Anger

Anger (Skt. pratigha; Tib. ཁོང་ཁྲོ་, kong tro; Wyl. khong khro) — one of the root destructive emotions and one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the six root destructive emotions.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

• Tib. ཁོང་ཁྲོ་བ་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་གཞི་ལ་ཀུན་ནས་མནར་སེམས་པ་སྟེ། བདེ་བར་རེག་པ་ལ་མི་གནས་ཤིང་ཉེས་སྤྱོད་ཀྱི་རྟེན་བྱེད་པའོ།
• Anger is a mind which is hostile towards a sentient being, suffering or the cause of suffering. It prevents one from remaining in peace and is the support for negative actions. (Rigpa Translations)
• Anger is the hostile attitude towards a sentient being, a painful object, or pain [itself]. It makes one not abide in peace and creates the basis for negative action. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Translation

The word 'anger' translates several Tibetan terms, including khongtro (Wyl. khong khro) and shyédang (Wyl. zhe sdang). His Holiness the Dalai Lama has advised that the latter term should be translated as hatred, because the word anger can sometimes, in rare circumstances, be seen as positive, whereas hatred like shyédang can never be positive. However, when it appears in the context of tantra, he says, it should be translated as anger.

Alternative Translations

• Hostility (Gyurme Dorje)

Literature

• Bodhicharyavatara, Chapter 6

Oral Teachings on Overcoming Anger Given by Sogyal Rinpoche

• Lerab Ling, 18 July 2011
• Zurich, 23 September 2010
• London, 29 October 1997 & 16 November 1997
• Munich, 22 April 1995 pm
• Paris, 29 April 1995 am & pm

Further Reading

• The Dalai Lama, Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, Snow Lion Publications, 1997
• Dzogchen Ponlop, Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2006), 'Fruit of Aversion', pages 128-133.
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames, Riverhead Trade, 2002