Penetrating Anger

The truth is, it is my anger that makes me angry.

I don't need to "get my anger out." I need to get into my anger. I need to penetrate its outward form, the form of my "enemy," and find out what that energy is really made of. When I have the courage to do this, I discover that my anger is not the one who makes me angry. It is I.

My anger is a furious knot of energy in my body, which my mind has turned into an image and projected onto someone else. And the media feeds me with plenty of images on whom I can project my anger.

If someone bothers me, it is really my mind that bothers me. But what if I refuse to cling to the mental image? For tomorrow the image will be different. Tomorrow there will be some new social, economic, or political outrage. I will replace last week's outrage with today's, and today's outrage with tomorrow's. But the same anger will be there beneath the image, percolating out of my solar plexus.

One thing is sure. The world does not respond to my outrage, but to my love. Is there a way to transform anger into love?

The images that anger my mind are just masks for a tangle of stuck energy in my flesh. I see the image and say, "he makes me angry." But when I penetrate the image and feel the energy behind it, without giving it a name or face, my attention sinks from the mind into the body.

Now I can experience my anger as a vibrant sensation. I see clearly that this anger does not belong to my enemy, but to me. I allow my anger to become intimate. Anger solidifies, becomes a throb deep in my belly.

I offer that pulse of energy through my breath, and a miracle of grace unfolds quite effortlessly. The contracted mass of anger begins to expand. Its hardness loosens and grows moist with compassion - not only for my "enemy," but for myself. This watery element in the belly now transforms into the airy element in the heart, which grows spacious with delight.

Now the mind clears and un-clenches the furrowed brow. My forehead opens into the blue sky of understanding.

Finally, the energy that once was anger expands into its original nature - the fire of love. My anger has become useful.

Anger is an invitation to engage in the alchemy of self-transformation, so that I may love and serve. Anger is a bud of sacred energy yearning to flower, waiting to bloom and be offered.