The Honest Bodhisattva

Susan Reviere
April 27, 2025

Have any of you felt any anger lately? Or frustration? Or even rage? I’m guessing the answer may be “yes!” Does that make you a “bad bodhisattva?” Or does it make you an honest one?  I am voting for the latter of those two options.

Anger is a powerful and very human emotion. Contrary to opinions in some quarters, it is not inconsistent with the Dharma, and we’re not asked to suppress anger or deny its presence. Instead, we’re invited to meet it with an open heart of mindful curiosity and compassion. We are embodied beings, and these bodies respond biologically and psychologically to threats to our sense of safety and well-being. Emotions and sensations flow through these bodies on a daily basis, a manifestation of our life energy.  But the words “flow through” are key. We don’t want to get stuck in identification or constriction, or reactivity. Instead, we can note the sensations, allow them to reveal their wisdom, and then let them flow through.

In Buddhist practice, anger is recognized as one of the three poisons — along with greed and delusion — that can interfere with clear seeing and lead to suffering. But this doesn’t mean anger itself is unacceptable or bad. It means that when we’re caught in it, we often act from reactivity rather than wisdom. We may get lost in reactive energy or constrict around stores of blame.

Yet within anger, there is signal value that can, with wisdom, guide our attention and energy to address a problem at hand.  It can be a reflection of something we care deeply about. Mindfulness offers us the space to pause and investigate. When anger arises, we can ask: What’s happening in my body? What emotions or unmet needs are beneath the surface? Often, we find that anger is a protective response — shielding fear, sadness, grief, or a sense disempowerment.

By staying with the experience — not acting it out and not pushing it away — we begin to see anger’s impermanence. We can meet it with compassion, like we would a hurting child. This doesn’t mean becoming passive. On the contrary, it allows us to respond wisely. We might speak up with clarity, set boundaries, or work for change — but from a place of care rather than sustained fury.

In our Dharma practice, we learn to trust that awareness itself is transformative. And we can hold anger in this way, seeing it as a doorway — not just to personal healing, but to understanding and interconnection, to agency and clarity. In stillness and quiet, we can hear the wisdom voice of intentional action vs reactivity.  We can hold the whole spectrum of embodied human experience.

Master Dogen described awakening as “intimacy with ALL things.” With acceptance of and intimacy with all aspects of our experience, we can meet the world, and ourselves, with much needed compassion.

With Kindness,

Susan