Toward an Enraged Buddhism, Part 1

Reevaluating anger and rage on a week where writing about rage, and especially women's rage at injustice, is hitting threshold in my community. A simple promo post for this talk initiated a lovely, spread out conversation with folks on FB, including Rebecca Solnit, who has written eloquently (as always) on this. There's a bunch of good links in the comment thread, including her fabulous, and quite Buddhist-y, article, All the Rage.

This talk came out of a question at the end of the Right Speech After Kavanaugh talk, about appropriate rage and harsh speech. Clearly what many folks feel is needed now is a reevaluation of the archetypal Buddhist preference for mild, kind speech to embrace the possibly skillful (kusala) variants of anger and rage: indignation, outrage, protective ferocity.

My battery was low so I didn't record the meditation, but it wasn't a rage practice. ;) You might do a simple "mindfulness of breathing in the belly" for this one.

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
October 9, 2018

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Meditation: stillness of body, stillness of mind, shepherding your state (wise effort)

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Reflections on Right Speech After the Kavanaugh Hearings