Most of the world is like a mental hospital. Some persons are sick with jealousy, others with anger, hatred, passion. They are victims of their habits and emotions. But you can make your home a place of peace.
Yogananda
Victim of Emotion?
We focus so much on our emotions, don't we? We base most of our decisions about who we are going to be with, what we are going to do, what we are going to say or how we are going to live based on our emotions. We often ask: "Well how does this make me feel or how will it make me feel? How do I feel around this or that person or this or that situation? " We tend to move towards that which makes us feel "good, comfortable and safe," and away from that which makes us feel "bad, uncomfortable or in danger". Our emotions are the meter by which we often make our decisions. We move according to that meter.
That seems to be the perfectly healthy thing to do. Right? We seek life experiences that feel good or that we assume will make us feel good. Well what happens when we cannot change the world out there to meet our emotional meter of okayness? We suppress, repress or push away our feelings. (Both clinging to and pushing away equate to stuffing emotion inside).
"Well...if I can not avoid that person over there that "makes me angry", I will stuff my anger so I don't have to feel it now. Or if I cannot change the fact that something painful happened in the past, I will stuff that emotional experience."
In our love/hate relationship with our emotions, we often ask "How and what can I do to taste the good feelings and avoid the bad?" Seldom, however, do we ask, "What are these emotions that I am giving all my life power to? What are emotions?"
What are Emotions? A Spill Off of Shakti at Work?
Michael A. Singer, in the below podcast, tells us that an emotion is simply the spill over from the purification process of the shakti doing its work.
Say what, Crazy Lady?
Do you remember what Shakti is? Shakti is the natural flowing state of energy that is who you really are. It is a river of peace, joy, bliss and love flowing from the Source. It is pure consciousness and awareness. It is Sat Chit Ananda and it is who you are. In this body and mind/personality you call "me" is this infinite source of energy attempting to pour through and out of you. It is not emotion. It is a state of being in its purest form below your emotion and other mental modifications.
Blocked
This energy, that is meant to flow freely in abundance, however, is blocked by all you samskaras...knots of accumulated "stuff you stuffed". All those experiences are what you clung to because they were pleasant enough for you to want to repeat the "feeling"; and all those things that happened that were painful enough for you not to want to feel it again. You consciously and semi-consciously pushed all this stuff down into a box called "psyche" and this created some major damning. Consciousness focuses on the noisiest...and the stuff in this box is noisy, as is the psyche's attempt and deep desire for you, as this idea of a separate little "me", to avoid more pain and discomfort. So most of your focused awareness shines on what is in these boxes and on how to keep repeating the "good stuff"(= positive emotions) and how to prevent the "bad" stuff (= negative emotion) from coming up, and on how to avoid any other unpleasant experiences out there that might bring similar discomfort. Our attention goes on repeating good emotions and avoiding bad emotions, reinforcing these damns we built that block the shakti flow.
Shakti, however, is meant to flow. So it flows...its energy is constantly hitting these knots or psyche boxes loosening the lid so some of the "stuffed stuff" gets out. We experience a certain turbulence on one side of the box as the force of Shakti hits it and a certain letting go of some stuffed feeling on the other. This is what we call an emotional release. It can be pleasant or unpleasant. It can lift the "me" up or it can bring it down into the pits of despair or somewhere in between. But if we decide to live according to these emotions, like many of us are doing, it is like riding a rollercoaster that is only going to make us sick in the long run.
Emotions are not your natural state, We do not need to fret over them. They are neither "good or bad" so we do not need to honor them or suppress them. They are just a bit of spill off from the purification process.
Purification process?
Yeah, purification process. This Shakti is meant to flow within you and out of you as it flows within and without everything in this universe. It wants to be free so it is pushing and pushing and pushing against your psyche's boxes attempting to empty them and eventually get rid of the whole trunk that is in its way. These emotions you are experiencing are a sign of Shakti at work. Its force is loosening the lid and releasing that which is within, a little at a time. It is cleansing you of that which does not serve you and that which is in the way of you experiencing who you really are. When you are experiencing emotions, know it is a healing thing. Shakti is working to purify you.
The temporary release of some pleasant stuffed emotion may feel like something wonderful when it brings you up...but...don't get too attached because it will not keep you up. It will come down quick. (You are riding a roller coaster, remember, when you are following your emotions). It may also feel like crap when the painful stuff is released, yes, but don't resist it. The more you avoid the tendency to stuff back down and reseal that box, the cleaner you will become inside and the freer you will be to experience Shakti. There is peace, joy, bliss and love in this shakti flow that doesn't fluctuate like your emotions do. You can float in that. That is your home.
So what do I do crazy lady?
You do not need to do anything. Just allow the emotions to come up when they come and be released when it is time for them to be released. Allow them to come up and go with each wave of the purification process. Allow yourself to be cleansed. Make your home a place of peace.
A Yogi is the rare soul that who has learned to sit through the natural processes of purification.
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 30, 2023) Understanding Emotions. https://tou.org/talks/
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