The Book of Joy

called Rabble-Rouser for Peace, which succinctly describes the paradox
of the Archbishop’s struggle for freedom. He was not afraid of anger and
righteous indignation in pursuit of peace, justice, and equality in his
homeland.
The Archbishop simply and succinctly explained the power and limits
of this use of anger. “Righteous anger is usually not about oneself. It is
about those whom one sees being harmed and whom one wants to help.”
In short, righteous anger is a tool of justice, a scythe of compassion, more
than a reactive emotion. Although it may have its roots deep in our fight-
or-flight desire to protect those in our family or group who are
threatened, it is a chosen response and not simply an uncontrollable
reaction. And it is not about one’s own besieged self-image, or one’s
feelings of separation, but of one’s collective responsibility, and one’s
feeling of deep, empowering connection.
“Now medical scientists say,” the Dalai Lama continued, “that
constant fear, constant anger, constant hatred harms our immune system.
Everybody tries to take care of his or her health. So they need both a
healthy body and a healthy mind. A healthy mind is a calm mind. Fear
and anger are destroyers of a calm mind. Then you realize that anger is no
use in solving problems. It will not help. It creates more problems. Then
eventually through training of our mind—and using reasoning—we can
transform our emotions.”
The Dalai Lama added, “Clear, like that,” as if fear and anger, these
fundamental parts of the human experience, these sources of so much
negative emotion, so much suffering, could be banished with the wave of
a rational mind. I knew what he was describing was a lifelong practice, in
which we have to continually wrestle with the fear and anger mechanisms
of our mammalian brain. Otherwise we are prone to lose it more often
than we would like to admit.
Paul Ekman told me an astonishing story over dinner one night about
how the Dalai Lama had healed him of his anger issues. Ekman is not a
Buddhist and was not that interested in meeting the Dalai Lama, but his
daughter was a fan, and when Ekman heard that scientists invited to the
biannual Mind and Life conference with the Dalai Lama could bring a