"All acceptance is the key to the gateless gate." (Old Zen saying). Good advice, especially when it comes to things we can't prevent or fix. And knowing the difference between the two; what we can fix and what we can't, is the beginning of wisdom. Without wisdom, I'm afraid that stupidity is all that is left.
So what can we fix? America, I believe, is waking up to the fact that we can no longer fix anything. Like gluing together a model airplane that increasingly disintegrates with each flight, pretty soon there are no parts left to glue.
We are trying to glue together a health care plan to help folks, but the insurance companies already are raising rates, as high as 25% just for next year for Medicare Advantage Policy holders. They are doing what they can to make more money before the government cracks down. That will be close to a one hundred percent increase by the time the law takes effect in 2013, and no one can stop them. So clients are angry.
Health insurance companies are angry. They have been making a "killing" (maybe a bad term) for many years now, 3% profit on billions of dollars adds up to more money than one can count, and their cash cow is being revealed for what it has been, unbridled greed accomplished through influence peddling.
Doctors are angry. Everyone wants to cut their payments and they still have medical school loans to pay off!
Drug companies are angry. GlaxoSmithKline, for example, made a 30% profit this last quarter, and is expected to make more off the people's backs next quarter, while many of us lost our jobs. But still, drug companies are afraid that their astronomical, unregulated bought and paid for through congress earnings may be cut a little by new laws and transparency into their devious practices.
Hospitals are angry because insurance companies and the government won't pay their exorbitant rates any longer, rates pushed up by medical supply manufacturers, who by the way, are angry as well!
Politicians are angry because nothing of value comes out of congress any longer. It gets watered down to the weakest common denominator. Nothing can be fixed.
Everyone involved with health care is angry. Why? Because everyone is about to lose.
Actually, anyone involved with just about anything anymore is angry, because we no longer understand how to compromise. Religiously we can't compromise, which involves joyfully accepting others beliefs as legitimate. We can't even accept science (you know, the misguided people who stupidly insist that the world is older than 6,000 years), as legitimate anymore without getting angry, It's our way or the highway, and this translates into life as entrenched ideas that we would rather kill someone over than compromise. Why is this? Where did this violent streak of anger begin?
It began when we decided to value wealth more than each other.
We lost our faith, and may never get it back. Sure, we still pretend to be faithful, but to whom? I suggest that we are more faithful to our stockbrokers now than we are to the commandments. How can a little lying or dishonesty hurt when we make money from it? The problem is, when we lose our faith and substitute it with wealth accumulation, we get angry. Never peaceful.
It works like this - everyone is conspiring to take our money away; politicians, poor people, welfare cheats, the "Government," . . . relatives! All with their hands greedily out to relieve us of our wealth. No wonder we are mad. Just read any article in any newspaper and money will likely be involved at some level.
Greed we can't fix. "Don't be greedy." Hah. Greed and greed's consort; anger, have taken root and has grown into a forest of materialism. These are our only values now, and they are being taken away.
Our standard of living will decrease for many reasons, such as globalization (labor is ten to a hundred times cheaper in developing nations), rising prices from milk to gas, and a falling dollar. And our anger will increase proportionately and exponentially as we tear out each others throats to keep as much of our money as we can for ourselves. It will get ugly.
And there is no fix. We have gone way past the point of no return in our spiritual lives by substituting spiritual practice and discipline for that which is pleasurable. The mention of poverty and restraint as necessary elements in religious understanding is not only laughed at, but looked at as a threat. There is no fix.
"All acceptance" to the idealistically insane that are now apparently running our country or would like to, is a term that to them represents surrender, and they will never surrender. There is no fix.
So enjoy your anger, go to bed seething every night and don't allow anyone to get the upper hand. If we can all agree on this, I am sure that we can find some hapless country out there to engage us in war. Then we can become really angry, and we will all be happy again. And wealthy after the war.
"All acceptance is the key to the gateless gate." (I can hear us all laughing now!)
anagarika eddie is a meditation teacher at the Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation Retreat Sanctuary (www.dhammarocksprings.org), and author of A Year to Enlightenment. His 30 years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Thervada Buddhist monk.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand" Abraham Lincoln
Yeah e, our country is divided into so many diverse ideas, ideals and beliefs, we are angry with ourselves. We have lost all sense of true unity amongst one another.
» left by Dianne Lehmann from Dewey, AZ (2 days 2 hours ago.)
I'm going to try to answer this question and we'll see how well I do. Yes, Buddhists get angry. But they recognize it for what it is and do not let it rule their lives. It's an emotion and it will pass if you let it.
