Because injustice is not extraordinary, it doesn’t give you extraordinary rights to go and bomb Baghdad. You have to think: “Given that other people’s actions have kammic consequences, mine will have kammic consequences as well.”

"We often think that equanimity is simply accepting things and having no reaction at all, but that’s not what equanimity means. It means looking at things from a larger perspective and getting a sense of your priorities — i.e., what’s important, what’s not important — and developing equanimity for the unimportant things, where you can’t make a difference, so that you can focus on areas where you can. It also involves reminding yourself that when you do respond to a situation, it’s going to have consequences in the long term, so you want your response to be focused and wise.

In order to remind yourself of that fact, the Buddha has you look at the human situation from a larger perspective. One of his passages for dealing with anger against someone is to think, “This person has done something bad to me in the past. But what should I expect?” “This person has done something bad to people I love. What should I expect?” “This person has done something good to people I hate. What should I expect?” And so on. Then from the past tense he brings it into the present tense for all three actions: either bad things to me, bad things to people I like, or good things to people I hate. What should I expect? This is the human condition. Are you going to ask the entire human race to do good things to you, good things to the people you like, or bad things to your enemy? That’s not the human condition; you’re in the wrong place. The world doesn’t act that way.

The final reflection in this list, he says, is resolving not to get worked up over impossibilities. You cannot expect everyone in the world to act in a pleasing or in a good way. Again, this is not saying that you should let the world be as it is, but it serves to remind you that injustice is not an extraordinary thing in this world. And because it’s not extraordinary, it doesn’t give you extraordinary rights to do and say as you like without thinking about the consequences.

This is an important point to reflect on, because often when you’re angry over a little injustice, it’s the biggest thing, it’s the worst thing, the most outrageous thing that anyone has ever done.

I used to think that it was very strange to think about these things as a universal part of the human condition. I thought, “My gosh, that makes it even worse. Everybody’s dying; everybody’s suffering injustice.” But when you back up a little bit, you realize that it’s not just you. People ask, when there’s injustice done to them, “Why me?” And the answer is, “Because everybody suffers this.” It’s amazing, but that does help lighten the load a little bit. You’re not being singled out for abuse by the universe. It also reminds you, as I said, that because injustice is not extraordinary, it doesn’t give you extraordinary rights to go and bomb Baghdad. You have to think: “Given that other people’s actions have kammic consequences, mine will have kammic consequences as well.” When you step back in that way, it begins to put the situation into a better perspective. Then the question becomes, “Okay, what’s the best thing to do right now? Am I in a mental state where I can perceive that?” If not, you’ve got to look at your anger."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Antidotes to Anger"