Alan Watts - Emotions

[Paul92]

Thoughts on this, please...

Is he right?

I suppose if you resist your feelings that will be suffering..

 

[purerogue]

He is right, but do not get wrong idea here, that is if you are actually able to view them like he says , if you view certain feelings as bad, then you will suffer, whatever you fight them or not. 

[cetus]

@Paul92 Very powerful. thanks for the share

[purerogue]

Just now, David Hammond said:

Some feelings are bad. It's imperative to keep discernment. What you don't want to do is condemn what you are feeling. Just feel the feeling, observe the story - observe any aversion to the feeling. It's the avserion that keeps you identified. 

 

No feeling is bad on its own , but there is element of bad that you can assign to any feeling making it bad for you.

[cetus]

http://www.ianwatsonseminars.com/articles/articles_files/pdfversions_files/Emotional Release.pdf

[purerogue]

1 minute ago, David Hammond said:

No. That's denial and bad advice. 

Alright with me, I actually talk from experience , not from assumptions that I can't overcome. 

 

[Forestluv]

23 minutes ago, David Hammond said:

Some feelings are bad. It's imperative to keep discernment. What you don't want to do is condemn what you are feeling. Just feel the feeling, observe the story - observe any aversion to the feeling. It's the avserion that keeps you identified. 

To me, it sounds like you are adding in a value judgement, yet are not recognizing that addition. Feelings are not inherently "good" or "bad". That is an additional "something" added in. There is a "nothing" prior to that addition. It's not really "prior", yet that is the easiest way for the mind to comprehend it. Assigning particular feelings value can be helpful to the mind-body that at times, yet that is a distinction the mind adds in.

The second part I would agree with. Condemnation, aversion or identification to the feeling can cause tension in the mind-body and keep it in a state of contraction.

[cetus]

"I suppose if you resist your feelings that will be suffering"

@Paul92 Sure thing. You get emotional constipation and the shit starts to back up. To accept is to release.

[Paul92]

@cetus56  Thank you for the link. I read it and it was helpful. See right now, I miss someone in my life. And when I think of them my heart sinks. What do I do? I don't chose to feel like this, do I?

[Forestluv]

1 hour ago, David Hammond said:

@Serotoninluv Feelings are bad and good. They are not absolutely bad or good. 

To me, it sounds like you are saying "Feelings are not absolutely bad or good". and then start talking about them as if they are absolutely bad or good. 

In a relative context, I agreed with the second part of what you wrote. For example, many people would consider anger as being a bad feeling because when they are angry they often behave in ways that most consider to be harmful to others. That view is useful in the relative world we live in.

[purerogue]

8 minutes ago, David Hammond said:

@Serotoninluv Feelings are bad and good. They are not absolutely bad or good, but the mind wants to stay true to the feeling. Processing feelings is not a high level skill. No need to complicate it, the point is not to deny and say that rage is helpful because what happens is you become one with rage and act it out and can't understand why everyone is suffering because of you. 

Whats your point , you can make stupid decisions on any emotion, with good , or bad intentions, does not mean that outcome will be good or bad on any of them. You are mixing up being controlled by your emotions with emotions them self. 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by purerogue

[Paul92]

I think the point is that it is okay to feel angry, but probably not the wisest move to let that anger spill over into violence as you'll only perpetuate negative feelings. But if you feel sad about something, then it is okay to feel sad. In a way, you were meant to feel sad at that moment. But that seems to go against a lot of teachings. Are we meant to feel that emotion at that time, or do we get a choice in what we feel?

[DrewNows]

51 minutes ago, Paul92 said:

@cetus56  Thank you for the link. I read it and it was helpful. See right now, I miss someone in my life. And when I think of them my heart sinks. What do I do? I don't chose to feel like this, do I?

Yes what is the relationship between thoughts and feeligns? It's something very wise to observe. Do you identify with thoughts? How does thought perpetuate feelings? Is thought any different than feelings, or do they both root back to yourself (the story of you)? What if the i-thought divides itself from emotion?

[Forestluv]

4 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

Yes what is the relationship between thoughts and feeligns? 

That’s a super interesting question I’ve been exploring. I had always considered thoughts and feelings to be connected, yet separate. The deeper I’ve gone, the more that distinction collapses. Thoughts and feelings start to appear as one. One mind-body 

[Leo Gura]

Emotions are self-manipulations doing the work of survival.

The more conscious you become, the less you will need to rely on them to live life. You can live your life more consciously instead.

Emotions are like the strings of the puppet-master's hand controlling the puppet. Resisting feelings is just one more string. Being run by feelings is all the strings. Consciousness is seeing the entire mechanism at work from a detached meta-perspective. No string is good or bad, good and bad are themselves strings invented by the puppet-master to tighten his control over the puppet.

And that is my 10,000th post! Hazzah!

[DrewNows]

48 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

That’s a super interesting question I’ve been exploring. I had always considered thoughts and feelings to be connected, yet separate. The deeper I’ve gone, the more that distinction collapses. Thoughts and feelings start to appear as one. One mind-body 

yes it's pretty cool to investigate. Did you listen to any Jiddu Krishnamurti? Exploring thought-self is the name of his game haha

[Forestluv]

17 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

yes it's pretty cool to investigate. Did you listen to any Jiddu Krishnamurti? Exploring thought-self is the name of his game haha

I came across him about a month ago and was like “this guy knows”. Yet I haven’t watched more of his videos. Perhaps I’m ready now.

Do you happen to know of a good video of his in this area?

[mandyjw]

Love one another. 

[DrewNows]

1 hour ago, Serotoninluv said:

I came across him about a month ago and was like “this guy knows”. Yet I haven’t watched more of his videos. Perhaps I’m ready now.

Do you happen to know of a good video of his in this area?

@Serotoninluvhe does a lot of great talks all correlating with thoughts/emotions and his goal is to walk you through the experiences (and not simply take his word) so you can see how they all come together. If you don't particularly enjoy hearing him directly there's the audiobook teachings which i kind of prefer (second video) 

 there's this: 

this audio book video is more all encompassing in the many aspects of thought/self which i'd recommend: 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by DrewNows

[Forestluv]

8 minutes ago, David Hammond said:

You dont understand what I'm saying. But it's ok. 

Yea, we are not on the same frequency ??