Understanding Anger

Recently two friends recommended the book The Heart of the Soul by Gary Zukav. I've just been jumping around the book, and the passages below remind me of interesting ideas I've read before. They ring true. And during this time when the daily news is filled with stories of anger, these reflections on anger seem relevant. (The bold print is by Zukav.)

Anger is an iceberg phenomenon. It is the apex of a larger structure, all of which is invisible except the very top....There is no such thing as anger without an immense emotional substructure. Anger is the peak protruding above the clouds. Beneath every experience of anger is a huge body of emotional experience.....

Anger lashes out at a target. That target is another person, group of people, or the Universe. Anger is righteous and self-important. Anger does not listen to, respect, or care about others....Anger wants what it wants, when it wants it...

Angry outbursts are painful experiences, but they are not emotional explorations. Each outburst of anger is a barrier to the exploration of emotions. It is a fortress from which an individual who has no power does his or her best to face a frightening world.

All hostility originates in fear. Fear is the birthplace of every impulse that is not loving. A loving individual is fearless. An angry, jealous, vengeful, depressed, or avaricious person is filled with fear....Love is fearless.

Between terror and anger lies another experience—pain. In other words, beneath anger lies pain, and beneath that pain lies fear. It is not possible to experience the fear without first experiencing the pain. The pain may appear to be caused by the loss of a job, the death of a child, or a diagnosis of a terminal illness. The pain of these things is intense, and the experience of it is very much like feeling a white-hot piece of metal. That is why it is easier to become angry than to touch the pain. This is what most people do, but the pain does not go away when you become angry. It gets buried. (129-133)

I have looked at some of my own emotions through these lenses of anger-pain-fear. It's amazing how nearly impenetrable unpleasant and painful emotions can be. But these ideas from Zukav help one travel through the fog.