Anger

Anger

There is an old story about a king who lived in ancient China.  His subjects knew of his anger and feared him.  For some time, though, he had been ill.  He had bad headaches, pain in his liver and he slept badly.

He called for all the healers in the land to come to him to heal him.  One by one, they arrived before the king, but afraid of his anger, they upset him and could not help him.  There was one, a Zen monk named Qi, who was regarded as the greatest healer in the land, refused to come before the king. The king sent his guards to bring him by force, since he had not come voluntarily.  

Once Qi stood before him, the king asked, “Why did you not come to see me when I called for all the healers in China?”  The monk said bluntly, “I did not think you were worth it.”  Everyone present was in shock, for no one dared talk to the king in that manner. In fact, everyone else went out of their way to avoid his rages.  

After hearing the monk’s response, the king exploded in a rage such as he never had felt.  His tantrum lasted for several minutes.  “How dare you speak to your king in this way?” he demanded.  The monk replied, “I am not bothered by your anger.” Once again, the king exploded with rage and demanded the monk be executed the following day.  

That night the king slept better than he had for years. Rested, he awoke to no headache and very little pain in his liver.  He wondered what the magician of a healer had done to him.  He went to the dungeon, where the monk had spent the night, and asked him what spell he had placed upon him to make him better.  Qi replied, “I am not bothered by your anger.”

The Zen monk understood that the so much of the kings illness was trapped in his suppression of anger. When the healer provoked the king to feel his anger and to move it, the king’s liver began to heal, his headaches disappeared and he began to sleep well.  

Chinese medicine has understood for centuries that our emotional energies that become trapped in our body and are not released, begin to cause to disturbances to our health. When anger is supressed it causes problems in our liver. The other emotions are as follows:

Unresolved grief can cause problems in the lungs

Unresolved fear can cause problems in the kidneys

Excessive anxiety can cause problems in the heart

Excessive worry can cause problems in the spleen

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