Emotion

Emotions are the first stirrings of a latent mind seeking manifestation

For doing work with/ for collaborating with some of the good forces of this universe,…big or small…we’d better try to learn about their nature and what they can do for us…

Here only some example of how such understanding might look when seen from above and put into concrete terms,….of course in real life, such understanding will usually be of a rather intuitive type…

For the most part this type of detailed exposition is for the purpose of instructing and making concrete a knowledge of the heart for those who would want to lead and guide others towards this divine faculty of intuition…yet in some case even in the non-initiate, it might lead the mind towards knowledge not yet known to the heart, of forces too subtle to be of interest to the ordinary man.

Detailed exposition of an Wholesome Emotion prior to an wholesome action:

Taking an example of an action of helping a person in need

When trying to cultivate the good,…these are some forces and factors one may want to pay attention towards, so as to become more familiar with them:

• Mindfulness (the guiding force in the transaction, it is the force, that contains all the wholesome things acquired in the past, developed into a faculty)
• Application and sustainment of mind, considering the action to be done (the action being the object)
• Intention (cetana) to do the deed (meaning a will that is in this case rooted in non-greed, non-hate and perhaps non-delusion)
• Perception…perceiving the f.ex. suffering person, seeing an image of the deed to be done or of the result of the deed…
• Life faculty…the Life giving element
• Tranquillity
• Malleability
• Wieldiness and proficiency and rectitude

….are good forces, that aid wholesome actions to greater perfection

• Inner Confidence ..is the great protector against opposing forces
• Conscience …is the inner eye, that sees things from a selfless perspective
• Compassion …is the capacity to feel others

The connecting force with the object (sampayutta paccaya) (being in this case rooted in non-greed, non-hate and at least to some extent non-delusion)

Another important force, that has to be invited for a good intention to result in good action, is the force of non-disappearance (avigata-paccaya)

Kammic force (noticing itself that force of goodness (root of non-greed, non-hate, non-delusion) … may give a person who is skilled with his mind an even deeper perception as to the evolution of this kammic force…perhaps even into previous lifes

If doing the good deed arises with a certain decision to make this ones path, or a certain understanding, that this is the right path…then we can say it becomes a path condition (magga-paccaya)

Each of such factors may act as a portal to the unseen…for the gaining of a vision of the inner workings of Life…and resulting from that, for the gaining of greater control over one’s lifes circumstances …

Relation of Emotions to Matter…

For a monk, who eats once or at best twice a day (only until noon)…knowing the effect of an wholesome (and unwholesome) emotion on his body is essential for survival…here it can be seen or perceived that a wholesome and refined emotion will result in the refinement of the matter of the body…very fine particles of matter will feed the internal matter of the body (kamma born materiality…organs, muscles, meat etc.)…penetrating deeper than would be the case when the organism is in just an ordinarily restless state…those particles reproducing themselves for long periods of time, for very many generations…(as the same amount of matter is in a finer than ordinary condition, it can divide itself up for much longer a period of time)…thus allowing people who live at least moderately ascetic lifes to yet live quite healthy…

Then there are,

Unwholesome Emotions

If we want to become a person, that has transcended unwholesome states of mind, we require a refined understanding of the mechanics of unwholesome mental states

…only then can the higher principles in a person skillfully respond to those forces of the lower nature…

Understanding the mind with anger

Anger

Anger is a form of resistance of the higher part of ourselves,…an awareness of our path, towards sense-impressions that obstruct the flow of life moving in the direction outlined by that path.

That path is not as yet a self-chosen path, but a path as outlined by our culture, upbringing and the wave of evolution itself.

It is a path of still seeking fulfilment and power in concrete things without.

It is only when a person starts entering the path of involution, that is, not seeking anymore experiences without, but working in conjunction with life learns to comprehend life, that there becomes possible a complete transcendence of all forms of anger.

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Detailed Analysis of Anger

…negative perception of a person, unpleasant feeling, hateful desire (f.ex. to hurt s.b.), a decision, may be of a similar type…the decision:’I gone hurt him/her’; mental life‐faculty… keeping the emotion going; attention…focussing on the irritating aspect of the person….; one‐pointedness….the mind is fully involved in/focussed on the negative aspect of that person, situation or thing….application of mind…..again and again the mind is applied to that situation… sustainment…sometimes not necessary to apply the mind to the situation…it stays occasionally continuously on the object (or situation); viriya, in the sense of energy is involved too;…. delusion…in the sense of spiritual delusion, regarding spiritual laws of retribution etc.; ….consciencelessness….is equally a form of spiritual delusion, of not understanding certain spiritual laws, not understanding oneself and others;….shamelessness…not seeing beyond the narrow scope of the situation….not considering about others….uddhacca/uddhata…one meaning of being removed (from ones centre)/not calm

These relate to the vibrating bhavanga phase, not to the cognitive process,…but in between many of such instances of vibrating bhavanga, of and on the life-stuff (bhavanga) gets arrested and a mind-door cognitive process will arise,…either producing further supporting kamma to that arisen anger or if the process is associated with wisdom, obstructing and ideally destroying that past kamma condition

