MIND • BODY • SPIRIT
you suddenly become the CEO of a company and are unfamiliar with its corporate culture and current business environment, the first thing you need to do is listen. Before imposing your ideas, which may not be accurate, you offer your availability to listen and learn. You observe with intelligence and humbleness, without engaging in opinions and controversy. This goes for every moment in our lives, this ability to be present in the here and now with openness and curiosity. Sometimes this is all that’s needed. The second karma is called enriching. With the fresh overview we gain from pacifying, we can appreciate what we have. There is a quality of confi- dence and encouragement, which is the opposite of depression caused by the feeling of not having enough or of wanting things to be different. We’re able to see the richness and possibility in the present situation, which is full of energy in and of itself. Third is the karma of magnetizing, the courageous quality of facing our fears and confronting the inevitability of change head-on. From the clarity and appreciative energy of the first two karmas, we become aware of new possibilities and can fearlessly include them when they are helpful and ap- propriate, and reject them when they are confused and ego-based. We can stay awake within the turmoil of the continued on page 78
words and actions that arise from that can so easily spread that hell to every- one around us. It can make our world seem dark and small. It traps us in its cycle of hatred and blame. There is little space within anger for aware- ness, insight, or compassion. But all of our emotions contain both confusion and wisdom. Aggressive people are often effective because they can see exactly where to direct the knife. When we react to people or situations with anger, the true cause of our anger is often overwhelmed by the destructive qualities of hatred. We can no longer see clearly or act effectively. But unleashed anger, when liberated from aggression, is a powerful and compassionate sword. We usually don’t think of anger as compassionate, but in the Buddhist teachings it’s one of the four compas- sionate activities described as the four karmas. (Karma here means “activ- ity.”) All of these are accessible when we can separate our conditioned, ego- based reactions from the greater view of what’s actually going on, when we can contact, honor, and act on the wisdom within our emotions. After this brief summary, I offer a method for doing this. The first karma is referred to as paci- fying, taming, or non-struggle. It’s related to listening with unbiased ears so that you can see, understand, and be with what’s actually going on. If
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Anger And The Four Compassionate Activities
accomplished, kind, and wise group of Washingtonians, the honesty and openness about anger was both touch- ing and refreshing. I’m grateful to them for their willingness to bring this to the surface. Anger is often thought of as a prob- lematic emotion that we should squash. But there is wisdom in anger that can be contacted and unleashed. When anger arises it can send us straight to a mental hell, and the
BY PATRICIA ULLMAN
I’ve led a weekly meditation group for the Sibley Seniors Association for the last few years, now, of course, via Zoom. Recently they asked me to help them work with the anger many of them feel about being trapped in a country that’s out of control, where we can’t visit our children and grand- children, and where there is so much to be fearful and angry about. In this
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PATHWAYS—Fall 20—13
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