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all directions. Because of this possibility, man became an escapist. Whenever there is a danger, rather than fighting, encountering the danger, he escapes. In the same situation where the animal will have to encounter the enemy, man tries to escape. All directions are available. The enemy is coming from the north -- a lion is standing there -- now, all directions are available for man; he can run away, he can escape.
Man is the only escapist animal. Nothing is wrong in it as far as fighting with animals is concerned -- and man has been in the wild for long. Still he goes on escaping from lions and tigers; must have had great experience in the past. But that escapism has become a deep rooted mechanism in man. The same he goes on doing with psychological things.
If there is fear, then rather than encountering it he goes in another direction -- prays to God, asks for help. Feeling poverty, inside poverty, rather than encountering it he goes on accumulating wealth, so that he can forget that he is poor inside. Seeing that he does not know himself, rather than encountering this ignorance he goes on collecting knowledge, becomes knowledgeable, like a parrot, and goes on repeating borrowed things.
These are all escapes. If you really want to encounter yourself, you will have to learn how not to escape. Anger is there; don't escape from it. Whenever you feel angry, you start doing something to become occupied. Of course, if your energy moves in another direction, anger is repressed. It cannot get any energy from you; it falls back into the unconscious. But it will take revenge; sooner or later it will find an opportunity again and will come up out of all proportion to the situation.
If sex arises in you, you start doing something else, you start chanting a mantra. But these are all escapes. And remember: religion is not an escape. The religions that you know are all escapes; but the religion I am talking about is not an escape -- it is an encounter. Life has to be encountered. Whatsoever comes before you, you have to look into it deeply, because that same depth is going to become your self-knowledge.
Behind anger are the footprints of
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