Rod Owens, Love and rage: the path of liberation through anger. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781623174095
After the introduction, the book features 15 chapters. Some of the chapter topics include:
- Woundedness and Rage.
- Happiness.
- Kindness.
- Self-Care.
I will say upfront that I am not a Buddhist, but I picked up the book for a few reasons. One, the author spoke at a campus convocation, so I was curious. Two, I may be a happy heathen, but I am always interested in learning about other beliefs and traditions. Three, in these Hard Times where all sorts of people and events drive us to anger and/or work to keep us angry, we may need some help getting some more constructive ways. I am all about working on my liberation, and if I can work with my anger in a better way, that would be good.
The author shows us how to start by accepting our anger, embracing it, holding space for it. Rather than trying to hide it, suppress it, or ignore it, he suggests we need to relate to our anger and work through in with it in your path to liberation. Along the way with the lessons, the author describes his own work with anger and his personal story and experiences. If a fat, Black, queer man can do this work, a person who certainly has plenty of reasons to be angry in the United States, and teach us as well, there is hope for the rest of us if we choose to do the work and choose to do it mindfully.
The author also includes various exercises and practices to help us learn and work on ourselves. These exercises are one of the book's strengths. Additionally, the text is accessible and easy to read. The author maintains a warm and sincere tone. There is not much formality in the book, which is a good thing.
I really like this book as it gave me much to think about, and it gave me steps I can realistically do.
I do recommend it for public and academic libraries. In these Hard Times, I would say this is essential and helpful reading. I will be looking too for his other works such as Radical Dharma.
5 out of 5 stars.
Additional reading notes:
Anger and rage are not the reason:
"Our anger and rage are not the reason why we and the world around are struggling. We and the world struggle because we have misused our anger by reacting to it instead of partnering with the energy of anger to address the roots of why we hurt" (24).
Defining passive aggression:
"Passive aggression is a disembodied expression of anger that occurs when we have decided that an outward reactivity to anger is in some way not beneficial. We call it passive because most often the energy of the anger itself has been channeled into other ways of expression that are not easily identifiable as anger reactivity" (30).
Defining spiritual path in context of anger and rage:
"A spiritual path is where we are working to transform what is difficult or burdensome into wisdom or clarity, which invites us into the experience of freedom" (60).
One thing teachers should do:
"I believe that one of the primary roles of a teacher or guide is to reflect our basic wisdom and joy back to use so we can see for ourselves that these beautiful qualities are a part of us. Seeing them for ourselves helps us to believe in them maybe for the first time in our lives" (71).
Defining emotional labor:
"Emotional labor is both the seen and the unseen work of caring for, care-taking, and taking care of our emotional states or other people's emotional states" (129).
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