Monday, January 27, 2014



Reason and Rationality



At the start of last year, I wrote about anger.  If you want to read that blog before this one, here it is:

http://donricejr.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-be-angry.html

I wrote that anger should be eliminated from our being.  I was in error.  Allow me to clarify, if you will.

I wrote that anger is destructive, that it rips apart our essential humanity, and that it is an indulgence of the beast nature of our animal bodies.  That was the basis of my error. 

The Truth is that anger can be either destructive or constructive, depending on whether we respond rationally and reasonably or react instinctively and without rationality or reason.

My Teacher, Master David M. Berry, describes reason thus:  "Reason gives stability and balance to our love, hate, fear, and et cetera."  And he defines rationality as a state of "being able to consciously conform to conditions."

What, then, is a constructive way to deal with anger?  First, focus on what is causing it.  Then find a way to neutralize that cause, or to transform it into something else, something that does not bring out anger. 

How and what you do depends greatly on what is causing your anger.  But we must understand that there is a cause behind every effect.  So whatever we do, we must consider the effect it will have before we do it.  Is the effect something we want?  will it help us to further our individual growth?  Will it cause problems for ourselves or anyone else? 

Ask yourself those questions, then base your actions on the answers you discover within yourself.  This is what I'm learning to do, and I'm finding myself more in harmony when I do it, and less in harmony when I don't.  It's difficult sometimes, but only when my choices make it so.  When we understand that, then we will begin to change who we are as well as how to improve the living of our lives.


Namaste',
Don


  © 2014 Donald C. Rice Jr.

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