“Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Or you might say: “Do not meddle in the affairs of anger, for it is subtle and quick to multiply.”

So here’s something that happened to me recently.

Friday morning… I was pissed.

I don’t think I’d had enough sleep.

I wanted to get breakfast, but we were running late.

There was a lot I needed to get done… but there just wasn’t any time.

The anger started to multiply.

There’s always the other side of things… sometimes I feel amazing… life is beautiful… it’s a joy to be alive…

Sometimes… not so much 

Some days it seems like hope is drowning.

How do we handle this?

3 Powerful Methods of Erasing the Cause of Anger:

1. Accept the unexpected:  sometimes shit happens.  When I’m not doing well, eventually it gets to me, and I get pissed, and I tense up, and I get less effective.  When I flow with it, I tend to laugh a lot (it reminds me of the 3 stooges bumbling over and over again to accomplish the simplest task), and keep going… and when I get past it, I almost miss it.  The vast majority of anger/frustration/irritation arises due to a lack acceptance of something that wasn’t expected.  When we learn to accept it… we learn to work with it… work around it… turn it to an advantage.
2. Focus on what you love:   Pay attention to what you love.  Direct your focus there.  Bring a shred of it into your darkest moments.  Let it flow through yourself and your loved ones in your moments of happiness.  When I got out of the Army, I was incredibly happy to have my next job… just because it wasn’t the Army.
3. Pay attention to the changes in your state and redirect it as appropriate:  This is a critical skill for mystic mastery.  This is a crucial skill for a happy life.  The more you pay attention to your ongoing state… the more satisfying your experience of it will be… the more you will notice where it is going… the more you can lead it wherever you like!

I’m going to give you one more powerful method of erasing the cause of anger.

But first, I want to finish the story.

After my shitty morning on Friday… my wife and I found out we were having a little girl.

There were a few tense moments at the doctors office leading up to the ultrasound…

Then a couple of minutes of making sure everything was developing properly… and then he told us the little sea monkey swimming around in my wife’s stomach is a little girl.

No meditation or breathing techniques were required… I was instantly present… the bad morning was forgotten.

A Course in Miracles:  Day 17

The game for Day 17 (and our 4th method) is:

I see no neutral things.

We continue through the process of recognizing the power of our thinking… of recognizing real cause and effect… for better or for worse.

From ACIM:

You see no neutral things because you have no neutral thoughts.  It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is the other way around.  This is not the way the world thinks, but you must learn that it is the way you think.

For this game, you will want to keep your eyes open while repeating the following to yourself:

“I see no neutral things because I have no neutral thoughts.”

Then relax your gaze as you look at the objects around you and say:

“I do not see a neutral X, because my thoughts about X are not neutral.”

As usual, you will want to practice 3 to 4 times throughout the day for about a minute.

How does this help us with anger?

This is the true cause of anger!

Ultimately, this is the true cause of all suffering (anger is only one flavor).

The sense of separation and the perceived lack of control… the apparent external influences… the idea that our thinking is reacting to the world rather than recognizing world is reacting to our thinking.

When you recognize all is one, there is no separation, and no need for control.

Own your anger.

Bring it home.

When you accept your feelings… you accept yourself.

keep smiling,

Ben

Tagged as: A Course in Miracles, anger, cause