True presence isn’t passive. It’s fierce, clear, and rooted in love. Jesus didn’t lose his temper in the temple—he embodied alignment so pure it overturned everything that wasn’t real.
distinguished with amazing clarity between the ego’s reactive fury and the conscious, precise movement of Presence.
This is a living demonstration of what it means to act from the “Real I”. The image of Jesus flipping tables without losing center is a potent mirror for all who mistake spiritual maturity for passive acceptance.
A brilliant reflection of what it means to be both fully human and fully awake.
I'm still learning a lot about presence and this has helped me. When you write 'The monk can chop wood with force but without hatred of the log' I reflected that when chopping wood if I'm angry I'm more likely to injure myself than chop the wood effectively.
And once again you have caused me to order books ... which of course I love. Thanks for helping me secure my winter reading stash! I'm like a squirrel with the nuts, man, just bring me All The Books.
Interesting that my oracle card this morning reminded me to Nurture the New, that I have shed my old skin and my old life, and some of the discomfort I feel may be new, fresh, but raw and itchy skin emerging. Nurture and nourish what is new to embrace the brilliant and beautiful future.
Yes, the repression of anger, particularly in women, is inner toxicity. Love the “act cleanly” then let it go part. Tbh life without anger is life without passion, colour, aliveness, justice. It is vanilla spirituality, and a house of cards.
Exactly. Anger isn’t the opposite of love, it’s love refusing to accept harm. The work isn’t to erase it, but to refine it so it burns clean instead of scorching everything around it.
Confrontation of any kind has rendered me terrified, unconscious, scared shitless & helpless my whole life. I can count on one hand i witnessed it in my household growing up. We knew better than to express any kind of negative emotion, no matter the flavor.
I have lived my adult life the same way. Repressing everything “negative”, spiritual bypassing & the few times my back was up against the wall i would explode like a grenade, which hurt me as much as anyone else involved. Even minus the anger, any pressure from someone pushes my buttons & I just wanna hide under the table. This is a therapy session without the things i hate about therapy & i feel relief, hope & love for myself that has been hiding for awhile. Now I just gotta coax it out & practice. Clear, straight forward direct guidance but part of me still cringes at whether or not i have the muster to follow thru. I’ll find out eventually & remember practice make perfect.🫶🤞
This hits deep. You’re already doing what most people never do: seeing the pattern and meeting it instead of running. The explosions weren’t failure. They were years of silence finally breaking open.
It’s okay that it still feels shaky. Practice doesn’t make perfect. It just makes space. What’s surfacing isn’t something to fix. It’s something finally ready to breathe.
Whoa. I am trying to absorb what you wrote after what to me is the most incredible out-of-the-blue experience…first, grateful to accept the shaky & absorb the space. And finally ready to breathe just came into play in the most unique & magical way.
My tv wouldnt come on & after playing with it with no success called Comcast/xfinity. Pretty damn quickly i had a man on the phone to help (rare) & just as i started talking to him, the tv came on! I told him he was a miracle worker. He laffed & said his name was Joe. Went over a few things to make sure all was good & ended up talking to him for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. He asked if it sounded like he had an accent. I said very slightly but I’m not enuf of a world traveler to pinpoint it. He said he’s Egyptian & was speaking to me FROM EGYPT (color me ignorant that i didn’t know that was a common thing) & we spent the next 45 minutes talking about everything under the sun….obviously I don’t get out much (lol) but it boiled down to why can’t we all just get along? And what’s going on with the world & now I really wanna get well enuf to go see the Pyramids & the Grand Egyptian Museum that just opened so badly!!!!
With all of the hateful turmoil & crazy violence happening right here where I live, it was like a miracle gift from Spirit to have this positive, uplifting, honest, person to person conversation with a Muslim man halfway around the world that i don’t even know & talking about how we’re all people & all one world & our differences should be celebrated not avoided & frightened of.
It was truly a blessed gift out of nowhere - ya know, one of those you don’t see coming at all & then are suddenly slam-dunked with delight & filled with so much gratitude at how well Spirit & other people take care of me. To anyone reading this mini-novel, that includes you ☪️🫂💞. I hung up right when i got your response VMB 💓 so synchronicity. 🙏
It’s good to understand anger, because it’s so often misused — it can flare up into violence or even war. Nonviolent communities must mindfully strive to maintain peace. 🕊️ Brother V., in your monastery was there ever any anger expressed?
I had to learn this lesson of acting from essence and not reacting with ego the hard way. When I divulged to my family that I could no longer find favor with the family religion, it didn’t come out gracefully and boldly but rather a vomit of repressed hurt. I’m still having to work on this. Thank you for the continuing support. 🙏
This is one of my favorite passages embodying what mercy can look like. I've often thought about what kind of tables Jesus would flip if he walked into many modern-day institutions. Like slaughterhouses or prisons. Thank you for exploring in such a powerful way.
