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Disagree - it's not just western culture. “Protect yourself from anger for its beginning is insanity and its end is remorse.” - Ali (Islam) "When anger rises

Disagree - it's not just western culture. “Protect yourself from anger for its beginning is insanity and its end is remorse.” - Ali (Islam) "When anger rises, think of the consequences." - Confucius (Chinese Philosophy)

seizethecheese 10y ago
Surely every culture will have anti-anger norms and literature. The parent comment is claiming that in western culture we take it to an unhealthy extreme.
- sanmon3186 10y ago
  I am an easterner who spent a few years in USA. In the beginning, I sort of liked how people seemed in control of their emotions in situations which would make me visibly angry. No one displayed their anger/frustration to the extent I am used to. This may be anecdotal but with time I observed that deep inside they lingered these emotions more than I would do, which as you implied, is unhealthy.
craigbaker 10y ago
I don't think the Confucius quote is real, but there are a few relevant ones: "Not being angry at someone who doesn't know, isn't this a Gentleman?" 人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？ "Ji Wenzi thought three times before acting. Confucius heard this, and said 'twice is enough'." 季文子三思而后行。子闻之曰：“再，斯可矣。” In the specific context of his student Zi Zhang asking Confucius about how to get an official salary, he responded: "Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the same time of the others:—then you will afford few occasions for blame. See much and put aside the things which seem perilous, while you are cautious at the same time in carrying the others into practice:—then you will have few occasions for repentance. When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in the way to get emolument." (tr. Legge)
gerbilly 10y ago
And in buddhism anger is considered one of the three poisons, along with ignorance and greed it is considered the root of suffering. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvesha_(Buddhism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvesha_(Buddhism)
- Tosh108 10y ago
  There's a difference between discontent or frustration and hate & aversion. In buddhist view: hate and aversion will create enormously negative mindstates that will cause suffering to the person acting on this emotion. But the vajrayana schools (mainly tibet) also claim that there is clarity and energy in this emotion, and if it can be detached from ego it can be transformed to a positive "wisdom". I think this view encaptures the sentiment of both people here, anger can be positive, but also very negative.
  - AlexCoventry 10y ago
    > the vajrayana schools (mainly tibet) also claim that there is clarity and > energy in this emotion That's probably because Tibetan Buddhism became a tool of political domination. The earliest Buddhist records explicitly recommend suppressing anger, even by sheer force of will if necessary (but only as a last resort.) If evil, unskillful thoughts — imbued with desire, aversion or delusion — still arise in the monk while he is attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts, then — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he should beat down, constrain, and crush his mind with his awareness. As — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he is beating down, constraining, and crushing his mind with his awareness, those evil, unskillful thoughts are abandoned and subside. With their abandoning, he steadies his mind right within, settles it, unifies it, and concentrates it. Just as a strong man, seizing a weaker man by the head or the throat or the shoulders, would beat him down, constrain, and crush him; in the same way, if evil, unskillful thoughts — imbued with desire, aversion or delusion — still arise in the monk while he is attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts, then — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he should beat down, constrain, and crush his mind with his awareness. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.020.than.html http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.020.than.html

seizethecheese 10y ago

Surely every culture will have anti-anger norms and literature. The parent comment is claiming that in western culture we take it to an unhealthy extreme.

sanmon3186 10y ago
I am an easterner who spent a few years in USA. In the beginning, I sort of liked how people seemed in control of their emotions in situations which would make me visibly angry. No one displayed their anger/frustration to the extent I am used to. This may be anecdotal but with time I observed that deep inside they lingered these emotions more than I would do, which as you implied, is unhealthy.

craigbaker 10y ago

I don't think the Confucius quote is real, but there are a few relevant ones: "Not being angry at someone who doesn't know, isn't this a Gentleman?" 人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？ "Ji Wenzi thought three times before acting. Confucius heard this, and said 'twice is enough'." 季文子三思而后行。子闻之曰：“再，斯可矣。” In the specific context of his student Zi Zhang asking Confucius about how to get an official salary, he responded: "Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the same time of the others:—then you will afford few occasions for blame. See much and put aside the things which seem perilous, while you are cautious at the same time in carrying the others into practice:—then you will have few occasions for repentance. When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in the way to get emolument." (tr. Legge)

gerbilly 10y ago

And in buddhism anger is considered one of the three poisons, along with ignorance and greed it is considered the root of suffering. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvesha_(Buddhism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvesha_(Buddhism)

Tosh108 10y ago
There's a difference between discontent or frustration and hate & aversion. In buddhist view: hate and aversion will create enormously negative mindstates that will cause suffering to the person acting on this emotion. But the vajrayana schools (mainly tibet) also claim that there is clarity and energy in this emotion, and if it can be detached from ego it can be transformed to a positive "wisdom". I think this view encaptures the sentiment of both people here, anger can be positive, but also very negative.
- AlexCoventry 10y ago
  > the vajrayana schools (mainly tibet) also claim that there is clarity and > energy in this emotion That's probably because Tibetan Buddhism became a tool of political domination. The earliest Buddhist records explicitly recommend suppressing anger, even by sheer force of will if necessary (but only as a last resort.) If evil, unskillful thoughts — imbued with desire, aversion or delusion — still arise in the monk while he is attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts, then — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he should beat down, constrain, and crush his mind with his awareness. As — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he is beating down, constraining, and crushing his mind with his awareness, those evil, unskillful thoughts are abandoned and subside. With their abandoning, he steadies his mind right within, settles it, unifies it, and concentrates it. Just as a strong man, seizing a weaker man by the head or the throat or the shoulders, would beat him down, constrain, and crush him; in the same way, if evil, unskillful thoughts — imbued with desire, aversion or delusion — still arise in the monk while he is attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts, then — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he should beat down, constrain, and crush his mind with his awareness. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.020.than.html http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.020.than.html