Download - Mandhata Global

THE DANGER OF ANGER
There was once a young boy with a terrible temper. He
used to speak harshly and get angry many times a day, at
the slightest provocation. His wise father told him that
every time he got angry he had to hammer a nail into the
wood fence in the backyard. The first day the boy hammered
45 nails into the fence – practically his entire day
was spent in the back yard. The next day, with his arm
sore from hammering, he tried to get angry less. He hammered
only 25 nails into the fence the second day. By the
end of a few weeks, the boy proudly went to his dad and
told him that he had not gotten angry at all that day.
So, the boy’s father told him that now he could start removing
the nails from the fence. There were 2 ways that
nails could be removed: either if the boy could go an entire
day without getting mad, or if the boy apologized sincerely
to someone whom he had hurt through his anger.
So, the boy began to apologize to people whom he had
wounded and he tried hard not to get angry. Slowly, slowly,
the nails began to get pulled out of the fence. One day,
the boy proudly went to his dad and told him that all the
nails were out of the fence. He told his dad that his anger
was “a thing of the past.”
His dad then led the boy by the hand to the fence and
showed him how the fence was now riddled with holes. It
was no longer the sturdy, strong fence it once had been.
It was now weakened and damaged. Every time the wind
blew strongly the fence swayed in the wind, for it was so
full of holes that the breeze caused the fence to move.
“Do you see that?” The father asked the boy. “For you,
anger is a thing of the past. Yet, this fence will never recover.
Every time you get angry at someone it is like driving
a nail into them. You may later remove the nail, but the
hole is still there. The effect of your anger can not be
removed.”
In life sometimes it is easy to get angry, easy to yell, easy
to hit those we love. We assuage our own consciences by
saying, “He made me mad,” or, “She made me hit her.”
But, whose hand is it really that hits? Whose mouth is it
really that speaks harsh words?
We think, “It’s no big deal. I said sorry.” Or we say, “Oh,
but that was yesterday. Today I’ve been nice.” For us, it
may be that easy. But remember the fence is still sitting
there with a hole in it, even though you have moved on. If
you hammer enough nails into someone, eventually they
will be forever weakened, forever damaged. You can stab
someone with a knife and then pull out the knife but the
blood will continue to pour. “Sorry” does not stop the blood
of wounds. It may pave the way to recovery, but the wound
is still there.
The goal in life should be to be like water – a stone falls in
and only causes a ripple for a moment. The “hole” in the
DROPS DROPS OF OF NECT NECTAR NECT AR 176 DROPS DROPS OF OF NECT NECTAR NECT AR 177