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Are you emotional?

lobsterlobster Veteran
in Buddhism Basics
I hope you are. Angry about injustice? Tearful when sad? Happy whenever you can be? Passionate when appropriate?
Some Buddhists, mentioning no names to protect the dharma hijackers, think Buddhism trains one to be emotionally stifled. Is that true? If anything The Middle Way makes us aware of our states. Most importantly it gives us tools to deal with our conflicted and negative emotions. Jealousy, trivial anger, sentimentality, hatred and other selfish and stifling emotions. Boo to them.

Love and Peace of Heart to you all.

Comments

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    It depends what you mean by emotion. Emotional could be everything we experience. I think we can 'appear' non-emotional and our thinking can be drowning out emotion. But I think that emotions are fundamental to a sentient being. A being must have some experience of what happens to them.
  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    Yes I am.

    Thanks for posting this. I needed to hear it.
    :)
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    lamaramadingdong said:

    Human beings can do only three things- think, act, and feel. Use any two to effect the third.

    Yep, Buddhism when practiced well gives you the opportunity to choose how you react if at all to something, thus a feeling will arise from whatever reaction that may be. It may cause other people to have a reaction and feeling also and so on and on and on :eek2:
  • novaw0lfnovaw0lf Veteran
    edited January 2013
    lobster said:

    If anything The Middle Way makes us aware of our states. Most importantly it gives us tools to deal with our conflicted and negative emotions.

    I'm going to have to completely agree with this statement. From the outside looking in (to one who may not understand the inner mental circuitry of an enlightened one or even an experienced Buddhist), it may seem as if we are emotionless to situations that are saddening, or angering, etc., but on the contrary: I feel as if following the middle-path has only strengthened my emotions, or rather, strengthened my ability to control them.

    Since I began following the middle-path when I was fourteen years old, I've experienced a multitude of things from war, poverty (after having been homeless) to loneliness, loss by the death of a father, and rejected by others of my own ethnicity, depression and an attempted suicide, being disowned from my biological family, and failure after having not reached (or sacrificed) personally set goals (becoming a Navy SEAL, for example).

    I've experienced feelings of extreme learning, happiness, and contentment when I've traveled to many countries, loved someone more than I've loved myself, freedom and empowerment while defying military authority for the sake of what I believed to be a greater good, belonging (when I discovered that family is what you make of it, even if they're not necessarily blood-related), accomplishment (after having started a legitimate writing career by writing a book, starting a tea business, and landed an occupation as an English teacher in China [my childhood dream]), as well as having the honor of responsibility of being someone's role-model and big brother figure, as well as identity and purpose after having dedicated myself utterly to a set of moral principles that I adopted, nascent from my admiration of historical icons like the Samurai, the Spartans, and monks.

    Following the middle-path, coupled with having lived most of my life as a pariah, I've come to know thyself very well, and have become very aware and in control of my emotions. I'm still human, of course, but there have been many moments where my reactions to certain situations may not have been perceived as such by those who couldn't comprehend my thought processes of being aware of my emotions and thoughts like passing clouds (active meditation, as I'm sure you all know), and letting them go the moment they arise.

    Absolutely, Buddhism doesn't kill your emotions; it actually enhances them, encourages you to appreciate them, and even better: control how you react to them, if at all.
    lobsterJeffrey
  • HookahCaterpillarHookahCaterpillar
    lamaramadingdong said:

    Human beings can do only three things- think, act, and feel. Use any two to effect the third.

    are you sure that the third doesnt control the former 2 ;)

  • HookahCaterpillarHookahCaterpillar
    ps - my emotional extremities are what has sustained my buddhist practice. without being under seige in a constant onslaught of emotions i dont know that i would be this dedicated. buddhist practice regulates and then reforms them.
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    I'm not emotional, I'm British. But I have never been emotional, a mild sense of resigned disappointment is about all I can muster. I don't really get angry, I never really get passionate about anything and I never fall in love with anything or anyone. Some of my friends call me Spock, a reference to someone on Star Treck giving up emotions in favour of logic apparently. Not that I think that one is a hindrance to the other just that I don't particularly cleave to either.
    ThailandTomlobster
  • black_teablack_tea Explorer
    I can certainly be emotional -- sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a not so positive way. I am becoming more aware of my emotional states and not just taking them for granted so much since I began practicing Buddhism, but I still have those emotions. I have had a lot of crap to deal with since around Thanksgiving -- it's been one aggravating thing after another. And yes, I have gotten irritated, stressed, angry etc, but not to the extent that I would have in the past, I think. I feel like Buddhism has gotten my on a slightly more even keel. This is a positive thing that has more to do with dealing with difficult situations and emotions rather than simply stifling everything.
    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    My feeling is, matured emotions are part of our evolvement into human beings. Many of us through being British or similar afflictions ;) can be a little wound up.

    How do we release our love/compassion/bodhicitta/metta and other positive and empowering emotions?

    What great joy can we offer and participate in? The dedication of merit? Allowing and encouraging the flowering of each petal of our fellow lotuses? Suggestions to the usual place.

    Blessings to you all. :clap:
  • webster26webster26
    lobster said:

    Many of us through being British or similar afflictions ;) can be a little wound up.

    I'm British, and you definitely hit the nail on the head there :D
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