Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 3-5)

Don't let your actions be governed by anger nor nurse your anger against a future opportunity of indulging it. (From para. 3 of Ch. 4 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

I've experienced the raw, destructive power of anger -- my own, and that of others.  The strange image of "nursing anger" reveals for me the seductive qualities of the ego, trying to make me believe that a volatile, self-centered emotion could somehow be nurturing to me. Meditation helps me to recognize, and accept, an ego in need of transformation, and to grow in self-knowledge. Meditation also helps me to recognize who truly and tenderly dwells in my heart.