Are There Positive And / Or Negative Emotions?

[PetarKa]

I've been thinking about this for quite awhile and it's been holding me back in my ability to find meaning and inspiration in life. I mean if reality is meaningless and there is no good or evil, then how can the so-called "positive" emotions like passion, bliss, joy etc. be actually positive, are they just an illusion? The same goes for negative emotions... 

[Leo Gura]

@PetarKa You created a conceptual distinction called positive/negative. And you project it onto stuff.

You could stop projecting that, and then things would stop being good/bad for you. Things would just be themselves.

[PetarKa]

@Leo Gura Then how can our values exist?

[Leo Gura]

@PetarKa They don't really exist. Nothing really exists. The question of "existence" is very tricky. Existence itself is a projection!

To create existence, you made a distinction between existence and non-existence. Without this distinction, there is no existence per se. Try to grasp that existence only appears to exist from your biased point of you. Because you occupy the realm of form, you are biased to seeing everything only in terms of forms. But right behind all the forms is the formless.

When we speak of values for purposes of personal development, it should be clear that we're just using this notion of "people have values" as a conceptual framework to explain why people tend to behave in certain ways. It's a scientific model. And like all scientific models, it's just a metaphor. It's not true in any deep metaphysical sense.

[SOUL]

Emotions are physical stimuli that don't have good/bad or even positive/negative inherent about them and they are meant to be used to guide us in the present moment but they come from our associations of the past. How they influence us in the present, sure, can have beneficial, detrimental or no effects in how we react to them.

 

It can be without ever viewing it as good or bad, positive or negative... it just is

 

Or not.... you can see it any way you wish to.

Edited April 13, 2017 by SOUL

[Pav]

Only after you label them as such.

[SLICKHAWK]

True. Projection. I reflect today. Imagine seeing a face. Now imagine that in 2d or 3d. Its only how you see it... Crazy. How does mind project reality? If its all fake or only conscious is all. Reflection of our own... Hmm..