SN 11.4 Calm in the Face of Anger

Reading the Samyutta Nikaya, the Sagathavagga, the book of the verses, in the Sakkasamyutta, in chapter (part? Section?) 4 is on Calm in the Face of Anger. This part resonated with me:

This is the only thing, I deem,
That will put a stop to the fool:
Knowing well the other's anger, 
One is mindful and remains calm.

and then later

He behaves for the good of both:
Himself and the other person.
Knowing well the other's anger,
He is mindful and remains calm.

I can't help but think, "He behaves for the good of both," is a kind of bodhisattva ideal kind of statement. He behaves for the good of all.

This kind of assertive counterbalance to what is going on is important, steady, steadfast.

I've been thinking that as much as Trump will be the worst president in history, we need to remember the racism, the mendacity, the selfishness, the lack of vision being brought up short by events, how the tide turned. His selfishness can only pretend to deny Covid19, he has some loans coming due, and with nobody traveling to stay in his hotels, he's in financial trouble. He's not a rich man, he doesn't have deep pockets, most of his property is mortgaged. The banks of China and Russia own him. People imagine him a big tycoon. Failure is a big part of business, but he has had so many bankruptcies, and he's not allowed to operate a charity in New York because he stole from the needy. His business vision is to try and get away with as much as he can, and with a weak government, there are not enough people to remember all the wrongs he commits and therefore he gets away with things. He forgets cities and states have governments that he can't wreck, that hold him accountable.

We need to remember this side of possibility. To feed the worse wolves, they grow.

In this moment when perhaps the largest amount of people ever is not working, we have the attention span to really address racism in this country, and we see the push back to that. They are not experiencing the racism, they want to forget the history and the tendrils that reach into today.

We can see now that keeping everyone frightened about health care, and housing, grinding at work, keeps our empathy in check. We plop on the couch exhausted, and watch mindless TV to transition into sleep. Alcohol would help too, to come down from being revved up with coffee and endless quantifiable expectations.

The protestant work ethic feeds into the machine that spits out billionaires, and we can imagine we could be there too. I'm just temporarily poor, I'm a mogul in disguise. You just can't see it. That is the American Dream/Illusion that has us with the worst worker rights. Everyone wants to come here and be in the middle class that no longer exists. The big carrot is really quite a stick. In this frightening system, we can only think of our tribes, we can't imagine the abundance, that we can care for all. That we are connected to everyone, everywhere. In Trump Tower with it's golden toilets, the air is getting worse because of loosening environmental protections, but you can fly out to the country if the air gets bad.

Through this time I hope to keep calm, ignore the thrashing babies tantrums, and fight for justice, equity and fairness. It's hard not to see the unfairness in these times of videos and the internet unless your indifference or horrified anxiety turns you away, and you haven't been able to develop equanimity with your concentration.