All of us are susceptible to negative emotions such as anger, hatred, jealousy, and vengefulness. Those then that aren’t able to control these negative emotions, thus put themselves into the very vulnerable position of potentially committing bad acts that are going to be not only inimical to their own character, but often are going to be destructive and hurtful to other people, as well. In other words, uncontrolled negative emotions, are quite susceptible to creating a lot of harm, of which, oftentimes when minds calm down, there is typically a feeling of much regret that things ended up spinning so horribly out of control, but acts once committed, good or bad, cannot ever be taken back, which is why we must do our level best to learn to control our negative emotions.
This world seems to present to us a seemingly endless smorgasbord of things, activities, and desires that we want to see successfully fulfilled, and it is in that lack of fulfillment that a lot of negative emotions begin to germinate within us. For instance, the anger that we often express, has an awful lot to do with our desires not being met, and since the outcome that we are experiencing is not in accordance to our wishes, we thus then have a strong inclination to strike back at the other as our response to the frustration of having not gotten what we so desire. So too, the hatred that we express to the other, is often a fair reflection that we blame the other for our failures and bad circumstances, so we thus “hate” the other who we have attached the blame to for our inadequate and unsatisfactory life.
Again and again, what leads to negative emotions getting the best of us, is the frustration that we have for essentially not getting our way. While, indeed there are those times when we have unfairly been denied what is rightfully ours, which thus can lead to anger, we have to keep in mind that to permit a negative emotion to get the best of us, is typically not going to bring a result that we are going to find ultimately to be satisfactory. So then, for those that are alert and desiring to be of good character, we have to develop then the type of attributes which will permit us best to control our negative emotions. The very first thing that comes to mind to help to put ourselves at a reasonable equilibrium, is that we have to realize that the world does not actually revolve around our being, whatsoever, which means that because the world is not at our beck and call, that we cannot ourselves ever control it or even master it. So then, recognize that a better way to see the world, as well as our place within society, is that we are part of a picture show, of which, if we so desire to we can get intimately involved in all the gamut of emotions, good and bad that we feel within that show, or we have the option to rise above that picture show, and understand that while we are in it, we do not need to play by its rules, but rather we can step back so as to gain perspective, and from that perspective we will understand that the hate and anger that we are prone to develop is ultimately self-hate and self-anger, that can only be overcome by us recognizing that while we cannot control the picture show, we can control our emotions by concentrating our mind upon the fact that this too will soon pass, replaced through and through by eternal love.