Tara Brach - Meditation: Meeting Anger with Awareness (2020-06-10)

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

Meditation: Meeting Anger with Awareness (2020-06-10) - When anger is held in mindfulness, it can energize us to respond wisely to challenging situations. This meditation guides us in meeting personal or societal anger with RAIN - recognize, allow, investigate and nurture. [NOTE: this meditation was given at the end of Tara's "Anger and Transformation" talk on 2020-06-10.]

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. One of the questions I've been asked a lot lately has to do with how to handle our anger. And in general, the more we're stressed, the more likely anger will be playing out. It's just one of our survival stress reactions. And here we are, and we're in a very traumatized society with huge anger and rage that's circling around our core wound of racial violence, circling around the inequities between the races, between classes, extreme political dividedness, bitterness, anger.

And I've had many people share with me about the fault line. that the stress is producing and the anger in our personal relationships. So it's important to honor that anger is this hugely powerful primal energy and it's one that can cause horrific suffering and it's also a force that can serve radical and healing transformation. A friend of mine who's been at protests in D.C. most days, he's a black man in his mid-50s. And he was telling me last week about how much he loves the energy of the young people that are showing up. And he says, he told me their anger and outrage and injustice, their passion, their vitality. But then he also started talking about how it's the older ones at the

the protests like him, he put himself in that category, that were actually being the emotional regulators. They were sensing when anger might lead to unwise actions that could undermine their cause. And I was really struck by this image of the necessity and value of anger, just feeling that the passion of the younger people and of the elders with that wise awareness that in no always suppresses the anger, but it knows how to not get possessed or hijacked, how to guide the anger. I often quote Ruth King, who has a wonderful book, Mindful of Race, who says, anger is initiatory. It's not transformative. And I think this is our understanding here that we need the energy of anger, the younger people at the protests. We need. We need.

need that energy, we need it. And we need our wisdom and care to guide that energy so it's transformational. Because here's the thing. It's your caring, not anger, that will actually seed a more just and loving world. When I look inward, when I've been triggered, what I find is that I'm actually not angry at an individual and I'm not angry at a group. I'm angry at hatred, hatred that's appearing because the real cause of suffering are the universal energies of greed, hatred, and ignorance. And they live through us all and they keep us separate and fearful. and when we investigate, we're angry at this conditioning that's blocking us from love.

Anger in its deepest essence is our love that's trying to move us towards reconnection by removing obstacles. Anger means you care about your well-being, about your own and others' well-being, and the more you call on that wise elder in your heart, you know, meeting the anger with awareness, the more that energy can be put in service of a loving and just world. So let's practice together. This meditation is on bringing awareness to anger, calling in the wise inner elder. You might close your eyes, you might take a few full breaths. I invite you to bring to mine a person or group that triggers your anger.

A person or a group that's become in some way the other, the enemy other, the bad other. It could be in your personal life, could be more societal wide. And as you bring that person or group to mine, sense what is going to be. going on that creates your agitation. Now consciously calling on awareness so that you're bearing witness. We begin rain, the R of Rain, recognize the strongest emotion in you. Maybe anger, blame, hatred, aversion. You might mentally whisper what you're aware of. The A of Rain is to allow it to be there. you might just say this belongs it's like a wave in the ocean it's natural and begin to investigate with interest you might even ask yourself well what am i believing when i'm feeling this and then sense

under the storyline where do i feel this in my body and feel it let the feeling of the anger the hatred, be as big as it is. And to help you get in touch, you may let your facial expression show that and your posture. For some people making a fist, tightening their jaw, keeping the image or the sense of who and what you're angry at there. And then feeling into your body, feeling the physical feelings, the emotion. let it be as big as it is. Then you might sense underneath it, what's there?

What most wants attention? If you couldn't be caught in this anger, what would you have to feel that's underneath it that's painful? Is it fear? Is it hurt? Is it powerlessness? And have that courage and kindness just to stay and feel what's here, allow it? What's the deepest feeling of vulnerability there?

The deepest unmet need? Is it for love, for safety, for yourself, or for others? What does this anger really want to get you? What is it you really want? This can lead to nurturing. So sense, does this vulnerable place want to be understood, want to be embraced? to be embraced, want to be protected, want love, want compassion. The nurturing is to offer to that place what's most needed.

Just be the wise inner elder that can offer tenderness, can offer that loving embrace, can offer compassion. or if it helps you can call on something larger to offer, could be a loved one that you know, cares about you, or a spiritual figure, to bring a nurturing presence to that unmet need. For some, imagining light and warmth, just bathing them, to imagine a real presence close in of one that cares,

the protection and embrace, to feel held, to reconnect, to belong. And then for these last few moments of the meditation, just sense the quality of presence that's here. Whatever has shifted, whatever is open. You might sense where you started from, possessed, angry, feeling a victim, feeling a small self, to really this presence and care and wish.

wisdom. And you might look through the eyes of your inner elder and scan the situation that you're in. Scan the situation that triggers you. And from your wise self, what response is being called forth? What will really serve if your deepest intention is to protect or to heal or to find justice or to have more love? What response in this situation? will move you towards that. And if there's no answer, just let that inquiry be there. And finally, sense that you are part of many others right now, reflecting with courage and presence on this powerful energy that lives through us, reflecting with presence on what we're really caring about and how to move our lives and our world towards that so that we can feel

our shared prayer to let anger energize a true healing in our own lives and in society. Hatred never seizes by hatred, but by love alone is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law. Okay, opening your eyes, taking a few deep breaths. Thank you. Thank you for your willingness to inquire together and touch into what's real. And for all of you, I'm sending you all blessings to take good, good care, to be kind to yourself, to others, and to honor the life that's arising. I hope to be with you soon.

Thank you.