Emotions: what are they and what would life be without them?
What emotion do you feel this doggie is experiencing? Maybe guilt?
Emotions are like physical symptoms: they let the mind know that there is something happening in our system that may feel either pleasant or unpleasant. Emotions are linked to something that happens to us, as well as to others. If someone treats us poorly, we may experience indignation. If we get something we have been longing for, we feel satisfied and happy. If we don’t get what we want, on the other hand, we get frustrated. If someone we know is going through some hardship, we may feel sad for them. And so on…
TV in particular these days seems to be revolving around people’s emotions: there seems to be a lot of drama involving tears of both grief and “happiness” on the screen. TV series and reality shows seem to revel in stories that bring emotions out of people, cameras close in on actors and participant faces’ when they display strong emotions.
Have you ever considered that it is possible to live a life without emotions? Or does that sound dull and boring?
Imagine living a life without experiencing any shame, guilt, grief, fear, anger and unhealthy pride (the type of pride that prevents you from saying: “I got that wrong” even when it is dazzling clear that you did). These are the main human emotions, and within them there are nuances, e.g. anything from mild frustration to uncontrollable rage goes under the umbrella of anger. You may be starting to think that maybe it would be OK to not have emotions….?
The next question is: is love an emotion? The answer is: no. Love, joy, peace, as well as courage, willingness, neutrality and acceptance are not emotions, but spiritual powers. They are well earned states of consciousness that allow us to be in the world without being clouded by emotions.
Desire is often mistaken for love: we desire to be with someone, we obsessively think of them, we create fantasies centred on them, we want them to love us. Other times, we allow others to take advantage of us and hide behind the statement: “Oh, but I love them so much, I would do anything for them”, when the reality is that we would do anything because we are scared of “loosing” them.
Love as a spiritual power is a state of consciousness in which love itself flows to everyone and everything in an unconditional way, not only to the ones we select to be our loved ones, and only when they do what we want them to do (conditional love). Love is an inclusive and permanent state of being. In this sense, one is in love, not with someone, but with life itself, in all of its expressions. If one is “in love”, they move through life without being affected by emotions.
When overwhelmed by emotions, we REACT to people and events. When we have developed enough spiritual powers, we ACT instead: when the emotional component is not there to cloud our thoughts and actions, we are able to be present to the moment and CHOOSE the best course of action in that particular situation.
If you would like to know more about the difference between emotions and spiritual powers, David R. Hawkins is the author of a number of books on the topic and the creator of the “Map of Consciousness”.
Another good source is the E-motion movie, check the trailer out:
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