Compassionate view rather than anger - an old Post out of order

I was thinking about my anger towards a certain in-law couple that will be visiting soon. As I read Unmasking Anger by Alan Reder, I liked the idea of viewing them with compassion rather than righteous anger over a particular situation with another family member. In this article, he is quoting

Ven. Thubten Chodron, an American-born Buddhist nun and author of Working with Anger (Snow Lion, 2001), (who) finds ... insights into anger from traditional Tibetan Buddhist sources.

. . .

Chodron also thinks that compassion is a far better approach to social action than anger. A compassionate mind looks at a situation more broadly, seeking a solution that's acceptable to everybody.

. . .

To illustrate ..., Chodron points to the explosive tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians, a tragedy she finds especially painful because she was born Jewish. The anger each side feels stems largely, she says, from being so obsessed with the insults and injuries to their own people that they forget human concerns on the other side. "To correct injustice and harm, you have to take into consideration the feelings and needs of everyone in the situation," she says.

Chodron's unspoken implication: What holds for Middle Eastern political tensions also holds for individuals everywhere. The havoc anger wreaks can make taming this terrible force look almost impossible. Yet the task is paradoxically simple if we remember our cues: Take the compassionate view of things. Wait out the biochemical surge. Ride the wave.