One really doesn’t have to be a scientist or a researcher to know the effects of anger on one’s health. One only has to be sensitive. The being of an angry person starts transmitting vibrations of anger and violence around him. Just standing close to such a person may make you feel nauseated. His very presence in the proximity can be uncomfortable. On the other hand, when you stand close to someone who meditates, you will feel uplifted; a feeling of comfort surrounds you.
There are several methods of meditation, especially the breathing techniques that can free you from anger, violence and other negative impulses. One of the most ancient texts and meditation manuals is Shiva’s 5,000-year-old Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, which is concerned with how to go beyond the mind, to attain glimpses of the consciousness that exists apart from the mind. It is taught there that one should not be identified with the mind, and this is our fallacy that we are our minds. For us not to be identified with our minds, to know that the mind is only a moving process, like walking, but not the same as our consciousness – this is the message of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra and its 112 methods of meditation.
All the techniques of meditation are not concerned with how the mind operates, but rather are concerned only about how to find the door outside the mind to find the open sky of consciousness.
Osho has given 80 wonderful talks on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. Here is one of the techniques that is very useful in making us free from the spells of a negative mood.
It is the 12th technique: When a mood against someone or for someone arises, do not place it on the person in question, but remain centered.
Osho explains: If hate arises for someone or against someone, or love arises for someone, what do we do? We project it onto the person. If you feel hate towards me, you forget yourself completely in your hate; only I become your object. If you feel love towards me, you forget yourself completely; only I become your object. You project your love or hate or whatsoever upon me. You forget completely the inner center of your being; the other becomes the center. This sutra says, when hate arises or love arises, or any mood for or against anyone, do not project it onto the person in question. Remember, you are the source of it.
I love you – the ordinary feeling is that you are the source of my love. That is not really so. I am the source; you are just a screen on which I project my love. You are just a screen; I project my love onto you and I say that you are the source of my love. This is not fact; this is fiction. I draw my love energy and project it onto you. In that love energy projected onto you, you become lovely. You may not be lovely to someone else; you may be absolutely repulsive to someone else. Why? If you are the source of love then everyone will feel loving towards you, but you are not the source. I project love, then you become lovely; someone projects hate, then you become repulsive. And someone else doesn’t project anything, he is indifferent; he may not even have looked at you. What is happening? We are projecting our own moods upon others.
“Cast off anger from your heart, like an arrow from the bow, so that you may again be friends and live together in harmony.” – Atharva Veda
“Tensions are our guests; we have invited them. Relaxation is our nature; we don’t have to invite it. You don’t have to relax; you have just to stop inviting tensions, and relaxation will start on its own accord. In your very being, in every fiber, in every cell of your being there will be relaxation. This relaxation is the beginning of meditation.” – Osho
That is why, if you are on your honeymoon, the moon looks beautiful, miraculous, wonderful. It seems that the whole world is different. And on the same night, just for your neighbor, this miraculous night may not be in existence at all. His child has died – then the same moon is just sad, intolerable. But for you it is enchanting, fascinating; it is maddening. Why? Is the moon the source or is the moon just a screen and you are projecting yourself?
This sutra says, when a mood against someone or for someone arises, do not place it on the person in question – or on the object in question. Remain centered. Remember that you are the source, so do not move to the other, move to the source. When you feel hate, do not go to the object. Go to the point from where the hate is coming. Go not to the person to whom it is going, but to the center from where it is coming. Move to the center, go within. Use your hate, or love, or anger or anything as a journey towards your inner center, to the source. Move to the source and remain centered there.
Try it! This is a very scientific, psychological technique. Someone has insulted you – anger suddenly erupts, you are feverish. Anger is flowing towards the person who has insulted you. Now you will project this whole anger onto him. He has not done anything. If he has insulted you, what has he done? He has just pricked you, he has helped your anger to arise, but the anger is yours. If he goes to the Buddha and insults him, he will not be able to create any anger in him. Or if he goes to Jesus, Jesus will give him the other cheek. Or if he goes to Bodhidharma, he will roar with laughter. So it depends.
The other is not the source; the source is always within you. The other is hitting the source, but if there is no anger within you it cannot come out. If you hit the Buddha, only compassion will come out because only compassion is there. Anger will not come out because anger is not there. If you throw a bucket into a dry well, nothing comes out. In a water-filled well, you throw a bucket and water comes out, but the water is from the well. The bucket only helps to bring it out. So the one who is insulting you is just throwing a bucket in you, and then the bucket will come out filled with the anger, hate or fire that was within you. You are the source, remember.
For this technique, remember that you are the source of everything that you go on projecting onto others. And whenever there is a mood against or for, immediately move within and go to the source from where this hate is coming. Remain centered there; do not move to the object. Someone has given you a chance to be aware of your own anger – thank him immediately and forget him. Close your eyes, move within, and now look at the source from where this love or anger is coming. From where? Go within, move within. You will find the source there because the anger is coming from your source.
Hate or love or anything is coming from your source. And it is easy to go to the source at the moment you are angry or in love or in hate, because then you are hot. It is easy to move in then. The wire is hot and you can take it in, you can move inward with that hotness. And when you reach a cool point within, you will suddenly realize a different dimension, a different world opening before you. Use anger, use hate, use love to go within.
We use it always to move to the other, and we feel very much frustrated if no one is there to project upon. Then we go on projecting even on inanimate objects. I have seen people geting angry at their shoes, throwing them in anger. What are they doing? I have seen angry persons pushing a door in anger, throwing their anger on the door, abusing the door, using dirty language against the door. What are they doing?
I will end with one Zen insight into this. One of the greatest Zen masters, Lin Chi, used to say, “When I was young I was very fascinated by boating. I had one small boat, and I would go on the lake alone. For hours together I would remain there.
Once it happened that with closed eyes I was in my boat meditating on the beautiful night. One empty boat came floating downstream and struck my boat. My eyes were closed, so I thought, ‘Someone is here with his boat, and he has struck my boat.’ Anger arose. I opened my eyes and I was just going to say something to that man in anger, then I realized that the boat was empty. Then there was no way to move. To whom could I express the anger? The boat was empty. It was just floating downstream, and it had come and struck my boat. So there was nothing to do. There was no possibility to project the anger on an empty boat.”
So Lin Chi said, “I closed my eyes. The anger was there, but finding no way out, I closed my eyes and just floated
backward with the anger. And that empty boat became my realization. I came to a point within myself in that silent night. That empty boat was my master. And now if someone comes and
insults me, I laugh and I say, ‘This boat is also empty.’ I close my eyes and I go within.” Use this technique. It may work miracles for you.
“The wire is hot and you can take it in, you can move inward with that hotness. And when you reach a cool point within, you will suddenly realize a different dimension, a different world opening before you. Use anger, use hate, use love to go within.”
