Anger can be skillful

Anger gets a bad rap, for good reason, in Buddhism. Anger has a lot of energy, aimed at destruction. If not used carefully, it can destroy your mind.

bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh touch on this. bell hooks describes it in a NYT interview:

“I am so angry!” And he, of course, Mr. Calm himself, Mr. Peace, said, “Well, you know, hold on to your anger, and use it as compost for your garden.” And I thought, “Yes, yes, I can do that!” I tell that story to people all the time. I was telling him about the struggles I was having with my male partner at the time and he said, “It is O.K. to say I want to kill you, but then you need to step back from that, and remember what brought you to this person in the first place.” And I think that if we think of anger as compost, we think of it as energy that can be recycled in the direction of our good. It is an empowering force. If we don’t think about it that way, it becomes a debilitating and destructive force.

So, compost anger and make something beautiful. bell hooks might say channel it into constructive, militant love.

Gil Fronsdal, in an audio recording I recall (but can't find) says that Anger might be helpful about 5% of the time. But that it's mostly unhelpful.

My reading of Thanissaro Bhikkhu's writings and the Pali Canon suggest that anger (or at least clinging to it) does have to be given up to reach enlightenment. It's part of the big 3 of GAD: greed, anger, and delusion.

But before you reach enlightenment, use anger skillfully, when it's helpful. That is, avoid using it destructively or debilitatingly. Destroy only your bad habits! Not other people, or your ability to have compassion for everyone.

And "Don't believe everything you think is helpful" is actually helpful. I'm working on that last one a lot.