# Turn your rage into justice > Spiritual teachers show how to channel anger at the world into compassion and action. - Title: Turn your rage into justice · Vox | Shortify - Summary: Spiritual teachers show how to channel anger at the world into compassion and action. Buddhist, Jewish and Islamic teachers argue anger at injustice should… - Keywords: anger, spirituality, buddhism, judaism, islam, justice, compassion, lama rod owens, nate degroot, najeeba syeed, news, culture - Source: Vox — https://vox.com/advice/506689/righteous-anger-spirituality - Author: Casper ter Kuile - Published: 2026-10-21T11:30:00+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: anger, spirituality, buddhism, judaism, islam, justice, compassion, lama rod owens, nate degroot, najeeba syeed, news, culture ## Why anger at injustice makes sense War, rising costs, wealth inequality and corruption give plenty of reasons to be angry. As the saying goes, if you're not mad, you're not paying attention. > if you're not mad, you're not paying attention ## Spiritual bypassing doesn't work Trying to force calm and kindness when you're angry misses what anger offers: deeper insight into pain and genuine compassion that enables wise action for justice. ## First, notice your anger Lama Rod Owens, a Buddhist teacher in Atlanta and author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger, says many people don't know what anger feels like. They just react to it. > A lot of us actually don't know what anger feels like. We're just reacting to it. ## Anger is physical tension Owens defines anger as the mental and physical tension out of which aggression arises. Notice your head getting hot, your stomach tight, your throat filling with a scream you contain. ## Women and femme folks get gaslit Many people, particularly women and femme folks, get gaslit around their anger. It can be radical simply to admit that anger is arising in you. > a lot of people get gaslit around their anger, particularly women and femme folks ## Say you feel angry, not you are angry Owens encourages saying you feel angry rather than you are angry. Thinking about anger as an experience rather than something you are opens up space to work with it. ## The path goes through anger, not past it Owens learned through Buddhist practice that anger is a secondary emotion. Underneath it lies primary pain, sadness and heartbreak. The path of liberation goes through anger, not to get over it. > I was actually deeply, deeply hurt ## Anger is energy you can shape In Buddhism, anger is simply energy. Like any energy, you can experience it rather than react to it. The essence of anger is empty and can be shaped by consciousness. > it's just energy that can be shaped or misunderstood by consciousness ## God's anger lasts only a moment Rabbi Nate DeGroot of the Shalom Center in Detroit explains that in Jewish tradition, God gets angry but only briefly. ## Anger sits within deeper love DeGroot relates to both God's anger and the love that supersedes it. His temporary frustration with his children sits within a wider circle of parental care and everlasting love. > this notion of the moment of anger [being] situated within a broader, more expansive, everlasting love ## Anger can isolate you from allies Najeeba Syeed, executive director of Interfaith at Augsburg in Minneapolis, explains that anger can separate us from the people we need to build coalitions with. It makes us incapable of seeing the experience of others. > It makes us incapable of seeing the experience of others ## Justice requires community, not isolation Inequality and corruption will not change if we remain atomized and mad. We have to work together. We need a larger identity than political affiliation alone, some sense of community that transcends it. > If we don't have a larger identity than our political affiliation, by that I mean the neighbourliness, some sense of community that transcends that identitarian political affiliation alone, then we may actually destroy ourselves in the process. ## Islamic judges cannot rule while angry In Muslim tradition, a judge is forbidden from making a ruling when angry because justice cannot come from rage. ## Act from compassion, not rage Anger is an alarm bell telling us something is wrong. Notice it, inspect the heartbreak underneath, allow compassion to emerge. Then guided by that love and strategy, decide how to act. ## You must tie your own camel Syeed shares an Islamic saying: one must tie their own camel.Humans have to intervene in the world.Have hard conversations, vote, call elected officials, organize your neighbors and workplace, but do it from deeper compassion. > One must tie their own camel ## Key takeaway Buddhist, Jewish and Islamic teachers argue anger at injustice should fuel insight into pain, then compassion, then collective action for change.