For me, anger is more of a disappointment, frustration, or annoyance, not a hateful, vengeful thing. Buddhism, like Christianity has many sects. I am Hinayana (Theravada), the Dalai Lama is Mahayana (Tibetan, Zen, etc.).
The Hinayana - Theravada is very conservative, maintaining "religiously" the original teachings of the Buddha by the chants of Buddhist monks that have been carried down for 2600 years unchanged from the original Pali language.
The Mahayana Buddhist religions split off the original Theravada because of differences of opinions, no different than Catholicism and Protestantism. The biggest schism was over money. The Theravada followed the Buddha's rule - monks could not touch money, while the Mahayana could not see how the religion could become widespread with that rule in effect, so they changed it. Respond to this comment
Why people think getting angry about something will help I will never understand. But you are right. I feel the anger in the air and I worry about it. I also want to keep a certain level of ease in my life and that requires a certain amount of money. But if that can't be, well I'm not going to get angry about it, I'll just do what I can to be happy. And angry person can never be happy.
Anyway, I missed you for a while and I'm glad that you are back. Or was I just not paying good enough attention?
I was setting up a meditation center in Southwest TX, (dhammarocksprings (dot) org) so I was busy for awhile. Now I have some time to wriet again. (See, I'm out of practice!)
Oh, if only everyone, of every religion or spiritual path, understood these things. The world would be such a wonderful place... Thanks for writing as a bodhisattva.
Anger that does not produce action is unhealthy. What's utterly amazing about Americans that despite so much anger there is no Second American Revolution to take back our country from the two-party plutocracy that serves the rich and powerful.
Hi Joel, thanks again so much for taking a moment to comment on my ramblings. It sure seems that our congress has been taken over by wealthy people. The system almost guarantees it. It takes a lot of wealth to run for office these days with the cost of TV commercials etc. The cost of influencing voters has increased immensely, and voters are influenced by what they see on TV, sound bites, hate slogans and bumper stickers. There is no in depth consideration anymore, as if people don't have time to reason.
Unfortunately, a system of government or third party party can still never guarantee that we get it right. Human nature is what it is regardless of circumstances. Greed, hatred and delusion follows us like a shadow. That's why I write about a fundamental change within ourselves, It's the only solution I believe, but it's such a long shot that humanity might destroy itself before anything good happens regarding human relationships. Our religions as currently practiced are certainly not working. Check out my newest article "Silent Prayer."
E, a very good article, even if filled with sarcasm...understandably so. :) You did a great job of stating the myriad problems we face, all involving anger. In my opinion all this anger is being fueled by fear mongering; "If we don't get them first, they will get us." Among many other examples of fostering fear. Do we hold onto the fear because it helps us hold onto our "justifiable anger"? Look at how much coverage anything positive gets in the media. Are they truely giving the American public what they want, or have they convinced us that's what we want? I think the only solution might be for each of us to stop focusing on the negative, anger, etc, and rmember how powerful thoughts and words are: 'What you think about, you bring about.'
So true Joyce, each of us has to do something about ourselves. You will notice in the media as well as the article business, certain categories sell better than others. Anything having to do with relationships sell, and controversial articles sell well too. People disclose their values this way.
It all boils down to the ego seeking action and support. The feeling to be alive is paramount, especially through anger which makes more of an impression than peace. Fear of losing what we have fictitiously built up to be "us" is the greatest fear. Keeping that illusion of self and ego alive is what causes us to repeat our karma now, and in subsequent lifetimes.
The only fix to this anger is to recognize exactly what everyone is so angry about. Someone angry at a stoplight hasn't the same anger as someone who voted for candidate A just to see him turn out like candidate B, and they haven't the same anger as someone who has lost his job or house or spouse or dog. So . . . the key is to isolate the anger and then work on solutions . . .
In other words, I agree with your article entirely and we Americans it seems love to be angry. It might be our (natural?) sense of entitlement, yet we do seem to have perfected it. Great job.
» left by iMustBeEmo from in midle of nowere (15 hours 49 minutes ago.) New Comment!
Better ask why mothers are so angry all the time :D well im not american,but im not really sure,that its about what country ur living,well atleast not that much...everyone has anger in them more or less,some ppl are emotional or get upset that some1 sed or did something bad...so why just cant we be nice to eachother and try to understand,listen...
Well said Mandy. Anger seems to be based on fear, so in order to be understanding and nice, we would have to reduce our fear levels. Fear seems to based on our idea of ourselves and protecting ourselves, of ego. This preoccupation with oursleves leaves little room for others.
A tried and true method of reducing self or ego is meditation, but few will sit still and watch their thoughts. Therefore, I'm not sure whether humanity will ever get it regarding how to enable a fundamental shift within themselves that will change the world. But I keep writing and hoping!
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