Are you still holding onto Anger?

They first came upon an area with many flowers growing. The elder monk said, “Many people will proclaim that they love flowers, and will then pull them from the ground and bring them home.

If you truly loved a flower you would water it, and let it grow hardily. Do you understand the difference?”

They continued their journey until they came upon a stream gently flowing across the land.

Unexpectedly they encountered a woman who was wearing a long dress gazing sheepishly upon the muddy water in the stream wondering how she would get across it without getting her lovely dress soiled.

Upon noticing her discontentedness the older monk greeted her kindly, and offered to assist her across the river, she humbly nodded in agreement and the older monk picked her up without hesitation, and carried her to the other side before placing her gently down on her feet.

The two Buddhist monks then continued on with their journey. The older monk continued to enjoy the journey while the younger one seemed perplexed, and no longer mindful of the present moment.

The two traveled in silence for a couple of hours after that incident. The older monk enjoyed the moment, and the environment and nature all around him. The younger monk however seemed distant, and unable to embrace the moment any longer.

As they reached the end of their journey the older monk questioned his younger apprentice about his lack of mindfulness.

The novice monk’s headstrong reply was, “Earlier you picked up a woman, and carried her across the stream. We are monks, it is STRICKTLY FORBIDDEN for us to touch women. Why did you put your hands on her?”

The older monk compassionately replied, ”My young apprentice, I placed her down hours ago, but you are still carrying her.”

This popular Zen parable has been retold many times, in many different ways, but the lesson still remains the same. Let go of the past, and let go of your attachments to them. (Why Should I Let Go Of My Attachments?)

Do you still carry anger with you that you should have already let go of in the past?

Anger is a powerful and debilitating emotion that will consume us, and prevent us from attaining peace and happiness in the present moment.

Our thoughts often drift back to past negative events in our lives that bring more pain and discomfort to our present moment.

Our egos will feed off of this pain, and our minds will continue to think about painful events in the past and angrily change the outcome in our head to a more favorable result for us.

This is a dangerous path for us to walk down. Although we can feel this anger and hate giving us more power and strength within us. This power vibrates at a negative frequency, and begets more negative experiences into our lives.

If we want to be free from the negative circumstances in our life we must be mindful of our thoughts. Through the practice of meditation we can train ourselves to be mindful of our thoughts, and recognize them as they appear in our consciousness.

If we were to try being aware of the negative thoughts as they enter into our minds and let them pass without response, we will let go of our negativity, and be happy in the present.

If anger consumes you, stop carrying her, put her down, and embrace nirvana.

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