He does, but he doesn't

[Alobha]

From Gifts He Left Behind - The Dhamma Legacy of Ajaan Dune Atulo

In 1979, Luang Pu went to Chantaburi to rest and to visit with Ajaan Somchai. On that occasion, a senior monk from Bangkok — Phra Dhammavaralankan of Wat Buppharam, the ecclesiastical head of the southern region of the country — was also there, practicing meditation in his old age, being only one year younger than Luang Pu. When he learned that Luang Pu was a meditation monk, he became interested and engaged Luang Pu in a long conversation on the results of meditation. He mentioned his responsibilities, saying that he had wasted a lot of his life engaged in study and administration work well into his old age. He discussed different points of meditation practice with Luang Pu, finally asking him, "Do you still have any anger?"

Luang Pu immediately answered,

"I do, but I don't pick it up."

[Lampang]

That's a really nice way of putting it.

[Cittasanto]

A similare story is in Ajahn Chahs Bography
it was a palm reading and the reader noticed he had lots of anger, Ajahn Chah simply said I do But I do not use it!

[acinteyyo]

I like this quote very much. I think it might introduce another way of seeing things. It could be interpreted in a way that for a highly skilled being on the path there still might be "phenomena" which from the standpoint of a puthujjana are considered suffering in a conventional sense but for the skilled being those "phenomena" are just what they are (in the seen only the seen, in the heard only the heard and so on...) so that because of seeing it for what it is no grasping, no I-making, me-making happens, which then as a result does not lead to suffering. From a ultimate pointe of view those "phenomena" are of course still suffering because of their characteristics but what I'm trying to say (and I don't find the right words) is this might give us a glimpse of how a highly skilled being may experience "phenomena" like pain, anger, aversion among others (which usually are labeled as unsatisfactory) kind of "untouched".

Hope someone can get something out of this post...

best wishes, acinteyyo