Psalm 4:4 (NRSV): When you are disturbed (or angry), do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
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Thich Nhat Hanh writes in the Fourth of his Five Mindfulness Trainings: “When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I shall practice Mindful Breathing and Mindful Walking in order to Recognize my Anger and Look Deeply into My Anger. I know that the Roots of my Anger can be found in My Wrong Perceptions and in My Lack of Understanding of the Suffering in Myself and in the Other Person.”
Many people interpret Buddhist teachings, such as Thay’s, as being aligned with contemporary entreaties for each person to “speak their truth,” but neither Buddhism nor Christianity offers such an individualistic model. Thich Nhat Hanh holds that it is certainly ideal to speak one’s truth, but only – and this caveat is non-negotiable – only if one is not speaking out of anger or speaking in a way that is hurtful or harmful to others. Thay’s Buddhist teaching aligns sweetly with the Judeo-Christian teaching of Psalm 4:4, When you are disturbed or angry, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
Neither the Buddhist Mindfulness Training nor Psalm 4 are saying we should suppress our anger. Instead, they are calling for a response of silent awareness, contemplation, and mindfulness. Drawing from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, this pondering on one’s bed in silence fits well with Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindful breathing and mindful walking in order to look deeply into one’s anger. The wording in the King James Version (KJV) however, is even more befitting: rather than Ponder it on your beds and be silent, King James reads, Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.
In other words, When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I shall be still and commune with my own heart.
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As a response to our own anger, the first thing that Psalm 4:4 and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Fourth Mindfulness Training call for is silence, but what then? The psalm suggests lying in bed. The monk suggests mindful walking or mindful breathing (perhaps while lying in bed?). Practice mindfulness. Get to stillness and presence. Then what? Commune with your heart – recognize that anger and look into it. At first, we may not even recognize that we are angry. Have you ever said, “I’m not mad!” in the midst of your raging storm? Most of us have made such false declarations. Once our anger is acknowledged, however, we can move toward observing it. There is a vast ocean between, “I am angry,” and “I can feel and sense the anger that is in me.” If we ponder in our beds or commune with our hearts at this level, then we can begin to explore the roots of the anger. Thay suggests three roots: 1) Our misperceptions; 2) the suffering within us; and 3) the suffering of the other that is spilling out and causing us to suffer. Any of these three elements or any combination of the three may have contributed to our anger. As we move toward mindful stillness within ourselves, we can consider each of these three root causes to anger with questions like: 1) Did I misunderstand or misperceive something here? 2) What deeper suffering in me was triggered because of this incident? 3) What suffering in him or her caused them to behave that way toward me?
(Music: Courtesy of Adrian Von Ziegler, “Circle of Life.” )