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Memory as emotional residue
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
I came across the idea the other day that our memories are tied to unprocessed leftovers of emotions. I think it is largely true, that if you have many memories which overtake you when sitting on the sofa with a coffee for instance, then you have an issue with leaving things unfinished.
Is this karma? Will this give a yearning to return for more lifetimes?
Worth thinking about…
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I think all our thoughts are highly tied to our emotional state. Do we think about the future or the past? If we think about the past do we dwell on positive or negative memories? If our emotional state changes our thoughts change.
I think it could be thought of as a type of karma, propelling us into the next moment.
...And if our thoughts change so do our emotions...
It's part and parcel of the push me pull you puppet on a string (of thoughts and emotions) thing called living.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change
By doing so, one's awareness takes control and can start to rearrange
But what comes first, thoughts or emotions? I’m very much a thought-first person, I find that my thoughts arise in response to impulses from the world, and emotions come in response to thoughts.
Is there such a thing as control of thought and emotion? I doubt it; I think there is only transformation in response to insight and understanding. And perhaps there is also repression, which we might mistake for control.
I haven't been able to find a beginning. I think of it as falling into dependent coarising, like two cards holding each other up. Emotions give rise to particular thought patterns, thoughts direct and reinforce emotions.
From my perspective there is the control of conditioning, what we spend our time and energy towards is reflected in our natural tendencies. And there is the control of awareness, when we're aware that our minds are headed in a particular direction we can use that information to intentionally steer our thinking in another direction. We act from our values rather than react from our emotions. Much of CBT work is this sort of control.
You're right to be wary of repression. Mindful awareness gives us a third way outside of repression or embracing. We hold it mindfully and allow it to come and go.
Memories:
Use them to learn and grow
Let them weigh you down and pull you under
You choose.
Peace to all
Thus have I heard:
Through cultivating a friendship with awareness, practices like meditation (mindfulness in particular), we learn to either flow with or let go of our thoughts. As the saying goes, we are what we think... but we are not our thoughts.
In other words, the thought itself is the thinker, and the psychophysical phenomenon we call the self can become either the slave or the master of thought.
Ultimately, this depends on the depth of our awareness.
This intrinsically knowing aspect of awareness observes the arising and passing of thoughts.
grace of time
event and time. in a moment an xperience happens. that x-perience collapse in our memory or dies down to our sobstrate/subconscious brain. depending on the effect of the x-perience it is forgetten or linger brought back to conscious awareness.
but the grace of time is buddha awareness. to resolve the e-xperience. if it was a positive experience accnowledge it. a negative experience forgive and learn that memory.yes time moves you fowared called grace of time heal a wound. with more awareness of time and change the past experience will continue change your human bodhi nature.
so i do a life review in the new year. what i regret what i can change. but during the bardo state there might be a life review like in near death experience. in an essense the three e state. the life review is enter, empathy, and enlighten your experience and the other persons emotional state.
so i try to be kind and nice to people now. if in my bardo life review i can expect how it affect my conscios aware state with no body brain process. it is amazing conscious space need no brain. samsara universe is wonders of wonders .ty Love giver sammy
However, if memories are the residue of emotion, then they might not be the most suitable moments to learn from, and they might be more suited to pull you under. Just a thought…
Ornaments for today's Christmas tree.
Perhaps, memory as emotional residue is just an observable effect for the meditator.
To the degree that it patterns how we respond to any phenomena, is the same degree that our freedom & potential spontaneity in that nanosecond is limited.
To the degree that it no longer patterns how we respond to phenomena is the same degree that phenomena can instead be met with equanimity.
A Merry Buddmas to all.