Emotions are a very old part of us. They are the first attempts at thought in the theory of evolution. Conceptual thinking happens in your head, but emotion happens in your body. In general, thoughts are primarily visual and auditory representations of external events, whereas emotions are kinesthetic representations of sensations. So we talk about our hearts being heavy, as if grief were a burden we carry physically, like the arboreal primates who found they couldn’t bear the weight of the branches. , we feel a sense of falling or a warm feeling when we are disappointed. towards someone, as if in physical contact. (I suspect that most, if not all, of our emotions mimic the actual risks and benefits experienced by our early ancestors.)
Emotions, like thoughts, are interpretations of reality rather than reality itself. Emotions are meant to indicate whether something we perceive is a potential threat, a benefit, or neither. When our mind interprets something as a potential threat, our emotions become unpleasant. This motivates us to retreat, freeze, fight, or push something away. When we think of something as potentially beneficial, we have a pleasant feeling that motivates us to get closer or cling on. When something seems irrelevant to our well-being, we feel nothing. We usually ignore things that fall into this category.
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Thoughts and emotions are both internal expressions created to help us get through life, but emotions are often much more effective than their more recently evolved cousins, thoughts. It’s motivating. What it lacks in emotional sensitivity, it more than makes up for in violence. Have you ever tried to get someone to try a new food? You say, “Try this! It’s delicious!” Your friend refuses, with an expression somewhere between skepticism and disgust. I’ll try it again. “Really, this is amazing!” Please try it! Your friend is unmoved. Because your words have little power compared to the feelings they have that tell them not to risk trying something they might not like. Our emotions tend to act as if they are our bosses, assume we are their servants, and go along with them.
Unfortunately, emotions are part of our ancient wiring, so they aren’t always wise when it comes to guiding our actions. We often avoid doing things that are good for us. That’s because our emotions tell us that if we do something good for ourselves, something bad will happen. Remind yourself that you’ve been putting off making important phone calls. Even though you know in your head that the delay will have unpleasant consequences, your heart sinks when you think about it, and resisting it is like hitting a brick wall. ) Also, we do things even though we know they are bad for us because our emotions tell us it will be beneficial. Consider “eating your emotions.”
(That said, our emotions can indeed be very wise. Sometimes we feel like we can’t trust someone, even if we can’t pinpoint the reason. Those feelings can cost you your life.) A key part of our spiritual practice includes learning to see our emotions as advisors rather than letting them be our bosses. The advice can be good or bad, and you can choose between them.
The Buddha said that unwise people are more susceptible to emotional reactions because they are “yoked” (sannyutta) to their emotions. They feel no sense of separation between their sense of self and the emotions they experience. And this is how it is most often when we react with feelings of anger, hatred and contempt towards others – when love fails. We are yoked to our emotions, so when our emotions become one-sided, we become one-sided. In order to free ourselves from unjustified feelings towards others, we give space to our own feelings, observe their impermanence, observe them so closely that we begin to perceive them as insubstantial, simply seeing them as mere objects. can engage in “creative reductionism” as seen as What is fun and what is unpleasant. But seeing them as not part of us is another very powerful technique that allows us to move from conflict to peace and from there to love.
Imagine a blue sky. In it, a single white cloud gradually appears due to the prevailing weather conditions. If you look carefully at clouds, you will see that they are constantly changing shape, evolving, dissolving in some places and materializing in others. After a while, the clouds completely melt away, leaving behind a clear blue space once again. We can see this as an example of impermanence, but we can also ask the question, “Were the clouds essentially part of the sky?” Of course it wasn’t. The sky existed before the clouds appeared and remained after the clouds left. Even if clouds temporarily obscure the blue completely, they are never truly part of the sky.
The same goes for our feelings. It will appear when the conditions are met. They change constantly during their existence. Eventually they die. But your being, the ever-changing and undefinable flow of matter, energy, emotions, thoughts, and emotions, remains. That feeling was never an essential part of you. It is just a temporary phenomenon, constantly changing as it passes through you on its way from non-existence to nothingness.
We can see that our emotions are not entirely dependent on ourselves. Rather, they emerge from our encounter with the world, whatever we are. They are the co-creation of “myself” and the world. (Yes, emotions arise from our thoughts, but our thoughts are derived from and are representations of the world.)
Emotions are not created consciously. You are not the one making it happen. They come from ancient parts of the mind that are not consciously accessible and are simply received. We feel emotions just as we hear sounds. Emotions are delivered to you.
Nor can they be made to disappear. Depression and anxiety cannot be easily dispelled simply by saying, “Stop feeling unnecessary!” How can something that you only receive and cannot control be “you”? The Buddha said about this:
The form is not you. For if the form is yourself, it will not lead to suffering. And you can also force the form by saying, “I want my form to look like this!” Don’t let that happen! However, because the form is not yourself, suffering occurs. And you can’t force a form to say, “I want my form to look like this!” Don’t let that happen!
Emotions have no substance and there is nothing we can hold on to. We can call it “our” feelings, but we can never own them. How can something that we can never cling to be “us”?
It’s another thing to talk and read about all this. Maybe it’s puzzling. It’s probably frustrating. Perhaps that creates a sense of resistance. The thing is, this is practice. It’s not an intellectual exercise. The key is to practice observing. Let’s dig into our intellect and see what’s really out there. Please be careful.
Observe emotions as objects of attention. Be aware of their birth and death. Notice not how you choose them, but instead how they simply arise. Free yourself from them and realize that you don’t have to go in the direction they are trying to take you. There is no need to develop an aversion to unpleasant emotions, and there is no need to cause cravings or attachments to pleasant emotions. Your feelings are advice, not orders. You don’t have to boss them around. Just let your emotions be and remain free.
Finally, when observing emotions, remind yourself, as Buddha advised many times, “This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my Self.” You can. This is a powerful and underutilized tool.
The important thing is to keep looking, observing, and reflecting. This is our practice. Then we will begin to realize that our emotions, and all the other things that make up this, are not ours, not us, and we are nothing. This brings us one step closer to awakening. We are one step closer to removing this obstacle, the belief in a separate self. We can free ourselves from the anger, hatred, resentment, and contempt that cause love to fail. We can go back to loving, and in doing so, we can realize that others are delusional and yoke to our emotions, and wish they too could be free. can.
When we liberate ourselves, we naturally want to liberate others.
