Number 19: Ordinary Mind

sifu-kisu:

1. Be aware then let go.
2. Cultivate the good roots of non-contention.
3. Gaze through the opponent as if scanning through to a distant horizon. 
4. Guide as a gentle example.  
5. If you do not allow yourself to attach to what you feel is most their most annoying aspect then suddenly it is no longer annoying right? 
6. Emptiness & compassion. 
7. Row the boat with the flow of the river row the boat with the flow of the sea.

Sifu Kisu
The Harmonious Fist School of Northern Shaolim Swordsmanship

Perfect. Thank you. 

All of the above. Seeing it written out in simple yet incredibly deep words soothes my mind with ease. These may become mantras in my life, especially when the seas are rough.

Anger is a part of us, it wells up from within. It is therefore not sufficient to deal with anger by ignoring, delaying and restraining it. We must never run from our anger, never seek to cut it away. It is a part of us.  Just the same we must not sit back and wallow in it letting it overrun reason and wash us away to be broken in the rapids.

To deal with anger we must turn our eyes inward and come to understand it.

First we recognize it.

Then we ask where it flows from: annoyance, insecurity, frustration, or pain. What is it within ourselves that has been moved to anger.

Next we ask where it flows to, where would the anger send us.

Finally it is up to us to choose whether to follow the path wholeheartedly, not just rashly, or to turn our back to that path accepting its source but not its destination. Understand the annoyance, pain or insecurity, face it directly and let the anger be dissolved.

We should be moved to follow the first path when our anger flows from an injustice beyond us that we can move against and the second when it flows from within us.

There is no greater cure for anger than understanding.