Why Ethics, Anger, and Ego are all important to understand and balance
I was thinking about the reason ethics are part of modern society is because rules don’t address what people or any animal wants to do. There’s a saying I think Ben Franklin said that “anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.” It’s a good quote, but there’s no way to get around the point that rules don’t prevent people or animals from getting angry. So, ethics are important because it’s a way to self-regulate so that you don’t break things every time something gets frustrating.
But there are other times where it’s not dangerous to be more aggressive and risky. To me that’s what sports is good for in the modern day. But I also think art and other forms of performance or forms of making progress are ways where anger can get channeled into a productive result.
For me I’ve been more confident lately and I found out how to be this way after spending 2 years putting holes in walls and breaking pianos (really it just 1 piano). What led to it was 20 years of anger built up and I lost touch with myself. So, I would say the way I’ve been able to sustain confidence is NOT because I’m happier — it’s actually more because I’ve figured out how to channel anger in better ways. My work is better because I always have a little bit of anger/venom flowing in my energy — but I keep it in check, for the most part, so it’s not truly damaging.
In western society we like to think egos are bad, but in the eastern world and especially in Zen the ego is thought of more of something to keep in balance and in check. And that’s what sports is for me. I regulate my ego most of the time, but playing basketball is the one time I let my ego be as big as it wants to be because sometimes you just have to indulge in who you want to be in your soul.
Since doing that I feel like what people are naturally inclined to do is when it should be ok for people to fully engage with their ego because being in that “Avatar State” is when people find that higher sense of self everyone wants to strive for. I don’t think that is achieved without the ego being involved, but it does come with the possibility of destruction and chaos — which is why in modern society when we’re not hunting mammoths the ego is not necessary for survival. But humans still aren’t that far removed from the time mammoths walked the Earth and many of us still need to feel “the thrill of a successful hunt” in our minds, body and spirit. That’s what success fuels.
Again, this is all based on my experience through dealing with mental health and being in a lot of therapy sessions. I want to go back to school to study psychology but I don’t have formal education. From my perspective, it’s good to take note of when you feel most engaged with something and what that usually is.
