According to Osho, when inner anger is left dormant, it becomes a poison in the system. A small external trigger releases it sideways: you displace it onto weaker targets, starting a chain of reactions that spreads through relationships, creates ripples, and can even turn into psychosomatic illness or bodily crippling. The remedy is immediate, nonviolent catharsis—express it in a vacuum (meditation, pillow-beating) rather than suppressing or attacking others.
If you bottle anger, it builds like poison and, when poked, it spills onto others and hurts you too—so let it out safely, not on people.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, though we can be aware of anger and refrain from hurting others with it, inner anger seems to remain in a dormant state, and at times it becomes aroused by outer happenings. It doesn't seem possible to entirely throw it as it is deep-rooted in early, wrong training, and a lifetime of struggle in the world. Isn't the total disappearance of anger simultaneous with enlightenment? Does an enlightened one ever have any anger?
The first thing: if you feel angry and if you think that it is needed for it to be suppressed, suppress it for the time being -- because it is useless just to be angry with someone and then create a chain. Then he will be angry and then more anger will be created, and this can continue even for lives. Everything has a continuity of cause and effect; it becomes a chain. So if you feel anger and you see it is going to be destructive to you and to the other person, smile, have a false face. And move to your room, close the doors, take your pillow and beat it. Write the name of the person on the pillow and do whatsoever you wanted to do with the person. Don't suppress it in the system because that is too dangerous. Anger is poison, and when the body…
This too is anger. This too is anger. It is an inner suppression that goes on within. The earlier damage was that it became a habit; the harm here is that you will gradually start simmering in anger. Its surges will not be released; they will churn inside.
Such a person is very dangerous. One day he will explode in a rage so perilous that the first type can never manage. That is why sometimes very simple, mild-looking people commit murder. Generally, very hot-tempered people do not kill, because their anger is released day by day. But the one who goes on suppressing anger—many times people say, “He was so simple; how did he do this?” He suppressed it for a long time. The surge accumulated. Then something provoked him, he became enraged, and the whole force burst out together. And then he can do something very dangerous. This surge can erupt someday. Such a person can go mad. If it is suppressed so much that it has no outlet, the mind will be deranged. Any craving, any impulse—if indulged, it becomes a habit; if suppressed, it can make you neurotic. So the second path is no path.…
Question: A ZEN STUDENT CAME TO BANKEI AND SAID: 'MASTER, I HAVE AN UNGOVERNABLE TEMPER -- HOW CAN I CURE IT?' 'SHOW ME THIS TEMPER,' SAID BANKEI, 'IT SOUNDS FASCINATING.' 'I HAVEN'T GOT IT RIGHT NOW,' SAID THE STUDENT, 'SO I CAN'T SHOW IT TO YOU.' 'WELL THEN,' SAID BANKEI, 'BRING IT TO ME WHEN YOU HAVE IT.' 'BUT I CAN'T BRING IT JUST WHEN I HAPPEN TO HAVE IT,' PROTESTED THE STUDENT. 'IT ARISES UNEXPECTEDLY, AND I WOULD SURELY LOSE IT BEFORE I GOT IT TO YOU.' 'IN THAT CASE,' SAID BANKEI, 'IT CANNOT BE PART OF YOUR TRUE NATURE. IF IT WERE, YOU COULD SHOW IT TO ME AT ANY TIME. WHEN YOU WERE BORN YOU DID NOT HAVE IT, AND YOUR PARENTS DID NOT GIVE IT TO YOU -- SO IT MUST COME INTO YOU FROM THE OUTSIDE.
What need to learn?' But paper boats do not cross; they sink midway. And this conduct trained on the surface will throw you into great inner conflict. A conflict will go on within. Whatever you want to do, you will not do; whatever you do, you will not want to do. You will smile on the surface and burn with anger within. Your life will become hell, stretched in two directions. What is unrest? The seeds of hypocrisy bring unrest. What is torment? You are pulled between two so that you can be neither here nor there. On the surface you feel anger is bad and should not be done; inside anger boils. Then you put on a mask, hide your face, cover your mouth with false faces. But whom are you deceiving? Even if you succeed in deceiving the other, before your own inner soul you will remain naked.
"please explain how it is possible that one can be spiritually transformed by being total in actions that are of anger, hatred and violence."
In any situation, the volcano may erupt. It is erupting every day. Someone kills someone, and just a day before he was as normal as you. No one ever suspected that he was going to be a murderer. No one suspects about you, and you have so many thoughts in your mind to murder. You have thought, you have planned it many times. The idea to murder someone else or yourself has come to you. It has happened to you if you are not absolutely idiotic. Psychologists say that an intelligent man is bound to think of suicide at least ten times in his life -- at least ten times! -- and ten thousand times you think to murder someone. You never do it, that is another thing. But you can do it; the possibility is always there. Make your anger a total act in meditation, and then see what…