OK, anger. Anger is very, very, very dangerous because with one second of anger, you can burn so much good karma. You can really destroy a lot of good things that you create. To create is very difficult, I mean to build, to create is very difficult, but to destroy is very easy. In one second, you can destroy something. It takes many, many years to create something. For example, if you look at an ant, it’s millions of years of evolution, and some people go, or a mosquito, for example, “Oh, it bit me” slap. And then what? Can you put back the mosquito? Not in a thousand years, you cannot, you don’t have that power. But why do you have the power to destroy it? Who gave you the right to destroy? The concept of me, the ego: I am so important. But we don’t realize that we don’t have the right, you know, because we cannot create that. Even today, with all the scientific technology, all the technology, all the wealth, all the engineers, you cannot build the pyramids. The Japanese, they tried but they can’t. Today, in the twenty-first century, they cannot make the pyramid, they cannot build the pyramids with all the technology they have, so if you can’t even build the pyramids, how are you going to rebuild an animal, something so small, so fragile.

That’s why really, if you have respect for life, you have respect for yourself, we respect life. If you’re humble and you’re grateful, then that respect comes by itself. If you get angry, it means you don’t have this. It means you are not humble; you are not respectful. Anger is very destructive, and then which is the result of anger, we all know. I don’t think anybody got angry and didn’t regret it, unless your pride is so big that you can’t see. And that’s the case for many people: your own pride completely blinds you, and you only look at the others, “You, it’s your fault! I got angry because of you, you, you! instead of, “Oh it’s my fault I got angry. I lost control. I didn’t have respect. I was not humble enough. I wasn’t patient enough with myself.” Even if you get angry for one second, it’s enough, you know, it’s called destructive emotion, and the emotion doesn’t come out by itself, it is triggered by the thought and the thought is based on the ego, on the me “I’m so important. I have the right.” But if you ask yourself why do you have the right, you can’t really find it. Why do you have the right to hit somebody for example? Who gives you the right to shout to somebody, to insult somebody? We have no right even to ourselves. That’s why don’t say these things like “Oh, I’m so stupid” or like that, it’s not very good, you know, your body will believe it and then, you’ll become stupid, no I’m joking. It’s not good to say because you create a pattern, a habit. Saying the other extreme “I’m so wise”, “I’m so important” also is not helpful, no?

So always try to keep the middle path, equanimity. Try to keep the moderation, the middle path, then you can see more clearly. You can differentiate then you don’t make so many mistakes, even though as humans we learn from the mistakes. But the big mistake is to keep doing the same mistake again and again. That’s a real mistake. You make a mistake; you learn from it. There’s just a learning process if you are aware of it. But the real mistake is when you keep doing the same mistake again and again and again, life after life after life. So now is the time. Start now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow will never come, trust me. 

OK, anger. I would like to know, maybe some of you can tell me why you get angry, maybe. What makes you angry? And when you get angry, do you think you have the justification to get angry? Or is it even beneficial? Does it really solve the problem? Think of it. Or does it make the problem much bigger. 

You see when you are humble, then you give the opportunity for the other person to be humble also. But if you are not humble, you don’t give that opportunity to the other person. If you’re proud, you talk to them like that [showing self-importance], then the person also will try to do more, then all you have is a battle of egos, and everybody loses. No, nobody wins, unless of course you learn. If you learn then it’s not so bad. You still lose, but at least you win a little bit. But if you’re learning, as long as you’re changing, recognizing, correcting, improving. So just be aware of the anger, because anger, most of the time, is hidden, hiding, hiding in the bushes, and it only comes out when it’s triggered. We allow it to come. It’s like when a guest comes to our house in the middle of the night, a stranger at midnight or like 2 am; we’re sleeping and then knock, knock, like banging the door, boom, boom, boom. Do we come to the door, open, “Oh, please come in. I’ll give you some snacks. I’ll give you a foot massage.” Do we do that even if it’s a family member, even if it’s our best friend? We have a serious face, “What do you want?” “Do you know what time it is?” That’s what we would say, right? Right? But when anger comes, what do we do? “Oh, welcome! Take over. My body is yours. My mind is yours.”

Why do we do this? It’s a good question to ask. Even if we know the result will be totally destructive, totally unproductive, still we welcome it with open arms. So, this is a question you have to ask. And the last thing about anger is to be able to be aware of when it’s coming. So it’s like for example, if you are in the jungle, in the Amazon, you’re exploring, you’re very suspicious of the wild animals, and suddenly, this bush moves; maybe there is an animal inside, you have to be ready, it’s a little bit like that. It’s not like you see the bush moving and say, “Oh, come attack me.” No, you’re ready, it’s like that. With the anger, you must be like that, always ready, fight or flee, fight or run or subdue, or make the anger your best friend. Otherwise, just learn from it. I get angry often, trust me. I always regret but still when it comes, I still welcome, “Oh welcome”, because it’s a habit from so many lifetimes, so you can’t just change like that. If it was that easy, we would be enlightened already.

So, it’s a slow job, slow work! Discipline. But be aware when the bush starts moving. I think that’s very important when you feel it’s coming; you must be aware. Then you think ego, humility, respect, understanding, empathy, compassion. If you have compassion for the other person, you can never get angry unless, of course, you are realized, and you know that the only way to help them is by getting angry or showing the aspect of anger. But this is another story. The intention, the main is intention. Most of the times we get angry not with the intention to help, it’s to show I’m the strong one, I’m right; we justify and then the anger comes out, “I’m right!”. And you can see inside between friends, in the family and even between the countries, many times wars are all about this, the ego battle, battles of egos: I’m going to show you who’s stronger. I’m going to send my army, then I’m going to conquer you and then you’ll see I’m stronger than you. That’s ridiculous but if you look at the history of humanity, it’s like that. 

So how do we start changing? That from the individual level; we can only work on ourselves; from there we start. We can judge a thousand people but if we don’t start judging ourselves, it’s totally useless, it doesn’t make any sense. We don’t even know ourselves. I don’t know how I’m going to react tomorrow if certain circumstances happen. Many times, I surprise myself because I react in a certain way, then I think, “Oh I didn’t know. Where did this come from?” If we really knew ourselves, we’ll know exactly how we’re going to react if such as this happens or that happens. We don’t even know ourselves, so how can we judge somebody else? So, don’t judge, don’t compare. If you want to compare, be productive comparison. Competition can be productive: “Oh, look they are so advanced. I want to advance too. I also want to be of benefit. Oh, he gets up at 4.30 am, I want to do that too!” Then you wake up two days at 4.30, next day, you sleep: “Oh so difficult, so difficult!” Anyway, so the anger can really, really destroy, one of the destructive emotions. It’s very dangerous, very dangerous. So, don’t welcome it if they knock on the door in the middle of the night, you have to ask the question: What are you doing here? Why are you here? What do you want? You are not coming in, sorry. You’re not welcome.

Anger is not welcome unless you can use it as a tool to be of benefit; but for that, you must have certain realizations, so if you’re humble, you won’t use it that way. In the Tibetan, the anger they say anger, they call it wind, lung tsabo, hot wind. “Oh, he is lung tsabo, he is a hot wind. It’s very funny!