22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This guy's angry at anger, but he has a suggestion..., September 3, 2005
This review is from: Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins (Hardcover)
Anger. People who get angry do nasty things. They swear, throw things, shake their fists at the sky, and kick things that don't necessarily deserve a kick. Or worse. Maybe they launch a thousand ships. Maybe they invade a country. In any case a lot of nasty things have anger as their foundation. So how do we deal with it? This book offers some suggestions.
This little book begins by delineating two grand traditions of anger. One, dominant in the West, accepts anger as an inevitable and necessary evil in the course of existence. By this view, anger becomes as unstoppable as the wind. It just plain exists. So we had best accept it. The other tradition, dominant in the East, seeks to annihilate anger altogether. Or, at least, rechannel the energy anger generates into more positive channels. The author finds these two views too polarizing and seeks a middle path by denying neither position but combining somewhat diluted versions of both into one distinct stance. This amounts to, in short, the view that we can't obliterate anger from the earth, but we don't have to let it control us, either. Given the author's background, it shouldn't astonish readers to find that he utilizes Buddhist psychology to attain his goals.
Prior to that, however, he takes a small dip into current politics. Chapter One, "The Momentous Present", defines "war" as "organized anger". Then he lets it all hang out, as they say. These 3 pages leave nothing to the imagination concerning Thurman's political views. Essentially, he thinks that the current world bristles with anger, and an analyzis of anger and how to ameliorate or rechannel its energies must occur sooner than later to avoid catastrophe. Then he gets to it (current politics never comes up again, which feels a bit strange considering the obvious passion of this short chapter).
Next, a comparison of anger and violence in the East and West concludes that the East shows a "real, progressive demilitarization of societies that were once just as violent as the Europeans or Americans, and of the attainment of relatively higher levels of peacefulness." The book follows this line to the end. But first Thurman engages in a little sideroad concerning opinions of anger in Western history.
The fascinating chapter four discusses the views on anger of Jesus (who sounds like a Buddhist on the subject of anger), Seneca (who writes about anger as if it were a pestilence and destroyer of societies), Plutarch, St. Augustine, and Chaucer.
Following this chapter the book shifts drastically over to the Buddhist perspective and doesn't stray from it. The rest of the book discusses the rechanneling of anger and some of the foundations of Buddhist psychology. The Western perspectives in the first few chapters get almost completely marginalized (a feature that distinguishes this book from the other current books in this "Seven Deadly Sins" series).
Starting inexorably down this path, Thurman first subsumes anger as an emotional addiction. The initial step involves seeing anger as a bad thing that comes from within oneself. This provides an insightful key to overcoming the affects of anger on oneself and others. Next, one must use suffering to transcend pain and anger (in the process of explaining this Thurman misquotes Nietzsche as saying "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger"; this is a common misquote; Nietzsche was himself quoting an old German proverb to make a point; he didn't coin the phrase). Thurman then begins a deep nosedive into Buddhist philosophy. The concepts thicken incredibly at this point. He discusses the various sources of misunderstaning of physical pain that can lead to anger, quoting Shantideva: "Even if beings are gentle-natured / And the evil of harm is occassional / It is still wrong to be angry; / Like resenting space for filling with smoke." This involves perspective, and perspective can help distinguish anger's fire. He also speaks about the importance of seeing one's influence beyond the scope of one's life. This helps to wash away thoughts such as "my anger won't matter in a hundred years, so why not quench it?" The discussion gradually becomes a little too deep for a text of this size (125 pages). And quotes from Shantideva begin to dominate the author's text and ultimately detract somewhat from the end of the discussion.
Nonetheless, Thurman does make some good points about anger by using Buddhist psychology, and some very good advice lurks in the book's final five chapters. But the last part of the book never resolves with the first part of the book. A feeling of incompleteness hangs over the final chapter. Not only that, the book slowly morphs from a book mostly about anger into a book mostly about Buddhism (which accounts somewhat for the unresolved feeling of the final chapter).
This book also keeps with the practice of some of the other books in this series of including pictures that don't tie to the text. The pictures are great, but how do they relate to the text? They don't seem to at all. So why include them?
In the end, this book presents some useful viewpoints on its subject matter. But it's almost exclusively slanted towards the Buddhist answer to the problem of anger. Obviously, the size limitations of the series limited the discussion to one viewpoint. And that viewpoint receives a thorough (almost too thorough) treatment. Consequently, this book probably represents the most difficult read so far in the "Seven Deadly Sins" series (especially for those with no knowledge of Buddhism). Still, along the way readers can learn a lot about Buddhism and about the "deadly sin" of anger.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solving Anger the Buddhist Way, February 10, 2006
This review is from: Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins (Hardcover)
This book wasn't as hard to read as I thought it to be (I don't usually read books on philosophy and psychology, though my interest in the seven sins urged me to read this book).
The author opens this book by saying he's angry at anger, but by being angry, it has already defeated him. So appearantly anger (or wrath, as most people, including myself, refer to it as) can only be defeated by ceasing to be angry. The author lays out a plan to the reader to defeat anger: The Buddhist Plan. He personifies anger as being a force that turns its victims into zombies and pits them against each other; it is the `real enemy'. According to Buddhism, he says, the best way to defeat anger is to not destroy it, but instead build a tolerance to its supposed causes, and then take the energy that would be angry energy and use it in for more positive forms.
The first couple of chapters are relatively easy to read; they examine both Western and Buddhist views of anger, and how one views it as a vital part of human nature, while the other considers it more a delusion. Then as the author moves on in explaining Buddhist methods, the text delves deeper into the psychological mechanics of anger, providing a bit more challenging read, though probably fascinating for people into psychology, religion, and self-help.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anger, February 16, 2009
Unlike what the Western world is taught about anger, that it is part of our emotional landscape therefore out of our control, Thurman makes sense when suggesting to us that anger is actually a concept, an acceptance that our anger is within our control because it's a behavior we choose rather than an emotion we cannot avoid.
Great read, it's another branch of the mind/body connection. Would highly recommend this book for anyone, to read with your adolescents too.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![To Be Of Use: Chap. 2 Hope [Soul School] Resources](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31qekHcVsqL._AA60_.jpg)
