  Spiritual
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Hi, I'm Sophurky ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter. This week we'll talk about the very human emotion of anger.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book Finding Your Religion, compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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Chill Out!
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal
with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha
For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed a lot of angry people out in the world lately. Whether it’s driving around in my car watching people honk and gesture rudely to another driver, or standing in line at the grocery store behind an impatient shopper yelling at her children, or listening to the ranting of a political pundit on my television screen, the world just feels like a very angry place these days.
I suppose it could be argued that there is a lot for us to be angry about. The never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the dismal state of the economy, paying $3 a gallon for gasoline, rising unemployment, dissatisfaction with political leaders – those are just a few of the things that are pissing people off. And although anger has always been part of the human condition, modern society appears to give us more opportunity than ever to experience irritation and annoyance. In fact, anger really seems to have pervaded our age and taken up permanent residence in our psyches. And what’s particularly frightening about that is that anger tends to breed more anger.
In an article about spirituality and anger by John R. Ballew, he asks what the relationship is between spirituality and anger. “Are they opposites,” he asks, “or even enemies? Can anger serve a useful purpose in the spiritual life?” He continues by stating that, “Spiritual traditions can be helpful to us in understanding this powerful emotion. There is ambivalence about anger, with its power, inevitability and potential usefulness recognized, but with warnings about the potential for spiritual danger inherent in it.”
Pagan spiritual paths, such as Wicca for instance, understand anger to be a force of energy – a type of magic – that centers on outcome. Wiccans believe that what we focus on creates our reality and changes who we are, and the world reflects back to us what we send out into it. Thus there is the potential for anger to reflect back on us in such a way as to change who we are in the world – and who we are within our own self, from a negative standpoint.
From a Buddhist perspective, anger is a potentially destructive emotion often related to greediness and attachment. While anger can be a source of holy wisdom when it brings awareness, it has the potential to descend into hatred or aggression. The Buddha offered a great metaphor for anger when he said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” For Buddhists, then, anger is not to be repressed but approached with mindfulness, responding with loving-kindness and non-attachment. Further, as with all other emotions, we have the seed of anger within us; someone else cannot “make” us angry.
This ambivalence about anger can also be seen in the Christian tradition. Certainly getting angry and lashing out at others in our impatience is not the best way to conduct ourselves. That kind of anger is usually ego based, and is best described as a temper tantrum of sorts when we don’t get our way or when someone upsets us. But what about what we sometimes refer to as righteous anger? Is there really even any such thing? We know that Jesus did get angry sometimes, usually in response to the self-righteousness of others and the injustice he saw all around him. And his angry reactions to those situations are usually considered justified by Christians in terms of an “okay” way to be angry. But Christian tradition also teaches that anger has the potential for becoming fixated and distracting us from our relationship with one another and with God, even if it is a so-called righteous kind of anger. Thus a Christian understanding of anger would seem to ask, regardless of where the anger stems from, “Does my anger draw me closer to my community and to the Divine, or does it create destructive divisions?” For instance, anger at injustice can be a healthy spiritual reaction in that it helps us see what is wrong and may motivate our actions to create positive change to address the situation, which turns it into a blessing rather than a curse. But taken a step further, even if we respond with understandable anger and indignation at an injustice, if we never do anything else than be angry about that injustice all of the time, then that doesn’t do us or anyone else any good.
So using Jesus further as our example, he seemed able to channel and release his anger on the specific injustices he witnessed, but then he was also able to let it go and didn’t hang on to it in that moment. So perhaps a lesson we get from him is that yes, when we see injustice, get angry about it if it prods us to do something about it. But if all we do is nurse the anger and let it fester and boil, all it really ends up doing is hurting our spirits as well as those around us, because ultimately anger can reflect and intensify our woundedness and separation, regardless of where it came from in the first place. Further, holding on to even the best of intentioned righteous anger presents an enticement to our own sense of self-righteousness and self-justification which only ends up separating us from one another, the world, and ultimately from our truest, most authentic selves. So in the end, no matter whether the original source of our anger is righteous indignation about an injustice or simply being impatient with someone in the car ahead of us – any anger that we hang on to and feel entitled to is related to ego rather than spirit. And its power can become addictive, in that some people end up feeling most alive when they are really, really angry. In fact, there is so much for us to be angry about that we become like the bumper sticker that reads, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
I guess what all of this means for me is that all anger, whether from a spiritual sense of injustice, or from our own fragile egos and impatience, must be recognized and dealt with before it becomes an unhealthy emotion that separates, cuts us off from others, and causes internal as well as external pain – which for me is where it can become sin, using Buechner’s definition that “sin is whatever you do, or fail to do, that widens the gap between you and them and also the gaps within yourself.” As we know all too well, anger can eventually mutate into resentment, a long-term destructive emotion that settles in and hardens our hearts as its toxic side-effects pervade our words and deeds and spread like poison into the lives of those around us. So what do we do? We know we cannot ignore it because doing that only forces that rage underground, which impacts our spiritual and physical health.