Wonderful. You trace the steps of a truly delicate dance. So often, my emotions are tricky to navigate. I usually have to ask myself, "Is this righteous indignation of ego running riot?"
And I hadn't considered 'seeing' the temple passage through this lens before -- It's helpful.
So many thoughts ignited through this post. First, Jesus was a conscious zealot, a fire which was lit from within and could not be extinguished. Love your pointing to this, and the discernment of conscious anger (unified with the Self, with unattached agency) versus reactive anger keeps us in the cycle, only strengthening a muscle that maintains self blame and division. I'm also reminded of how gender plays into any form of expression of anger, and how my gender is condemned for anger, conscious or otherwise. Also, I appreciate the point you make here about the 'felt difference,' between the short term gratification of revenge, shame and blame, versus agency stemming from a deeper place. The recognition of violation (of self, body, integrity, moral injury, etc etc) is an important one...our relationship to our anger and outrage is needed and one you give permission for here.
Beautifully said. Conscious anger is holy fire, not destruction but illumination. It exposes violation without becoming it. When women reclaim that fire without apology, the whole idea of “acceptable emotion” starts to burn away.
This is such an important insight into current “new age” thinking which often rewards those who “ stay above it all. Don’t watch the news because it’s negative” etc. Also, such a great modern way to illustrate the feeling most of us have felt posting on social media, sometimes you are waiting for their response to react to and sometimes you say your piece and move on with no attachment to anyone’s reaction. Thank you your words are always so powerful and I’m grateful you share them.
This is brilliant. Thank you for writing this piece. It moves me because I too used to spiritually bypass my anger. I couldn’t even believe that he would flip over tables until recently when he explained his motives behind his actions to me saying this was not anger but righteous indignation over what had been done to the sacred. So yes, essence moves, sometimes with force, yes, but never from ego.
I am grateful for this interpretation of Yehoshua’s temperament and internal processes. It’s beautifully written.
My project applies a very unusual/different hermeneutical approach to this episode of the gospel narratives: a multi-day Temple occupation. I have written about my hypothesis/theory below:
A powerful contemplation. You have
distinguished with amazing clarity between the ego’s reactive fury and the conscious, precise movement of Presence.
This is a living demonstration of what it means to act from the “Real I”. The image of Jesus flipping tables without losing center is a potent mirror for all who mistake spiritual maturity for passive acceptance.
A brilliant reflection of what it means to be both fully human and fully awake.
Thank you
🙏🙏
I’m grateful this landed with you, friend. Your phrasing — “the conscious, precise movement of Presence” — captures the essence perfectly.
A necessary read it is..
Thank you
🙏🙏
I'm still learning a lot about presence and this has helped me. When you write 'The monk can chop wood with force but without hatred of the log' I reflected that when chopping wood if I'm angry I'm more likely to injure myself than chop the wood effectively.
And once again you have caused me to order books ... which of course I love. Thanks for helping me secure my winter reading stash! I'm like a squirrel with the nuts, man, just bring me All The Books.
Interesting that my oracle card this morning reminded me to Nurture the New, that I have shed my old skin and my old life, and some of the discomfort I feel may be new, fresh, but raw and itchy skin emerging. Nurture and nourish what is new to embrace the brilliant and beautiful future.
Love your comment, I’ll like a squirrel with the nuts, man, just bring me All the Books 😆👍
It's so true! And yay, people laughing together is presence, too!
Come back after you’ve learned to read with your heart instead of your insecurity.
Yes, the repression of anger, particularly in women, is inner toxicity. Love the “act cleanly” then let it go part. Tbh life without anger is life without passion, colour, aliveness, justice. It is vanilla spirituality, and a house of cards.
Exactly. Anger isn’t the opposite of love, it’s love refusing to accept harm. The work isn’t to erase it, but to refine it so it burns clean instead of scorching everything around it.
Confrontation of any kind has rendered me terrified, unconscious, scared shitless & helpless my whole life. I can count on one hand i witnessed it in my household growing up. We knew better than to express any kind of negative emotion, no matter the flavor.
I have lived my adult life the same way. Repressing everything “negative”, spiritual bypassing & the few times my back was up against the wall i would explode like a grenade, which hurt me as much as anyone else involved. Even minus the anger, any pressure from someone pushes my buttons & I just wanna hide under the table. This is a therapy session without the things i hate about therapy & i feel relief, hope & love for myself that has been hiding for awhile. Now I just gotta coax it out & practice. Clear, straight forward direct guidance but part of me still cringes at whether or not i have the muster to follow thru. I’ll find out eventually & remember practice make perfect.🫶🤞
This hits deep. You’re already doing what most people never do: seeing the pattern and meeting it instead of running. The explosions weren’t failure. They were years of silence finally breaking open.
It’s okay that it still feels shaky. Practice doesn’t make perfect. It just makes space. What’s surfacing isn’t something to fix. It’s something finally ready to breathe.
