A common emotion we experience is anger. Anger is an extension of ego. It is also an expression of sadness. Whenever you act with anger, deep within, you will actually be feeling sad. Therefore, anger is an active form of sadness. Similarly, sadness is a passive form of anger. When you cannot express your anger, you feel sad within. This is an observation made by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. So when you are sad or angry, ask yourself, ‘What is it that I am sad about?’
If you can tear through the masks of pretence and false prestige with which you have tried to hide a negative emotion like sadness, and arrive at an honest answer to that question, you are well on your way to being able to manage your anger. But you need to do a lot of homework before you will be able to pierce all that pretence.You have to identify and eliminate your sorrow before you can confront your anger. If anger is an expression of sadness, removing sadness will automatically remove anger. But the operative question is, ‘How does one remove sadness?’ The answer would be, ‘By cultivating happiness’.
Swami Sukhabodhananda
