As I was sitting and pondering, my guides directed me to this wonderful story by Osho. They asked me to share it with all of you as a gift; a gift that will help you cope with anger if it should appear during the holidays.
Picture from Microsoft Clipart
“A Zen student came to Bankei and said, “Master, I have an ungovernable temper. How can I cure it?”
“Show me this temper,” said Bankei, “it sounds fascinating.”
“I haven’t got it right now,” said the student, “so I can’t show it to you.”
“Well then,” said Bankei, “bring it to me when you have it.”
“But I can’t bring it just when I happen to have it,” protested the student. “It arises unexpectedly, and I would surely lose it before I got it to you.”
“In that case,” said Bankei, “it cannot be part of your true nature. If it were, you could show it to me at any time. When you were born you did not have it–so it must have come to you from the outside. I suggest that whenever it gets into you, you beat yourself with a stick until the temper can’t stand it and runs away.”
Even while anger is happening, if you suddenly become conscious, it drops. Try it! Just in the middle, when you are very hot and would like to murder–suddenly become aware, and you will feel something has changed: a gear inside, you can feel the click, your inner being has relaxed.” OSHO
The following information on OSHO is adapted from biographyonline.net.
Osho was born Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1931 in Central India. He died in 1990. His philosophy was a type of Monism that God was in everything. All human beings were in essence divine; it was just that there were different manifestations of that divinity. He introduced a new type of meditation that involved letting go of all attachments to the past and future and ego. If a seeker could attain a consciousness where there was “no past, no future, no attachment, no mind, no ego, no self.” Then he would attain enlightenment.