Awareness is the solution to anger. There are many reasons for anger. It always involves severe judgments about the person or persons with whom we are angry. When we are angry, we feel superior. This sense of superiority is needed to compensate for the sense of inferiority that comes from our subconscious mind. From early childhood, our subconscious mind carries the memory of the numerous ways we have been put down by others.

Digging a little deep into ourselves, we can see that we do live with some sense of shame and guilt. Thus we cultivate the habit of being hard with ourselves. Then it becomes quite easy to be hard on others. Human life seems to be a constant struggle between inferiority and superiority complexes.

One’s justified anger defines him as this particular person. Hence follows the need to hold on to his anger. It may be rather disturbing and irksome, but giving it up can be even more disturbing. It amounts to denying the present state of his personality. Renouncing anger seems to make him feel weak, as if he was allowing and inviting others to step on him, with impunity.

We cannot and should not drop anger from our hearts, unless we understand ourselves and others in the process of actions and reactions. In order to give up anger safely, we must pursue truth further. We must inquire into the nature of our essential reality. This will provide us with an unshakeable sense of security.

Millions of thoughts continually bombard a man’s mind. Most of them are unconscious. The conscious mind has hardly any control. We do not know our next thought. Our subconscious mind is what determines our acts.  Our acts are mostly impulsive and compulsive. We are not free enough to act always with the best outcome in mind.

Our past history and the pressures of the present context condition us to act in a particular way. Looking at the context in which the people whom we criticize and condemn acted we realize that they had little option. They were conditioned to act as they did and were not free to act differently.

Our body and mind are programmed to defend and attack, if we feel threatened. This is a survival mechanism. The conditioned reaction is feeling hurt and angry. Thus we are not free to react otherwise. Freedom comes in only when we cultivate the habit of understanding reality as it is. To move beyond our conditioning and have the freedom to understand reality, we need to look at our conditioning. We need to inquire as to the nature of our consciousness.

When children are born in this world and start to grow, they have no sense of separation, and feel one with everything. The sense of separation and proper boundaries are inculcated into children through socialization. Responsible adults teach them to fear and look for danger in the environment, and thus learn to survive.

Christ exhorted the disciples to be born again. He was referring to the initial innocence, fearlessness and the sense of oneness of children. He wanted them to become like little children in order to gain eternal life. What is eternal life? What is real about me? Who am I? My body is utterly impermanent. The cells in our body are continually dying and new cells are constantly forming. Hence the body is not my essential reality.

Our personality consists of good and bad habits that are always changing since our habits are conditioned by external influences. The personality or ego emphasizes the sense of separation. If we look for the ego behind all the thoughts and feelings, it vanishes like an illusion.

As things around me and my body continually change, thoughts and feelings are also changing. The consciousness in me that witnesses the changing phenomena remains the same. When we calmly witness our thoughts and feelings, one may see the witnessing consciousness as pure awareness.

Awareness knows no distinction or extinction. It seems to give reality to everything and everyone. No form is real apart from awareness, though awareness itself has no form. One knows this intuitively if we take the time to look deeply into ourselves.

The more we identify with our unchanging awareness, the more we would be able to accept ourselves and others as we are, with our strengths and weaknesses. Then we can be peaceful enough to feel unconditional love and compassionate kindness towards ourselves and others. There would be no need for apology or forgiveness. It would be a simple matter of right understanding.

Daily introspection is needed to see whether there is even a slight resentment against anyone in your heart. Be compassionately kind toward yourself. Visualize yourself and the other person as covered by a golden light of limitless love, peace and joy. Pray deeply for that person and yourself. One must repeat this exercise several times a day until the negative feeling is gone.

If we are essentially awareness, we have no beginning or end. As Christ said, we are eternal and one with everyone and everything. Thus we are truly limitless love and endless joy. We get superficial glimpses of our essential nature now and then, especially when we pray or meditate deeply, engage in selfless service, or are receptively in the presence of great Masters.

Final liberation or enlightenment is to dive deep enough into pure awareness and to be permanently in the state of limitless love, joy, power and wisdom. That is the main purpose of our life. It requires continuous effort and alert mindfulness. Then life becomes altogether meaningful and we flow with ease and enthusiasm, though there may be trials along the way.