Robert Fripp's Diary for Saturday, 24th December 2011

Robert Fripp's Diary

	Saturday, 24th December 2011

13.24

Bredonborough.

To Blower’s I…

II...

III...

IV...

… and onto local pals to collect a Christmas cake and deliver presents.

Morris Dancers are visiting town I…

II...

Final shopping and loading the car for tomorrow and Boxing Day.

Online and e-flurrying...
The Wychavon District is the sixth bestest place to live in the UK, according to a report by the Halifax. There are only four places outside the South and East that figure in the top 50, and Wychavon tops the four. Bredonborough is at the heart of Wychavon and the people here friendlier than anywhere I have lived in England.

14.13 From a pal, and Crafty of the early years…

You mentioned getting 'angry' in one of your diary entries recently at a GC course.

I'd like to know how one deals with anger when all else fails. When even the 50+ years of drawing attention to one's self doesn't work and one feels the Higher Angels slip away, and the reptilian part of the brain wakes up and gets one angry.

I find myself talking and practicing a good game, doing well, relaxed, but something can trigger things such that it all falls like a house of cards, leaving me pissed off like I never attended a single day of a course.

From the reply…

well! clearly a large subject; and better if we were in conversation.

firstly, behaviour. how to act when angry?
two, how to learn from anger?

the first falls under the heading of anger management, with various techniques available.

if we have an established practice, we might be able to step back from it, and watch the raging... if we have a distance from it, we can direct part of our attention into the hand, or wherever. this has the effect of redirecting our energy supply, volitionally, and leaves less energy to go into emotional reaction.  my own practice is to say and do nothing, or as little as possible, while anger has a grip on me. no reaction! is the principle. then, when free of raging, if something needs to be said, it comes out clean.

so, basically, it comes down to the degree to which our practice is established / effective, with default strategies in place for difficult moments.

secondly, the question that might be asked is: who is angry? what part of us is reacting to the particular stimulus? this is part of our educational process, learning about the animal we inhabit.

often, this rarely goes beyond ruffled egotism. in which case, anything that rubs away at the false-ego is of use to our practice.

anger spreads: a conventional way of releasing anger is to dump it on others. this is illegitimate. traditionally, at a very high level of practice, there are some characters who suck up the negativity of the world. this is their work and i bet they do overtime.

bearing the unpleasant manifestations of others: good words. certainly, while we are held by anger but not reacting, there is energy made available that might be used profitably. but primarily, this grinds away at egotism.

perhaps when we feel threatened, authentically and not suffering an imaginary or egotistical affront, anger becomes a real force in our lives; i hesitate to use the word, but at a spiritual level. EG was this for me. then it's over to prayer and loving our enemies, a supreme inner challenge. where the other party is simply an arse, and available to reconciliation, the process is only difficult. where the other party is a bona fide bad guy… who really is very happy to fuck us over for their own self-interest, most likely no internal reconciliation is available; and perhaps no external either. in which case it becomes part of our own inner life to address. as elizabeth once said to me: there is no justice in this world. in the bigger picture, there is justice. to quote a sufi sheikh: it is not injustice we need fear, but justice.  if the knowingly-offending party is in denial, externally or internally, well, it comes back to us. we're not responsible for someone else's behaviour, but we are responsible for our own. so, back to prayer and practicing love. here, we have the assumption of virtue to help, and direct our behaviour.

in a sentence: anger serves to help us refine our personal practice. easy words.

Typing this, I note also the category of righteous anger, but this is utterly impersonal; and so outside the response above.

21.43 A walk down the street, enjoying where we live I…