THE DANGER OF ANGER

THE DANGER OF ANGER

The Story of Vedahika

During Lord Buddha’s time there lived an aristocratic rich widow, well known in high society for her great benevolence, had a house maid called Vedahika who was faithful and diligent. The maid decided to test her mistress to find out whether she was really good by nature or was she pretending for the sake of appearance to the high society she was surrounded.
The following morning the maid got up from her bed quite late at around mid-day and the mistress chilled her for being late. In the following two days too, the maid repeated her late rising. The mistress, in rage abused the maid and stuck her with a stick thus hurting her. News of this incident spread around the neighbourhood and the rich lady lost not only her reputation but also a faithful servant.

There is a saying” When others are good, we can also be good. When others are evil, it is easy for us to become evil. All human beings are subject to anger in one form or the other in their daily lives.
The anger is waiting to flare up and take control over our lives when the occasion arises. When we are angry, we must be aware of our own anger. We must learn to analyse our emotions when we are angry and observe the anger as a mental state. Darkness cannot be dispelled by darkness but by brightness. In the same way, “hatred cannot be over- come by hatred, but by loving kindness.” – The Buddha. A good way to control anger is to act as if the undesirable thoughts do not exist in our mind. By using our will power, we focus our mind on something wholesome and thus subdue negative emotions.

The Buddha’s advice is:
“He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, and he robbed me. In one who holds such thoughts hatred will not cease.”

“Good is restraint in deed; good is restraint in speech; good is restraint in mind; good is restraint in everything. The noble man who practices restraint in all points is treed from sorrow.”- The Buddha

There is an old saying, “An angry person opens the mouth and closes the eyes, like a crocodile.”