Anger: Cooking our Potatoes

Potatoes Photo by graibeard

We cannot eat raw potatoes, but we don’t throw them away just because they are raw.

The following comes from one of my favourite teachers of mindfulness, the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hand, he is telling us how we can use the energy of mindfulness to transform difficult emotions, such as anger or grief: Thanks to the illuminating light of awareness, after practising mindful observation for a while, we begin to see the primary causes of our anger.

Meditation helps us look deeply into things in order to see their nature.  If we look into our anger, we can see its roots, such as misunderstanding, clumsiness, injustice, resentment, or conditioning. These roots can be present in ourselves and in the person who played the principle role in precipitating our anger. We observe mindfully in order to be able to see and to understand.  Seeing and understanding are the elements of liberation that bring about love and compassion.  The method of mindful observation in order to see and understand the roots of the anger is a method that has lasting effectiveness.

We cannot eat raw potatoes, but we don’t throw them away just because they are raw. We know we can cook them.  So, we put them into a pot of water, put a lid on, and put the pot on the fire.

The fire is mindfulness, the practice of breathing consciously and focusing on our anger.  The lid symbolises our concentration, because it prevents the heat form going out of the pot.  When we are practising breathing in and out, looking into our anger, we need some concentration in order for our practice to be strong.  Therefore, we turn away from all distractions and focus on the problem.  If we go out into nature, among the trees and flowers, the practice is easier.

As soon as we put the pot on the fire, a change occurs.  The water begins to warm up.  Ten minutes later, it boils, but we have to keep the fire going a while longer in order to cook our potatoes.  As we practice being aware of our breathing and our anger, a transformation is already occurring.  After half an hour, we lift the lid and smell something different.  We know that we can eat our potatoes now.

Anger has been transformed into another kind of energy – understanding and compassion.