What is the difference?<\/p>\n
In the first 18 years of my life, so the story goes, I never experienced anger. I had many times been frustrated, but never, ever, ever angry. Could this be true? How? <\/p>\n
The difference between anger and frustration, upon reflection, is simple. Anger arises with the solidification of the Self, the substantial being which has been somehow wronged. Anger speaks from that Self, the wronged Self, telling the world it has been wronged, hurt, abused etc. And it demands retribution, justice, apologies. <\/p>\n
Frustration is the reaction coming not from a solidified Self, but of a recognition of simply something wrong. There is no Self, thus no \u2018me\u2019 wronged, no \u2018you\u2019 who are to blame \u2013 there is simply something out of order that needs to be fixed. No demands can be made, only suggestions about what it might be that is wrong, and, more likely, questions about the world to find out just what exactly is the matter.<\/p>\n
Until I was 19 I really had no solidified Self. I explored the world with wonder, and when things went wrong, I explored them too. I can remember the incident that changed all that as if it were yesterday. The details are unimportant, but it left me with a feeling of indignation, of having been wronged \u2013 not that there was a wrong in the world, but that I had been wronged. <\/p>\n
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