The Practice of Loving-kindness

The Wretchedness of Anger

1. From the Anguttara Nikaya, 7:60

(spoken by the Buddha)

Bhikkhus, seven things gratifying and helpful to an enemy befall one who is angry, whether a woman or a man. What are the seven?

Here,
bhikkhus, an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him be ugly.” Why is
that? No enemy relishes an enemy’s beauty. Now when this person is
angry, a prey to anger, ruled by anger, be he ever so well bathed, and
well anointed, with hair and beard trimmed, and clothed in white, yet he
is ugly through his being a prey to anger. This is the first thing
gratifying and helpful to an enemy that befalls one who is angry,
whether a woman or a man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him lie in pain.” Why is that?
No enemy relishes an enemy’s lying in comfort. Now when this person is
angry, a prey to anger, ruled by anger, for all he may lie on a couch
spread with rugs, blankets and counterpanes with a deerskin cover, a
canopy and red cushions for the head and feet, yet he lies only in pain
through his being a prey to anger. This is the second thing gratifying
to an enemy that befalls one who is angry, whether a woman or a man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him have no prosperity.” Why
is that? No enemy relishes an enemy’s prosperity. Now when this person
is angry, prey to anger, ruled by anger, he mistakes bad for good and he
mistakes good for bad, and each being taken wrongly in the other’s
sense, these things for long conduce to his harm and suffering, through
his being a prey to anger. This is the third thing gratifying and
helpful to an enemy that befalls one who is angry, whether a woman or a
man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him not be rich.” Why is that?
No enemy relishes an enemy’s having riches. Now when a person is angry,
a prey to anger, should he have riches gained by endeavor, built up by
the strength of his arm, earned by sweat, lawful and lawfully acquired,
yet the king’s treasury gathers (in fines) through his being a prey to
anger. This is the fourth thing gratifying and helpful to an enemy that
befalls one who is a prey to anger, whether a woman or a man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him not be famous.” Why is
that? No enemy relishes an enemy’s having fame. Now when a person is
angry, a prey to anger, ruled by anger, what fame he may have acquired
by diligence he loses through his being a prey to anger. This is the
fifth thing gratifying and helpful to an enemy that befalls one who is a
prey to anger, whether a woman or a man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him have no friends.” Why is
that? No enemy relishes and enemy’s having friends. Now when this person
is angry, a prey to anger, ruled by anger, the friends he may have, his
companions, relatives and kin, will keep away from him through his
being a prey to anger. This is the sixth thing gratifying and helpful to
an enemy that befalls one who is a prey to anger, whether a woman or a
man.

Also
an enemy wishes thus for his enemy: “Let him on the dissolution of the
body, after death, reappear in a state of deprivation, in a bad
destination, in perdition, even in hell.” Why is that? No enemy relishes
an enemy’s going to a good destination. Now when this person is angry, a
prey to anger, ruled by anger, he misconducts himself in body, speech
and mind, and by his misconduct in body, speech and mind, on the
dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in a state of
deprivation, in a bad destination, in perdition, even in hell, through
his being a prey to anger. This is the seventh thing gratifying and
helpful to an enemy that befalls one who is angry, whether a woman or a
man.

When anger does possess a man;

He looks ugly; he lies in pain;

What benefit he may come by

He misconstrues as a mischance;

He loses property (through fines)

Because he has been working harm

Through acts of body and speech

By angry passion overwhelmed;

The wrath and rage that madden him

Gain him a name of ill-repute;

His fellows, relatives and kin

Will seek to shun him from afar;

And anger fathers misery:

This fury does so cloud the mind

Of man that he cannot discern

This fearful inner danger.

An angry man no meaning knows,

No angry man sees the Dhamma,

So wrapped in darkness, as if blind,

Is he whom anger dogs.

Someone a man in anger hurts;

But, when his anger is later spent

With difficulty or with ease,

He suffers as if seared by fire.

His look betrays the sulkiness

Of some dim smoky smoldering glow.

Whence may flare up an anger-blaze

That sets the world of men aflame.

He has no shame or conscience curb,

No kindly words come forth from him,

There is no island refuge for

The man whom anger dogs.

Such acts as will ensure remorse,

Such as are far from the true Dhamma:

It is of these that I would tell,

So harken to my words.

Anger makes man a parricide,

Anger makes him a matricide,

Anger can make him slay the saint

As he would kill the common man.

Nursed and reared by a mother’s care,

He comes to look upon the world,

Yet the common man in anger kills

The being who gave him life.

No being but seeks his own self’s good,

None dearer to him than himself,

Yet men in anger kill themselves,

Distraught for reasons manifold:

For crazed they stab themselves with daggers,

In desperation swallow poison,

Perish hanged by ropes, or fling

Themselves over a precipice.

Yet how their life-destroying acts

Bring death unto themselves as well,

That they cannot discern, and that

Is the ruin anger breeds.

This secret place, with anger’s aid,

Is where mortality sets the snare.

To blot it out with discipline,

With vision, strength, and understanding,

To blot each fault out one by one,

The wise man should apply himself,

Training likewise in the true Dhamma;

“Let smoldering be far from us.”

Then rid of wrath and free from anger,

And rid of lust and free from envy,

Tamed, and with anger left behind,

Taintless, they reach Nibbana.