The Ninth Grave Precept

With palms together,
Good Morning ans Happy New Year to Everyone,

The Ninth Grave Precept: I vow not to become angry.

This precept was one that created much difficulty for me. In the Clear Mind Order we use "I vow to sow the seeds of love in my life." The precept points to equanimity and non-attachment to feelings. Its one thing to feel anger, another to express it, and still another to be caught in it.

Anger is a normal human emotion. We use it to help us gather our defenses and protect ourselves. Yet, anger can hurt others deeply. Words and actions expressed in anger have the capacity to burn into other's consciousness and memory, It is far better to not have this happen.

On the other hand, it is often an equally challenging task to express love. We are vulnerable in the extreme when we soften ourselves, drop our defenses and admit loving feelings. I find this is far more challenging for men and boys that girls and women, but this is not always so.

It is a good practice to widen the distance between the fuse and the match. A nice number count, a focus of attention on our breath for a few cycles, can go a long way toward maintaining an internal balance as we shift from feeling anger to love.

And that is exactly what we must do: the person whom we feel is "making us angry" is doing nothing that is not possible for us to do, nothing, in fact, we haven't done ourselves typically. We should notice our commonality, notice our own response, and embrace the suffering of the other as we can.

May your practice be fruitful.

Be well,