Analysis according to Patthāna

These nama‐dhamma are mutually supporting each other (mutuality condition), the person or situation (being rupa) is the object of these nama-dhammas, thus relating to it by means of object condition….all of these arise together by means of co-arising condition, as well as association condition (associating with the object)…the mind depending on the object, is dependence condition…/the mind being strongly dependent on the object by means of object-decisive support condition…the object of anger having arisen prior to the angry mentality…means pre-nascence condition…(if the anger existed prior to the object coming into the range of the already angry -mind-condition, (as might happen sometimes… the object in consideration, than perhaps being the second object)…then it is post-nascence condition)….one impulse after another, taking the same object and engaging with it in the same manner, happens by means of repetition condition, as well as contiguity condition

….each impulse being a kamma condition (co-arising kamma condition)…what follows, whether as rebirth or later in life as a result, arises by means of result condition…if the anger is kindled again and again, that is (mental) nutriment condition for further anger in the future…the displeasure therein counts as a separate faculty….if this faculty is repeatedly exercised, the mind finding delight therein, a kind of samadhi with displeasure as a factor can arise…if continuously cultivated, it might become a wrong-path-condition

Analysis according to Dependent Origination

These are nama‐dhammas, coming into contact with rupa, the object, situation or person…with the coming together of the two…(in this case) (unwholesome) mind‐consciousness arises…the coming together of the three is contact…with contact as condition, feeling arises (being an undesirable object, unpleasant feeling arises)…with feeling as condition clinging arises (the not letting go of the case, situation or object)….with clinging as condition, existence arises (the existence of ‘the hater’)…with existence as condition…there will be birth (if that kamma arises at the near death moment, perhaps birth as a wrathful spirit or yakkha, or hell)…with (such type of) birth as condition….dukkha, dukkha, dukkha

Introspection (Mind-door process with wisdom) (…bringing about disappearance-condition)

Asking questions, ….talking to it:

“Is it true what that anger tells me?”

• maybe perceptions arise, which shows us things, which contradict the thought of anger
• maybe feelings arise, which show us, that we feel actually more hurt than angry, or that we desired recognition, which was not fulfilled
• maybe we recognize, that our consciousness was settling on one minor detail of the incident that caused the anger, and that the consciousness, was actually only looking for a reason, to feel angry, or to support the negative view of that person or incident (consciousness conditioned by sankhara)
• if we take the thoughts themselves (applied and sustained), we may recognize, that we had the same or similar thoughts many times before, in many different circumstances…perhaps, it is not so much about the outside as we thought?
• Form (rupa)…perhaps we have seen that person or encountered a similar incident, in which the reaction of our mind was quiet different…. → so it is not about the Form (person or incident)

→thus all those aggregates, (Past, Present and Future) are empty of inherent existence,

…are void of truth or self

…are dukkha (suffering)

Conditions of desire

Desire is life thirsting for more life.

It is when life seeks for life in dead things, that its thirst fails to become quenched. When life sees itself expand, its desires start to subside. As life starts to realise itself, it ceases to seek life where it can not be found, thus its thirst starts to be quenched more frequently. When there is nothing left to be realised by life about life, lives’ thirst for life will have come to its end.

Desire…f.ex. of a man for a woman he ought not have(problem situation)…woman (form) is the object…mind…mental factors (greed, desire, determination on the object, pleasant feeling,…)….consciousness (kama‐loka…sense‐sphere consciousness…)…base (vatthu) is first eye‐base than heart‐base…Mental function…desire being kamma producing mental function…registration functions in accordance with ones character (prior kamma)…f.ex. intellectual person (person who in the past performed primarily mental kamma ‐ related to life‐continuum) registers/thinks about the desire as being perhaps improper….while perhaps in an emotional person all sorts of fantasies and imaginations will arise…dreaming about a future with that woman….while for the coarse sensual person perhaps only some images of grabbing her at the next encounter may arise…(these being kamma condition (kamma‐paccaya), the woman relating to the factors of mind by means of object condition and perhaps presence condition, the mental factors of desire relate to the object by means of root (rooted in desire, delusion)‐ condition)…

….if that greed is so strong as to seriously hinder that person living of life…than, a spiritual helper,…f.ex. a meditation teacher may help to bring about disappearance condition (vigata‐paccaya) by giving a suitable meditation subject (object‐condition) to that person by means of estimating that persons character (life‐continuum condition (kamma‐condition)) ‐which for the intellectual person may be an introspective meditation …analyzing his own mind perhaps in minute detail…for the emotional person it may be the visualization of and thinking about the Buddha, or some great saint or noble person in which they can easily develop faith (asking questions about…how would he think, do in such situation…etc.)….for the coarse sensual person perhaps practicing asubha meditation….visualizing that woman as gradually rotting or visualizing the interior organs of that woman, or visualizing that woman 50 years older, etc….By means of such contemplation…disappearance condition (vigata‐paccaya) of that kamma may come about…faculty‐condition (indriya‐paccaya) may come about, Jhana condition (jhana‐paccaya) may come about….and with right instructions perhaps path‐condition may come about.