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i do not believe it is possible (or healthy) to experience neutrality or happiness 100% of the time and consequently i have no fear of my anger or of expressing it 🙂 i don’t often get angry but in this instance having watched months of disrespect and other people within the forum attempting to “absorb” and “work with” the disrespect, my patience wore thin and so I show that i am human…why does that worry some ppl so? why should we avoid the “messy” human emotions for some preconceived (and yet never achieved) view point of “enlightenment” or “neutrality”…
i find the view point that to acknowledge emotions indicates a lack of centredness (and I wonder if to acknowledge love would be so quickly met with the view of a lack of centredness? and so, does that mean that some emotions are “good” and some are “bad” but then, don’t we go to such lengths to avoid such terms? – i thought you couldn’t have light without the dark – no yin without yang…and around and around like a dog chasing its tail we go again) to be a not so subtle judgment of emotion…
and so, it was there and now it isn’t.
bed calls
There seems to be a trend of associating acceptance with surpression. I also said that letting people know where you stand is important, it keeps the chi moving, keeps you energized, and you will tend not to judge your self. Your anger is not bad nor does it worry me. I was just suggesting it is a gift, a oppertunity for change. The forum allowed you to get in touch with this anger and even what might be behind it. I am not above you or below you. I praise you and think no less of you, I honestly was trying to serve you the best I knew how, this life is not easy I am here on earth with you going through the ups and downs, but I try my best to encourage people to accept them selves and others. This covers most but not all of what I was getting at.
peace be with you.
p.s. Why does it have to be a dog chaisng its tail and not a Monkey.:)
Emelgee, No one is talking about avoiding emotions. And we all appreciate your feelings on this subject. We are all heading to a place in which we will not have to be extreme and encounter/generate suffering.
You say-
“why should we avoid the “messy” human emotions for some preconceived (and yet never achieved) view point of “enlightenment” or “neutrality”…”
Spiritual process and the end result of daoist practices which is to achieve immortality say this IS what is possible. All reaction is based on a belief in separation. Completion of an individual soul means that we have aligned so completely with the lifeforce that we are not moved out of that alignment for any human reason. This is not a cold or dead state but one of deepest love, freedom and wholeness. It is a state in which we have choice. There is no choice when we are emotionally reactive. In fact, Chinese medicine is based on the fact that all illness is created from imbalances of emotion.
“i do not believe it is possible (or healthy) to experience neutrality or happiness 100% of the time and consequently i have no fear of my anger or of expressing it”
You seem to be saying that neutrality is a negative state. Neutrality is a love-charged state that is beyond the reach of the pain that gets generated when we fall prey to our reactions. Anger gets generated by our thoughts and defenses. The point of spiritual practice is to totally absorb being a human, blocking nothing yet holding onto nothing, until we become something more. Emotional reactions are catchpoints of the ego that show us where our issues are. Completed beings do not get their feelings hurt.
“i find the view point that to acknowledge emotions indicates a lack of centredness…”
Not to acknowledge emotions, but to be swayed by them. If you acknowledge emotions where are you acknowledging them from? You have to have created a space inside yourself from which to see and feel them. That is a neutral space. Continued development of that neutral space produces a version of yourself which is not moved off center by anything else.
What is clear here is that there are some people who believe that it is a betrayal of the self and the emotions to not become emotional. And that they see what Dog and I have said a restriction is some way on their freedom. It is not a betrayal nor a restriction, but the ego can see it that way because it always wants to hold onto what it has created itself to be and identifies with. It is a mistake to think that a truly centered person is without feelings. They are just more harmonious. And as I said back in another post, there are two ways of centering. The first is to be out of the reach of reactions and the second is to still have them but to be able to have at least a little magnetism with the neutral center so you sway back to peace after some emotion comes up. There is no judgment here. Just observation.
I can visualize myself centered in such a way that I won’t be upset by the rantings and insults of anyone’s writings on this forum. That I will be smiling to the whole interaction, allowing and accepting it but unmoved from a place of peace and balance inside by it. That, to me, is love. Clear, warm, bright, harmonious, spacious, open, flowing, free.
“i thought you couldn’t have light without the dark – no yin without yang.”
Yin and yang balanced produce a wholeness. Rest does not mean collapse. Action does not mean attack. What we have down here on earth is an extreme separation of the two into conflict with each other rather than harmonious interaction. It is these extremes which have made us become used to thinking that dark means bad and light means good. The proper way to have/use emotions is to know when you are feeling good and when you are feeling bad. “Good” means you are aligned with yourself. “Bad” means you are not. It is an inner barometer. This does not imply judgment. It is a method of staying balanced.
Through this process of conversation we are giving ourselves the opportunity to refine our way of being.
Thanks and blessings, Alexander
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