Whoa. I am trying to absorb what you wrote after what to me is the most incredible out-of-the-blue experience…first, grateful to accept the shaky & absorb the space. And finally ready to breathe just came into play in the most unique & magical way.
My tv wouldnt come on & after playing with it with no success called Comcast/xfinity. Pretty damn quickly i had a man on the phone to help (rare) & just as i started talking to him, the tv came on! I told him he was a miracle worker. He laffed & said his name was Joe. Went over a few things to make sure all was good & ended up talking to him for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. He asked if it sounded like he had an accent. I said very slightly but I’m not enuf of a world traveler to pinpoint it. He said he’s Egyptian & was speaking to me FROM EGYPT (color me ignorant that i didn’t know that was a common thing) & we spent the next 45 minutes talking about everything under the sun….obviously I don’t get out much (lol) but it boiled down to why can’t we all just get along? And what’s going on with the world & now I really wanna get well enuf to go see the Pyramids & the Grand Egyptian Museum that just opened so badly!!!!
With all of the hateful turmoil & crazy violence happening right here where I live, it was like a miracle gift from Spirit to have this positive, uplifting, honest, person to person conversation with a Muslim man halfway around the world that i don’t even know & talking about how we’re all people & all one world & our differences should be celebrated not avoided & frightened of.
It was truly a blessed gift out of nowhere - ya know, one of those you don’t see coming at all & then are suddenly slam-dunked with delight & filled with so much gratitude at how well Spirit & other people take care of me. To anyone reading this mini-novel, that includes you ☪️🫂💞. I hung up right when i got your response VMB 💓 so synchronicity. 🙏
It’s good to understand anger, because it’s so often misused — it can flare up into violence or even war. Nonviolent communities must mindfully strive to maintain peace. 🕊️ Brother V., in your monastery was there ever any anger expressed?
Even in the monastery, anger visited. The trick was not to exile it but to sit it down, pour it tea, and ask what wound it was guarding.
Great post on a very tricky topic, one that often lands me in a state of confusion.
I had to learn this lesson of acting from essence and not reacting with ego the hard way. When I divulged to my family that I could no longer find favor with the family religion, it didn’t come out gracefully and boldly but rather a vomit of repressed hurt. I’m still having to work on this. Thank you for the continuing support. 🙏
I can relate to that vomit of repressed hurt. That’s the only way I’ve handled it the few times I’ve had the courage to even try to flip tables
This is one of my favorite passages embodying what mercy can look like. I've often thought about what kind of tables Jesus would flip if he walked into many modern-day institutions. Like slaughterhouses or prisons. Thank you for exploring in such a powerful way.
Wonderful. You trace the steps of a truly delicate dance. So often, my emotions are tricky to navigate. I usually have to ask myself, "Is this righteous indignation of ego running riot?"
And I hadn't considered 'seeing' the temple passage through this lens before -- It's helpful.
Thanks VMB, we have so much to live for, to experience, to feel, to learn, to know. Presence allows us to.
So many thoughts ignited through this post. First, Jesus was a conscious zealot, a fire which was lit from within and could not be extinguished. Love your pointing to this, and the discernment of conscious anger (unified with the Self, with unattached agency) versus reactive anger keeps us in the cycle, only strengthening a muscle that maintains self blame and division. I'm also reminded of how gender plays into any form of expression of anger, and how my gender is condemned for anger, conscious or otherwise. Also, I appreciate the point you make here about the 'felt difference,' between the short term gratification of revenge, shame and blame, versus agency stemming from a deeper place. The recognition of violation (of self, body, integrity, moral injury, etc etc) is an important one...our relationship to our anger and outrage is needed and one you give permission for here.
Beautifully said. Conscious anger is holy fire, not destruction but illumination. It exposes violation without becoming it. When women reclaim that fire without apology, the whole idea of “acceptable emotion” starts to burn away.
This is such an important insight into current “new age” thinking which often rewards those who “ stay above it all. Don’t watch the news because it’s negative” etc. Also, such a great modern way to illustrate the feeling most of us have felt posting on social media, sometimes you are waiting for their response to react to and sometimes you say your piece and move on with no attachment to anyone’s reaction. Thank you your words are always so powerful and I’m grateful you share them.
This is brilliant. Thank you for writing this piece. It moves me because I too used to spiritually bypass my anger. I couldn’t even believe that he would flip over tables until recently when he explained his motives behind his actions to me saying this was not anger but righteous indignation over what had been done to the sacred. So yes, essence moves, sometimes with force, yes, but never from ego.
I am grateful for this interpretation of Yehoshua’s temperament and internal processes. It’s beautifully written.
My project applies a very unusual/different hermeneutical approach to this episode of the gospel narratives: a multi-day Temple occupation. I have written about my hypothesis/theory below:
https://ebyonim.substack.com/p/the-temple-occupation