Theos-Talk Archives (December 1999 Message tl00010)

In a message dated 12/2/99 6:24:04 AM Central Standard Time,
Hazarapet@aol.com writes:

> In a message dated 12/1/99 11:50:03 PM Central Standard Time,
>  kymsmith@micron.net writes:
>
>  > Anger may be a negative emotion, but it is a great teacher if it is
> allowed
>  >  to be so.  And such a thing is always theosophical.
>
>  I wrote the same point and you labelled it abuse of the other.  Remember?
>  Or is ethical consistency the hobgoblin you are not hobbled with?:->
>  Grigor
>
Earlier I respond to Kym as above.  But I should have said more.  The thing
you were talking about, being nice and pleasant then discovering anger, is
called discovering one's hypocrisy.  And earlier, in a post you took such
exception
to, I said that the first step in self-knowledge and awakening of buddhi is
the study of one's own forms of hypocrisy that you usually inwardly evades
(call it a moral unconsciousness motivated by a bad conscience).  This
unconsciousness must be confronted and transformed and eliminated.
It is process of replacing inner moral fragmentedness/hypocrisy with
the integral light of self-awareness of awakened buddhi.  So, it is the
discovery of hypocrisy in oneself that is great teacher (so, yes, I love
family, yet also hate family) and first step in awakening.  Anger is
never ever teacher of anything.  Discovery that one is hypocritical, yes.
But no theosophical document I have ever seen, nor Hindu, Taoist,
or Buddhist, for example, says anger is teacher.  Only people who
have not quite expressed themselves correctly as to what they really
meant to say (there is your out, Kym) or deluded people who
rationalize and justify and try to give the aura of sanctity to their
inner bullcrap ever say anger is a great teacher.  Anger, in one
respect (there are many aspects to anger to see to tame the beast,
one being it is state of being controlled by situation despite the
energy-giving quality of it - it is being inwardly disrupted by external
world that pushes buttons), is never state one can learn anything
for it is very stupid state of the inner emotional insistence of being
and feeling right.  One cannot learn one is wrong if one has filled
with strong emotion of being right, in the right, and so on.  So, Kym,
your statement that anger is teacher is flat out and categorically wrong.
I leave it to you whether you mis-stated your point or deceive yourself
with justifications and rationalizations.

I use phrase "ethical consistency" above.  In Armenian, it is opposite of
hypocrisy which is literally "ethical inconsistency."  To be ethically
consistent
is to have all parts of soul in immediate contact with each other.  None
can hide or be out of touch of others.  This inner "consistency" is the
inner integrity, both as integrity of sound ship hull and as inner honesty,
of integrally being fully conscious morally as person of inner consistency
and person of non-hypocrisy.  Anger is always symptom of some inner
lack of self-presence, inner vice, where the devilish world sneaks in and
gets you.  Maybe you should read Dalai Lama's recent book on anger.

Grigor