One of the reasons we experience anger is because we are out of sync with the ordinary goodness of being alive. We are out of touch with the natural positive aspects of being human, and this disconnection leaves us anxious and angry.

We are overly busy and distracted, so our inherent wakeful qualities lay dormant in our being. We lead tremendously speedy lives where we never slow down enough to actually be with ourselves in a deep and meaningful way. Thus our nature goes unnoticed, even by ourselves, the very person we are most intimate with.

This is just like nature in the ‘mother nature’ sense. If we don’t make the time to be with nature, we forget all about it. We get busy and we forget how wonderful and relaxing it is to be outdoors surrounded by the beauty of the natural world.

It’s the same with our nature of basic goodness: Unless we spend time with it, our brilliant and awake qualities go unnoticed, and we continue with our busy lives, year after year after year. This creates feelings of dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger which are always laying just beneath the surface of our lives.

Meditation Practice

One of the ways meditation helps with anger is by uncovering our natural positive qualities. Meditation isn’t about creating some ideal state; rather it is a process of letting go, of shedding our superficial confusion, so that our true nature can come forth.

Mindfulness meditaton allows an open space where our thoughts and emotional dramas can begin to unwind. This helps us rediscover the earth, the present moment where we meet our nature face to face. When we get in touch with ourselves in this way, the positive qualities of openness, clarity, and strength start to come to the surface, and our anxiety and anger start to fall away.

Often people think meditation is about stopping our thoughts, or emptying the mind, which are misconceptions. Anyway it’s impossible to stop our thoughts, since the mind is an ongoing phenomenal display with much vividness and power. The idea of meditation is that we can be present with our thoughts and feelings in a simple way. If we don’t chase our thoughts and feelings on the one hand, or try to suppress them on the other, they naturally settle by themselves, leaving us with the brilliance of the present moment.

Normally we are constantly creating more and more thoughts, emotions, and dramas, and we never allow enough space for the dust of our busy mind to settle. Mindfulness meditation is exactly that space.

When our racing mind slows down and relaxes, the natural strength and brilliance of our being, basic goodness, will be there without us adding anything or doing anything at all. This is the simple practice of allowing ourselves to be who we are. In terms of working with anger, this is an excellent thing to do.

By Craig Mollins