Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of us are enjoying a day away from work, school, and other responsibilities that soon will return. However, I have noticed a constant that is growing in volume in both professional and interpersonal interaction; a fearful rise of bitterness, anger, and hatred directed at both a singular individual and a group of individuals one presumes are the source of the wrongs in their lives.
A wise sage once said that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.
We are watching the inauguration of President Obama's second term. Regardless of how your vote was cast; we as a people need to get past the inner bitterness to overcome the ills and difficulties we all face. It is a wonder that this nation can have its citizens cast their votes peaceably and then witness the head of state sworn in in equal peaceful measure. We have our past, present, and future soldiers to thank for the defense and protection of that very uniqueness.
I am not sure how to unravel the knotted bitterness we as a country evidently convey. I am sadly failing at unraveling the same bitterness on a less grandiose and more personal scale. My practice in both as a counselor and instructor has been to plant seeds; instill a thought or concept and let those who sit across from me and in a classroom before me allow the seed to take root. In that vein, I am going to list a stream-of consciousness quotes and ideas to help begin to overcome the path of anger.
"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Can you wait patiently until your mud settles and your water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until right action arises of itself?" ~ Lao Tzu "Tao Te Ching"
"Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness." ~ Friedrich Nietzschke
"It is better to live in peace than in bitterness and strife." ~ Confucius
"Let a man overcome his selfish terror at his own finitude, and his finitude is, in one sense, overcome." ~ George Santayana
"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." ~ Buddha
"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." ~ Mark Twain
"Anger and intolerance are the enemies to correct understanding." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools." ~ Albert Einstein
"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes." ~ Cato
"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger." ~ Buddha
"Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest." ~ Pope Paul VI
"He is a fool who cannot become anger; but he is a wise man who will not." ~ Seneca
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." ~ Abraham Lincoln
No comments:
Post a Comment