Anger makes us stupid. By Phra Ajahn Jayasāro

Anger makes us stupid. Our perception of situations becomes coarse and distorted. We say and do things that we feel bad about afterwards.

Being a prey to anger undermines our self-respect. When angry we can make serious bad kamma. Our actions and speech not only create long-lasting problems in our relationships with those around us, but also – if we believe the testimony of the enlightened ones - have grave consequences for future lives.

Please reflect on all the suffering you have created for yourself and others though anger, and resolve to free yourself from it.

This freedom is not beyond you to realize, but is only possible through following the Buddha's path of training. The training involves mindfulness and restraint of conduct and speech, systematic cultivation of positive mental states such as loving-kindness, and the investigation and abandonment of the craving and attachments that lie behind anger.

Phra Ajahn Jayasāro  

About Phra Ajahn Jayasaro

Ajahn Jayasaro (Shaun Michael Chiverton) was born on the Isle of Wight, England in 1958.He joined Ajahn Sumedho’s community for the Rains Retreat as an anagarika in 1978.

In 1978 he became a disciple of Ajahn Cha, one of Thailand’s most renowned Buddhist monks and meditation masters, at Wat Pa Pong in Northeast Thailand. He took full ordination, with Ajahn Chah as his preceptor, in 1980. After his initial five year monastic training, Ajahn Jayasaro went on extended solitary retreat before taking on teaching and administrative duties. Over the next several years he alternated between periods of retreat and service to his monastic lineage.During this period he was entrusted by the elders of his order with writing the official biography of his teacher, Ajahn Chah. In 1997 he assumed the position of abbot of Wat Pa Nanachat, the international monastery of Ajahn Chah’s lineage, where he remained until the end of 2002.

Since early 2003 Ajahn Jayasaro has been living alone in a hermitage at the foot of Khao Yai Mountain national park. The Dhamma teachings and meditation retreats he gives at regular intervals at a nearby retreat centre offer inspiration to both lay Buddhists and monastics. He is also a key figure in the movement to integrate Buddhist developmental principles in the Thai education system. Many of his Dhamma talks are broadcast on radio and television.