Anger, wherever it stems from, is real, and needs to be recognized as such – and then dealt with in healthy ways that leave us, as well as those around us, feeling empowered, understood by others, safe and connected. In that way, by relying on spirit rather than ego, we recognize the anger, but choose to respond to the situation differently than we might at first be inclined.
Sophurky |
Below you'll find some offerings from other WDC members. Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review.
The first two are in response to last month's newsletter, where I requested people to write about different religious or spiritual paths -- thank you for sending me these! 
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And here are a few about spirituality and anger:
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#940942 by Not Available. |
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| |  | Calm (E)
No need for cammomile tea and lavendar, this is a calming explosion of words.
#1280499 by Myself  |
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#1339825 by Not Available. |
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Now for several comments about my last newsletter about whether or not there is more than one valid spiritual path, which seemed to strike a chord for many of you:
From Zeke 
When we try to make judgements on paths to salvation, we must always keep in mind that our Creator cannot be judged. Our rationalizations about God are just that, rationalizations. Nothing we reason out will change Him.
Zeke
Nicely said, thank you for sharing.
   
From jogar
The task the universe in which we live was fearfully and wonderfully made. We have as homo-sapiens been here about 50,000 years. From that time to now we have gathered ideas about what we see and think. To that end there has been many faiths gathered. Some practiced what thay thought was valid,as others did. Being human has caused much suffering, and some rightousness. Greed and suspicion have made the ideals of faith into desperate ideals of love beyond ourselves. Aggapi for myself is an answer. I follow the belief of the trinity. I hope that the wonder of the sacred reaches all. jogar.
Thank you so much for your wise words.
From mariahbforre
There is truth all around us, in beliefs held by people all around the world. I believe that the question isn't so much about who is "right" and who is "wrong" as it is about who has which truths, and which truths are most important.
Ah but there's the rub -- who gets to decide that? 
From canardly
when judgement day comes are you really going to try to get in on your own good works? God says the best we could do is nothing but filthy rags to Him. There is only one name given to us, only one way to get past the seat of judgement.
Thanks for sharing your opinion. I believe in a loving "God" who will appreciate that I have lived my life as a testament to that love, so I have no worries about how I will be judged (or not).
From sarahreed
I don't usually comment on religion because it's one of the most controversial can of worms, but hopefully my thoughts will find a quiet home in this newsletter.
I can thank my dad for my pragmatic viewpoint on religion - he believed it was a valuable tool for teaching children right from wrong - learning that Golden Rule. Having learned this from him as well as experiencing a rocky road in trying to find the Sacred/Divine, I've come to realize that everyone does have to find their own path. Where one religion may not work, maybe another will. Or sometimes, it comes down to the timing. Maybe you're not at the right point of your life for one way to work, while another will.
I certainly believe that some roads claim to lead you up when they truly lead you down. So not all paths are created equal, not at all.
Thank you for another wonderful newsletter.
And thank YOU for your thoughtful comments. I agree that not all paths are created equal, and also that there can be more than one that is valid. Your dad is very wise.
From Rob G. ~Led by the Master~
Sophie,
I am writing through e-mail rather than through the comment section of the newsletter because there is no way to be considerate of other religions and stand on the truth. No matter what others say, what other "religions" teach, no matter what any television star or president says, there is only one God, and there is only one path to God, not many paths. If you were raised in the Christian tradition you yourself know what the Bible says, or have you read your Bible? It states that Jesus is the only way to the Father. "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life," no one comes to the Father but through Him. Christianity is the only religion that has a spiritual figure, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, who is alive today. He died on the cross, was buried, rose again, and now lives in heaven to make intercession for those who accept His free gift of grace, and believe in Him. It is not only written in the Bible, historical writers wrote about what happened. Josephus was being paid to write history from a Roman stand point but included the facts in his writings. To say that there are, or may be many paths to God, not the "Sacred" but God is to mislead anyone who reads your column. You either stand up for Christ, or you fall for anything the world offers you which it seems you have chosen to do. Unfortunately, anyone who reads your collumn and decides their path, not through Christ is the right path, the Bible attributes their blood to you.
Rob
Thank you for sharing your opinion. I am not worried about anyone's "blood" being on me -- I experience and perceive a joyful relationship with the Sacred that has no room for condemnation of others, and if that proves to be wrong, I'll gladly take my licks for it, I suppose.
My father once asked me "what if" I was wrong about my beliefs? Was I worried about "judgment day?" I said no because I just couldn't imagine a loving God chastising me for being loving and accepting of others -- that just does not compute for me. What would God say, anyway, if such an event were to happen? "Sophy, you are eternally damned to hell because you were loving and accepting of others, and you shared my love with everyone." Simply said, I just don't see it that way, but respect that you and others do.
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated!
Until next time! Sophurky
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Spiritual: September 23, 2009 Issue [#3289]
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