The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where's My Zen? by Master Nomi

Author:Master Nomi [Nomi, Master]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Health; Fitness & Dieting, Mental Health, Self-Help, Motivational, Counseling & Psychology, Mental Illness, Pathologies, General
ISBN: 9780938058007
Amazon: B001AKVBF2
Publisher: No Mind Publishing
Published: 2008-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

2. THE EMOTIONS AS MIND OBJECTS

One of the most important goals of practicing Clear Attention is to achieve healthy emotional detachment, where we experience emotion without being consumed by it. Becoming mindful of our emotions is one of the hardest aspects of Clear Attention, as it is very difficult to be objective about feelings and emotions. As we discussed in No Mind 101, emotions can quickly “hijack” mental and physical responses. Surging hormones and neuro-transmitters can take over the brain and cause us to react unconsciously and uncontrollably. This is the fight-or-flight survival mechanism manifesting itself. Emotions are typically generated by the Iill through conditioning; in other words, our emotionality is partly genetic but also learned to a large extent (Hochschild, 2003). With the practice of No Mind, you can be mindful of your emotions. For the most part, emotions are generated from the mental web of the Iill as complex biochemical responses to internal and external stimuli. We learn not only how, but also how much, to respond (Lutz, 1998)). On top of this, some people are naturally overly sensitive, while others are overly reserved. Some people respond out of context to the given situation, while others act as expected. But we learn how to “handle” someone who is too emotional and how far we can go with people who inhibit their emotions. We learn how to act in order to maintain some sense of social cohesion.

Emotions can be perceived in the same detached mode as sensations coming from the body. We described pain as “mind with pain,” so here we talk about “mind with anger,” or “mind with feeling of happiness.” It takes practice to develop the detachment necessary to apply Clear Attention to emotions, and this is more difficult to do than it was with the body. Again, breath control is vital for emotional stability. When experiencing uncontrolled emotions, try to interrupt your normal automatic reaction with Clear Attention of the breath. Temporarily fill the awareness with the rise and fall of the abdomen, with the breath, and in that moment you can become detached from the emotion. Then apply Clear Attention to it and just passively watch it dissolve or pass across the screen of awareness. Understand that emotions are part of the Iill and that we often lose our awareness in the emotional response. This is the Iill’s identifying with the emotion, such as, “I am so angry,” instead of “mind with anger.” As discussed before, the “I” exists only as a successive thought process; it is empty and has no substance. “I” cannot be angry, but there can be a thought about the mind being angry, or a thought about the mind-body being angry; and within the trap of Iill, that thought is misinterpreted as coming from an “I.”

Emotional detachment can be exemplified in the case of three basic types of emotional responses: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral—we either like something, dislike it, or have no preference either way. Regardless of the type of emotion, it should be treated the same, with detachment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.