inner control has become impaired, his finer judgement stands silent... Through anger man's learning capabilities degenerates and his spiritual attainments may be eclipsed. Not only does anger do much injury to the body; it also does the same to a person's spirit and mind. In anger his memory becomes weaker, his understanding superficial, and his comprehension shrunken. Anger burns out the finer feelings of a person and destroys the noble rays of the spirit. It undermines the mentality as it does the vitality of man. It obscures the vision and blinds the understanding. It is a devouring flame, consuming the subtle process of the mind, numbing the keener and the more tender emotions.

Anger not only despoils the body, it not only preys upon the nervous system, destroying orientation, impairing memory and judgement, but it also proves a great hindrance in the proper relations of an individual with his fellow-man. Irritability, anger, fury, rage, are only degrees of one and the same reaction. They only find expression when the human mind refuses to pause and think; when it fails to recognize the higher truths of its being, when it loses sight of the higher purpose, and surrendering to negative emotions, allows them to lead and direct it. These, in turn, shatter man's being, and uproot his finer sensibilities and acquisitions. Impulsiveness is closely bound up with temper, it is the discharge of force disjoined from consideration and judgement. Sometimes years of friendship are wiped out in one stormy scene, and life unions are severed by one outburst of bitterness.

One of the worst things about anger is that when one does not restrain it and gives it full freedom, it becomes a habit... An irascible nature develops in him, and he simply seeks opportunities for irascibility. ...habitual anger has despoiled the soil of its most precious elements; neither love nor friendship, nor loyalty, nor any warm human attachment can grow therefrom. His mind can then no longer rest.

Yes, anger is a destroyer. At the moment that one yields to it, it destroys his mental capacities, his emotional equilibrium, his bodily functions... Even one moment of anger is injurious, the habit of anger is calamitous...

Anger must be eradicated from our consciousness, if we wish to keep unsullied the image of God within us. When one frees himself from anger, he frees himself, at the same time, from many other diseases; for anger is constantly sapping the springs of vitality, and bringing it to a low ebb - a state wherein all manner of physical ailments find entrance.