Frying the Seeds of Anger
by Swami Vivekananda
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 When I am angry, my whole mind becomes a huge wave of anger. I feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it; but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get down below to its causes. A man says something very harsh to me, and I begin to feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on till I am perfectly angry and forget myself, identify myself with anger. When he first began to abuse me, I thought, "I am going to be angry". Anger was one thing, and I was another; but when I became angry, I was anger.
These feelings have to be controlled in the germ, the root, in their fine forms, before even we have become conscious that they are acting on us. With the vast majority of mankind the fine states of these passions are not even known – the states in which they emerge from subconsciousness. When a bubble is rising from the bottom of the lake, we do not see it, nor even when it is nearly come to the surface; it is only when it bursts and makes a ripple that we know it is there.
We shall only be successful in grappling with the waves when we can get hold of them in their fine causes, and until you can get hold of them, and subdue them before they become gross, there is no hope of conquering any passion perfectly. To control our passions we have to control them at their very roots; then alone shall we be able to burn out their very seeds. As fried seeds thrown into the ground will never come up, so these passions will never arise.
–Swami Vivekananda, in "Yoga Aphorisms"
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Frying the Seeds of Anger
What does frying the seeds of anger mean to you? How can we control our passions “at their very roots?” Can you share a story that brings out an experience you’ve had with frying the seeds of anger? |
| ummed wrote: Passion and Anger used interchangeabily seems wrong. Passion is a holistic positive state, while anger is uncontrolled state. Passion should be nurtured and life be alligned to it more and more…. |
| Victoria Fabling wrote: When it comes to frying some emotions so I don’t become them, I first of all decided as a child which ones I could embrace totally and let go, and which ones to keep at arm’s length.&nbs… |
| Conrad P. Pritscher wrote: Frying the seeds of anger, to me, means noticing then getting rid of the source of anger. We can control our passions at their very roots by being aware of the roots and patiently eliminat… |
| david doane wrote: Anger is not a necessary emotion. For me, that is a truth. I still get angry, but becoming aware that it is not necessary for me to become angry has helped me to be angry much less o… |
| amy wrote: Life gives us cause to be angry at times. Sometimes justified and sometimes not, this anger has got to "come out". The more we "stuff it", the more … |
| Pratibha wrote: It is so perfectly said! … |
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