Discourse on the Five Ways of Putting an End to Anger – Retreat Reflections
From 9th to 11th February in Purley Chase and online the UK Dharma Teachers Vari McLuskie and Theresa Payne offered a Dharma Training Programme Retreat titled the Discourse on the Five Ways of Putting an End to Anger. The weekend provided an opportunity to introduce the subject and offered ways and approaches to practicing with this challenging topic. Two participants, Hilary Templer and Teri West, offered their reflections from the retreat below.
From Hilary Templer from Bristol White Clouds Sangha:
“(..)As Vari pointed out in her opening remarks, this is a huge topic. The weekend provided an opportunity to introduce the subject and offered ways and approaches to practicing with this challenging topic.
Vari and Theresa, supported by Rehena Harilall and Gary Greenberg on line, offered personal insights and examples from their own lives of practicing to cool the flames. I found these immensely supportive and useful in providing me with accessible, kind and, in some cases, humorous ways to approach this topic.(..)” Please find full reflection from Hilary in this blog post.
From Teri West, UK Dharma Teacher who participated in the retreat:
“Our recent retreat on the sutra ’The Five Ways of Putting an End to Anger’ gave a great deal of food for thought concerning the inner work on recognising how seeds of our anger might have been sown in us. Another theme was the many levels at which anger might manifest, from mild annoyance, through sparks of irritation and frustration and flames of anger, to the volcanic fires of a full-blown rage.
During the retreat we were invited to offer poems, songs or stories for the enjoyment and benefit of the other retreatants. I wanted to offer something on the theme of the retreat. I offered a poem, while not sure which one it could be, or a song about impermanence.
The invitation was to sing the song. However, here is the poem I chose in the end. I have found that what helps me to deal with some angry feelings, at any level, having understood from where they might have come, by seeing the funny side of things, and writing something about it.
This poem was obviously sparked by some incident or other between me and my husband. We had some fairly opposing interests and tastes, despite being happy together (most of the time!) for over 30 years.
If I Lived Alone
If I lived alone,
I would –
Do Things, in the middle of the night:-
I would play the Velvet Underground at MAXIMUM VOLUME.
I would stomp about the place
singing ‘Folk-y’ songs.
I would hoover, at any old time I fancied,
Day or night,
and open all the doors and windows,
Wide to the wind,
even – perhaps especially – in Winter.
If I lived alone,
I would unclutter the window sills,
Banish biscuits,
Evict these oh-so-complacent armchairs,
and, probably,
Polish the parquet in the hall.
If I lived alone, though,
I would, most likely, be writing a poem
Along the lines of
‘If I Lived with Someone Else’
Here is the studio version of the song: https://soundcloud.com/tj-fool/qs-no-faqs?
Recognising impermanence is an essential practice in transforming anger!”
