Behind such harsh words is the righteous anger that arose from his compassion for people and his desire for peace. Anger, of course, can lead to either good or bad. In last week's Back to the Basics , Sacramento Region Leader Geoff Rhode addressed the negative aspect of anger. The Lotus Sutra urges us to better our community and land through awakening compassion for others in our lives. Nichiren Daishonin s sense of justice originates from this compassion, the bedrock of Buddhism.
Compassion leads to anger at evil.
To put it another way, if we cannot get angry at evil, our compassion is weak. It is as if we do not care that people are being deceived. A philosopher once stated to the effect that once we have become humanistic, what we need to do is develop anger toward that which is evil. In recent guidance, SGI President Ikeda encourages us to get really angry at evil. The person who can do so is truly human.