Practical Spirituality and Anger II

In Practical Spirituality and Anger I, we spoke of doing Tang Lin, a Tibetan form of meditation, not to get rid of anger, but to transform it. Through the practice of Tang Lin you can take your anger, experience it completely, and then use it’s energy to strengthen your positive behavior. In many other practices you try to get rid of the anger. This doesn’t usually happen because one of the natural reactions to what goes on in our lives is often anger. It’s only natural.

If you are put down at the job, if you are assaulted on the street, if you see injustice, or if someone is continually rude to you—putting you down just because they can, you become angry. It would be a bit odd not to get angry when you can justifiably do so. The psychological name for not displaying the correct feelings at the correct time is an affective disorder. That’s why this form of meditation does not remove anger, it channels into something more positive.

This article will discuss the next step in the practice of Tang Lin. If you have been doing the first step since the last article the next one will be easy. This step takes you deeper into cleansing your body. First, notice how you feel while meditating. Are there tense areas in your body? Do you sense the body holding some type of emotion there? Can you sense anger, resentment, grief, or other emotions? If you can’t tell what’s making you tense, concentrate on the area and just let your face relax. The expression on your face will reflect the emotion.

Once you have it, imagine that you are inhaling the emotion, bringing it to the center of your body into an open sky, a large sun, a star, the hands of God, or whatever you would like to visualize, and dispersing it, or recycling it. Exhale the opposite emotion into the tense area. Continue until all the tense areas are relaxed and flexible. After you have finished breath deeply, relax and enjoy the feeling for a few minutes.

Next imagine that you are in a very small space like a closet or very small room.

In this small room you are being surrounded by your emotions, in this case anger. You are going to exchange the anger for the opposite emotion by bringing it into the center of your body, and by exhaling the opposite emotion into the small space. Continue this practice until you feel that the little space is cleansed of anger and filled with the opposite feeling. Do this for several minutes until the small room around you is completely filled with positive energy. Stay there as long as is comfortable breathing deeply and relaxing. When you feel finished you can do some other type of meditation, or just stop.

The same technique can be done during standing chi-kung meditation, while walking, or in the midst of anger producing situations. It doesn’t only have to be done sitting alone, but it does take time and practice to be able to do it well in other venues. The more you do it the better for you and for anyone around you. Try doing the meditation this way until we get to Practical Spirituality and Anger III. At that time we will give you the last step for Tang Lin, which is very powerful and the most difficult, but the most rewarding. Until then, keep applying these and other spiritual practices to the betterment of your life.

In times like these, in a modern world where stress usually gets the better of us, and where holding in and covering up emotions like anger only make us feel worse, it’s important to deal with our anger and other emotions quickly and completely. Covering them up usually leads to an explosion or to a serious stress related illness. I hope that this will be an affective and very helpful tool for you.

Dr. John Gilmore is a writer, spiritual director, martial artist, a healer and ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister living in Costa Rica. For more information or like materials, or to receive a free e-copy of On Being Loves Warrior by Kendall Ronin, visit http://www.dswellness.com.

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