Unjustly
convicted and imprisoned, Benjamin Barker returned to his native city. Led by
his irritated mind, he programmed himself for revenge and changed his name to Sweeney
Todd.
As
that, the protagonist, putting all his effort into vengeance, is not capable of
catching either hope for a brighter future or any opportunities in his new
life. His anger spreads and hurts innocent people.
Benjamin’s
mad mind pushes him to murder anyone who enters his barbershop. It doesn’t
matter who is in front of him. Whether it’s his offender (Judge Turpin) or anyone
else, his anger hits everyone.
Murdering
innocent people, Sweeney Todd continuously harms his own soul by absorbing
heavy, dark energies. He is steadily turning towards Darkness and shutting down
a new and brighter future not only for himself but also for others, including
his teenage daughter and his new spouse.
The lesson learned:
In the Western world, revenge is an acceptable reaction to someone who has made
you unhappy. People fight against those who insult them because they think they
have lost their happiness due to an injustice enacted by the offender, not
because of their own imperfections. When an angry person hits back at his offender,
he makes the problem bigger, creating the same effect as pouring petrol into a
fire – the fire becomes larger and more dangerous.
The
Eastern world, experienced with spiritual wisdom and meditation practices,
teaches that instead of petrol, one should pour water into the fire, which
would extinguish it.
That
essentially means that if you have been offended, you must not only observe
your emotional state but also keep your mind above the situation. A balanced
mind in this case can become a friend and won’t give anger a chance to push you
towards words or actions, which would badly affect your future.
Some
people might argue that they want to hit back at an offender because that
action would teach the offender a lesson. In addition, they would get the
personal satisfaction of the protection themselves. However, this is a reaction
of your ego; reality shows that hitting back does not make things better, only
worse.
Hatred
absorbs a lot of time and effort; you are shifting your focus from your life’s
goals to the distracting direction of revenge. You risk turning your life into
hell – irritation and anger as a chain reaction are jumping up from the
offender to the innocent one, hurting guiltless people only because they were
in the way.
The worst thing happens on the deeper level of the subconscious – an uprising of
the karmic nodes. Each karmic node would require attention, if not in this
present life, in the next. You’re going to meet the same spiritual entity (a
person) again and again to solve the problem – to unleash the karmic node. This
involves extending your existence in the physical world and prolonging your
path to liberation.
Anger management by G. Buddha:
One
person, who lived on the Earth about 2,600 years ago, invented a technique
helping people manage anger. As a matter of fact, that technique was a remedy
addressing any imperfection of the human mind, creating the chance for full enlightenment
and, consequently, providing a fast track to liberation from the physical
world. This person is best known as Buddha, but his real name was Siddhartha
Gautama.
Gautama
became fully enlightened at the age of 35 and, driven by compassion, helped
people until his death at the age of 80.
Buddha’s
meditation, known as the Vippasanna technique, helps balance and manage your
own mind. He invented the technique with the intention of removing imperfection
(= sins) and avoiding generating new ones.
For example, going for revenge, a person would generate a new karmic node with each
offender. Each karmic node, as a heavy stone, would prevent him from climbing
up to the goal – liberation from physical reality.
Each
and every one of us, time after time, has faced a situation with a person who
has insulted us. Buddha was no exception – he also met offenders, but he could
transform negativity into positivity without hurting the offender, also gaining
extra psycho-energy for himself. In this article, I provide two examples of how
he did it. These examples I have heard are from the Vipassana meditation
course.
One
day, Buddha received a visitor. The man was very irritated. He told Gautama
that though he pretended to be a spiritual guru, he wasn’t because, according
to the man, a true yogi was supposed to have long hair, tiger fur, and other accessories.
Buddha
listened to the man without interrupting. When the offender finished, Buddha
asked him, “Are you, dear sir, getting guests in your house?”
“Yes,
I am,” answered the offender.
“Do
they give presents to you?”
“Yes,
sometimes they do bring me presents.”
Buddha
said in a calm voice, “I do not accept your
present to me. Take it back and go home.”
The
offender wanted to fire but left with empty hands because the fire died when
Gautama poured water on it. The offender had no other option than to turn back
and go home.
Another
case of anger management from the life of Buddha.
There
were some people who were jealous of Gautama’s fame and popularity. They
decided to damage his reputation.
They
sent a young, beautiful woman to his ashram, and she attended Buddha’s teaching.
Every morning the woman passed the people in the ashram and told them she had spent
another night with Gautama. Time passed and one day many important people
gathered in the Buddha’s ashram. The woman came also. It looked like she was
pregnant. She accused Gautama of being the father, using nasty words.
Buddha listened to her and said in a calm voice, “We both know the truth."
The woman became nervous; the wooden piece attached to her belly dropped out
and everyone saw that she had lied.
The
lesson: Keeping your mind in balance gives you a great advantage in a situation
when you face an offender who has the intention of making you unhappy. A
trained mind that focuses on positive decisions will help you figure out the right solution for the problem you face.
