ONE OF THE RECURRING questions people ask in my spiritual activism lectures and workshops has to do with anger. People are very concerned about it, afraid of it, mystified by it—certainly, they think that anger corrupts and compromises spiritual intention and sincerity. It would not be overstating the case to say people think anger is not our friend. I, however, do. I like anger. Anger is my friend. I do not think anger is something we have to throw out like trash, or cure like a disease, or coax into a cage like a threatening animal.

Anger does not have to be a problem. Anger does not have to be destructive to either our self or to others. Anger does not have to be our enemy, or an impediment to spiritual sincerity. Anger does not have to corrupt wisdom, compassion, and good intentions.

We have to keep in mind that before anything else, anger is a word. I don’t mean to be glib here. Think about it; when someone says “anger,” it’s like someone shouts, “Fire!” We have to do something, immediately and reflexively. Fire is real. Fire is hot. There isn’t much to discuss, is there? Fire is fire. Get water, run, beat it with a rug: do something. But anger is not just anger. It isn’t as fixed as fire; there are a lot of nuances, meanings, possibilities, and opportunities behind the one word.

To cut all the way to the bone on this, I’ll say that anger is just energy. It’s big energy, to be sure, but energy nonetheless. If we stay closer to the energy than to the label “anger,” we’ll discover all kinds of cool and useful things.

If our first impulse is to investigate the nature of this energy when it arises, instead of immediately labeling it and reacting to the label, we will enter a wild world of self-discovery and new knowledge about our self. Let’s look at some of the un-named facets of this energy.

For example, the energy might be a protection response: of our physicality, our attitudes, our beliefs, our self-image, and our identities. This energy can be useful to show us where we are entrenched and isolated from larger realities.

This energy might be a form of repressed self-expression. I have observed that we frequently suppress our authentic communications in a given moment for one reason or another, and then let it out much later, with extra energy, in reaction to a trigger. This shows us how we have betrayed our authentic self in the past, and how we absent ourselves from the present to discharge an energetic piece of luggage.

This energy might reveal how we project onto others certain attitudes and behaviors we don’t want to own as ours. We do this frequently, don’t we? This two-step dance of disowning and projecting keeps our self-image intact, our beliefs unchallenged, and our spirit confined.

We might also discover that if we harness this energy to our highest and noblest aspirations and intentions, we can become more committed to an action, more empowered to tell our truth, more open to accept others, more resolute to transcend smallness, more radical in our dreams and doing.

It strikes me that in spiritual communities and circles, we have become suspicious, if not downright afraid, of big, intense energy. Such energies do not belong only to war-makers; they can belong equally to peace-makers and lightworkers. There is room in Nature for balmy spring drizzles and ferocious tidal waves, for soft winds and fierce hurricanes.

Our little minds so love to wrap each of life’s mysteries and complexities in simple, one-size-fits-all explanations and definitions. I would like to share this lovely statement by Henry Emerson Fosdick, “I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”

I will close by suggesting that our real problem with anger is that we don’t understand what the word stands for in a given instant. We have to master the word assignments we give to different things at different times; otherwise we’ll become victims of our own unconscious labeling and conditioned reaction. Let’s not be lazy about this: let’s really investigate all the possible meanings and implications behind the word, exploring the energy itself.

Let us drink from Nature’s cosmic cauldron with deep wisdom and precision. We might find that “anger” is just rocket fuel: liquid energy to take us on journeys through stars and beyond.

© Robert Rabbin, All Rights Reserved, 2004

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Rabbin is a mesmerizing public speaker and groundbreaking author, leadership advisor, and self-awareness teacher. He is the creator of RealTime Speaking and a sought-after message master and communication strategist. For more information about Robert and his many powerful programs of personal and professional mastery, visit www.robertrabbin.com.