Good morning, Jean.
What an excellent challenge you had. Although I only do meditation from time to time, and very sporadically, I've noticed many points in common with part of the experience you've described.
I also suffer a lot from fits of anger at what's going on around me. I can give you an example of a situation that happened to me this week at work.
A colleague of mine was giving a lesson to a large group of third-graders. I'm a much more reserved person, and I don't like being the center of attention, or even the lead actor in a play that's written just to please those around me.
I was at one of the computers in one of the common rooms, and he burst in with a huge group of students in white lab coats, aged around 19-20 (no more). Needless to say, he loves being the center of attention, especially when there's a huge audience of very energetic people, as is natural for young people of that age. I continued at the computer, and greeted the students crowding into the room with a low, calm “good afternoon”. My calmness managed to get past my colleague's barrier of indifference, and he realized he was disturbing my work, immediately asking the group to keep quiet because I was working. A few minutes later she ended up going into one of the adjoining rooms and closing the door.
I was very proud to have been able to notice the anger, which quickly grew inside me, but which didn't consume me in such a way as to turn me into an execrable being in front of such an audience.
Have a great week!
RE: Too Close for Zen