Tension is caused from impure thoughts.catmoon wrote: Yes and no. The tension and hard breathing mean its time to check. They can be caused by harmful thoughts. They can also be caused by playing tennis.
Anger is just impure thought labeled as unpleasant and blindly reacted towards. When you eventually notice it don't make it a problem just observe it without reacting towards it.catmoon wrote:Anger is a problem because it distorts the mind. One sees the object of anger as much worse than it actually is, which can lead to bad decisions. Anger often leads to harmful actions. If one catches it and can observe it (oh, looks here's this anger thing arising again) it is very liable to drain away, especially if one is quite clear on the damage potential of anger and does not wish to be angry.
Catching and identifying impure thought before it turns to anger was the the point of this thread.
Doesn't this just supress the anger? Does it have the power to free you from the root cause of anger?catmoon wrote:Anger is usually directed at a person. It's hard to get mad at a Buddha. So if you see Buddha nature before you, you are less likely to become angry, because instead of a bad person you see a Buddha and some mildly interesting things obscuring the expression of the Buddha nature.