Words have the power to heal—or to harm. The Buddha taught that harsh speech not only hurts others, but also disturbs our own peace of mind.
Hatred, indeed, has never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. Hatred just leads to revenge, and revenge leads to more hate. A cycle of suffering is set in motion that can go on and on. Many places in the world today give sad evidence of this truth.
Hatred is an extreme form of anger. The Buddha’s teachings take anger very seriously, because anger causes so much suffering.
Even when anger is not acted out and is apparently controlled, a person who is inwardly angry can instantly change the atmosphere of a room when he enters. He brings an invisible chill with him. Anyone nearby tightens up and draws back, becomes less spontaneous and more guarded. This happens without any conscious doing. It seems simply a response on the cellular level to the quality of energy that anger gives out.
When anger is not contained but erupts into violence, the damage is all too obvious.
Hurting Oneself
What is often overlooked about the disastrous effects of anger, however, is the harm it does to oneself. The first person hurt is always the one who is angry. An angry mind is a suffering mind. An angry mind is agitated and tight. It is constricted and narrow. The quality of consciousness changes. Judgment and perspective vanish. All good sense disappears. One feels restless and driven. Nothing is satisfying. Sleep is difficult. The body is tense.
The sense of self is very large, and so is the sense of the other. One reason anger is so very painful is that it instantly creates such sharp separation between self and other. A line is drawn between the two that cannot be passed.
Source: buddhistinquiry
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