Two new passengers, located in the front seats, were talking loudly, it was impossible to stop hearing them. They started quite calmly; but soon the anger revealed in their voices the dislikes and resentments of family. In their violence they seemed to have forgotten the rest of the passage; each one was so busy with the other that it was as if there were only them, and no one else.
Anger has that peculiar condition of isolating; like sorrow, she gets in the way, and at least for a while interrupts relationships. Anger has the temporary strength and vitality of the isolated. There is a strange despair in anger; For isolation is despair. The anger of frustration, of jealousy, of the impulse to offend, provides a violent outburst whose satisfaction lies in self-righteousness N. We condemn others, and that condemnation is really a justification for ourselves. Without some kind of attitude, whether haughty or humiliating, what are we? We use any means to impose ourselves; and anger, like hate, is the easiest means. A simple anger, a sudden lightning that is soon forgotten, is one thing; but the anger that is deliberately prepared, that has been matured and that seeks to hurt and destroy, is something completely different. A simple anger can have a physiological cause that can be determined and remedied; But the anger that is the result of a psychological cause is much more subtle and difficult to treat. Most of us do not take care of anger, and rather justify it. Why shouldn't we get angry when there's a bad deal for us or someone else? Therefore we are justly irritated. We never simply say that we are angry, and nothing else; We enter complicated explanations of the causes. We never simply say that we are jealous or bitter, but justify or explain it. We ask how there can be love without jealousy, or we say that the attitudes of others have made us bitter, and so on.
It is the explanation, the verbalization, both silent and spoken, that sustains the anger, which gives it purpose and depth. The explanation, silent or spoken, acts as a shield against the discovery of us as we are. We want to be praised or flattered, we expect something; and when these things are not fulfilled, we are disgusted, we become bitter or jealous. Then, violently or softly, we censor someone else; We say that the other is responsible for our bitterness. You are of great importance to me because I depend on you for my happiness, for my position or my prestige. Through you, I realize myself, and that is why you are important to me; I must keep you, I must possess you. Through you, I flee from myself; and being fearful of my own state, when I have to go back to myself, I get angry. Anger takes many forms: frustration, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, etc.
The accumulation of anger, which is resentment, requires the antidote of forgiveness; but the accumulation of anger is much more significant than forgiveness. Forgiveness is unnecessary when there is no accumulation of anger. Forgiveness is essential if there is resentment; But being free from flattery and the sense of offense, without the harshness of indifference, leads to mercy, charity. Anger cannot be eliminated by the action of the will, because the will is part of the violence. The will is the result of desire, of the desire to be; and the desire by its very nature is aggressive, dominant. Suppressing anger through the exercise of will is to transfer it to a different level, giving it a different name; but she is still part of the violence. To be free from violence - what is not the cult of nonviolence - there must be an understanding of desire. There is no spiritual substitute for desire; He cannot be suppressed or sublimed. There must be a silent and alert perception of desire without prior choice; and this passive and alert perception is the direct experience of desire, without the experimenter who gives it a name.
Krishnamurti
> Seen at: http://www.el-amarna.org/2009/05/la-ira.html
