Energy

[Telepresent]

I'm going to struggle to articulate this correctly, so bear with any rambling.

I've been focussing on two questions recently: what is emotion, and where does sensation come from/go?  So I've played with a little thought-experiment, which for a moment felt like it opened a door to something important, but I'm still trying to recognise it properly.  Throwing it out here... I'm not sure why.  To see.

Emotion appears to be a name we give to states of energy - some high, some low, some intense, some calm, but it all seems to be various waves of energetic sensation.  Which leads to the question, does the energy ever go away?  Answer: no (or at least I've never experienced it, and doubt that it's possible to and still be alive).

So we've got a permanent something (metaphorical ocean, perhaps) we call energy, which rises and falls and manifests in different ways and we call that emotion.

What happens if we extend the manifestations of the metaphorical ocean to include other forms of sensation?  Light and sound and friction and thought... arisings and fallings and eddies and flows and peaks and crests and troughs of this metaphorical ocean we call energy?  (Or perhaps it goes by other names too) 

Where does a wave come from, and where does it go?  The permanence, the ocean.

Where do sensations come from, and where do they go?  Into the ocean. 

I feel like I'm on the edge of something big, but I haven't got quite there yet...

[WelcometoReality]

Sounds like you are onto something @Telepresent . So if the emotions are like waves that come and go have you tried look for the ocean that the waves come from, are in?

[Telepresent]

@WelcometoReality I've been batting that around since posting the above.  It's tricky: like an arms-race against my mind which is trying to turn it into a concept I can hold onto.  I've already dropped the 'ocean' metaphor - it did its job in helping me to see something, but to keep using it will be playing with the metaphor rather than with experience.  

There's an underlying constancy that I'm feeling my way around: very grounded in tangible presence, seeming as though it couches everything else inside it.  I'm wanting to use the word 'infinity' (not as in 'very big', but as in not of dimension - not of time/space, but containing time/space) but I think at this point that's the mind trying to revert to something I've heard and mentally constructed, rather than the felt-perceived reality of things.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Telepresent

[Saarah]

@Telepresent that's insightful! Where do you suppose this energy goes when we're in deep sleep and not dreaming? Is it just at an extremely low calm level so that we can rejuvenate and attain rest, or converted elsewhere 

[99th_monkey]

12 hours ago, Telepresent said:

@WelcometoReality I.  I've already dropped the 'ocean' metaphor - it did its job in helping me to see something, but to keep using it will be playing with the metaphor rather than with experience.  GOOD

There's an underlying constancy that I'm feeling my way around: very grounded in tangible presence, seeming as though it couches everything else inside it.  I'm wanting to use the word 'infinity' (not as in 'very big', but as in not of dimension - not of time/space, but containing time/space) but I think at this point that's the mind trying to revert to something I've heard and mentally constructed, rather than the felt-perceived reality of things.    DING

 

This is is state of wondering. not knowing. go with it. question any ready made answer that's rational. dont be afraid of confusion, that just means your mind hasnt put meaning to it yet 

[HereNowThisMoment]

On June 8, 2016 at 5:00 AM, Telepresent said:

what is emotion, and where does sensation come from/go?

My understanding is that an emotion is a physical manifestation of the uncognized mind. It is a "ready-made" response to a situation that allows us to quickly respond the way we "should" in a certain situation based on prior conditioning. 

I like your wave metaphor, except that, as you pointed out, it limits you a bit. To have a better experience of what an emotion is, try to trace it back as far as you can. 

On June 8, 2016 at 5:00 AM, Telepresent said:

Which leads to the question, does the energy ever go away? 

Continuing with your wave metaphor for energy, yes, the energy goes away in stillness. Throw a pebble into a pond and ripples will form momentarily but the waves will settle and stillness will resume. The mind is the same way, left undisturbed it will be still. 

[Telepresent]

@Saarah No idea!  And I wouldn't want to speculate until I have a better sense of it.

@99th_monkey Thank you.  There's a hell of a something here to dip into: it's good to get encouragement to feel my way into it!

@HereNowThisMoment Tracing back as far as I can, and stillness... there's something extremely potent there.  Ties into that sense of constancy, what we were talking about elsewhere about the core of Now; how all the manifestations, all the sensations and thoughts and perceptions, are inherently temporary and therefore can't be the absoluteness of the present.  It's all the same thing: the waves, the manifestations, compared to the constancy, the stillness...

And here's me trying to put into words something that seems like it can't really be conceived in thinking.  I think I have some sitting to do!

Edited June 10, 2016 by Telepresent