Anger is considered a poison when it’s self-motivated and self-centered. But take that attachment to the self out of anger and the same emotion becomes the fierce energy of determination, which is a very positive force … Drop the self-orientation from ignorance, and it becomes a state of unknowing that allows new things to rise. —Roshi Bernie Glassman and Rick Fields, “Instructions to the Cook”

Anger is considered a poison when it’s self-motivated and self-centered. But take that attachment to the self out of anger and the same emotion becomes the fierce energy of determination, which is a very positive force … Drop the self-orientation from ignorance, and it becomes a state of unknowing that allows new things to rise.

—Roshi Bernie Glassman and Rick Fields, “Instructions to the Cook”