Undesired Emotions Options

[Zan]

Does anyone believe that it is possible to eliminate all undesired emotions from one's life?

[Robert the Bruce]

The Arhats do it. But I ike Bucky Fuller's approach - the Observer of the Observed.

Just think first and see the self is one part of your true self.

[Guest]

Bucky Fuller = Buckminster Fuller?

[Joesus]

As long as your awareness resides within your body you will know all emotions and know the senses.
It is possible to remove the judgments that create the ideas of undesirable by rising above conditioning and approaching life in the innocense of the present moment.
Not everyone is conditioned to the same perceptions, judgment is an application of past memories, fear and control.
It is just as easy to drop fear and live in surrender to creation as you would surrender the past to what it was, the present is what it is and the future both never comes because it is always now, and what will be is inevitable in its coming.
So to be free of the fear of possibility would mean you would have to give your awareness a more solid point of reference than the fear based intellectual projections of possible futures based on the judgments of the experiences of the past. To bring it fully into the present.

[Laz]

Completely agree with Joe, emotion is an attribute of a person, it should not control them. One should not trust in emotion and use it as the basis for thought.

To take what joe said a stage further, it is ablosutely necessary to drop the past and the future before one can control their emotions. This has been my experience very recently.

[ephrem]

Does anyone believe that it is possible to eliminate all undesired emotions from one's life?

- ..it is unnecessary to elimate emotion, beit desired or undesired. That simply comes down to preference, and from this preference awhole lot to do 'bout nothing comes to your beckoning call...

[Guest]

[Laz]

[Abril]

Is there any trouble with emotions? What's wrong with fear? What's wrong with pain? I think the wrong question is being asked. I stuck my hand in really freaking hot water the other day (on accident...I'm not a masochist) and during it, yes, I was alarmed, but afterwords the feeling was so relieving, like taking off a tight shoe. It's a matter of perspective. In Alan Watts' "The Book" he talks about this tribe of people somewhere in which the women give birth while they work in fields. They squat down, have the baby, and then go back to work. It's not a matterof biology, it's a matter of perspective. We're taught to view pain as, well, wusses. Especially women are taught to have a wussy perspective when it comes to pain. Fear too. Why bother trying to eliminate emotions?

Maybe Arhats or Bodhisattvas or Buddhas can do this, but maybe not. Who's to say? It's just about having a balanced perspective on things. You can't be fully human if you suppress one emotion or another. Why do you want to any way?

Happiness, depression, anger, fear, love, excitement, pain.... I want them all!

[Steve]

Well, there's nothing wrong with fear, so long as it's rational fear, not simply fear of the unknown. Pain is not really an emotion, it's a sensation felt by your nerves, so it's fine too. Anything having to do with survival instinct really. Yet almost all negative emotions are entirely useless, and can and should be eliminated. Subconsciously we actually enjoy them much more than positive emotions, but they needlessly cloud the mind. I don't even believe that they're natural, I think it's behavior that we have learned from our culture.

[Substance abuser#9181985]

I don't think it's even plausible to think of living without emotion, for one thing, I and every other living creature to some extent has it, so to speculate what it would be without it, is illogical. Good and bad are not good and bad because theres a label of the word good and bad by the juices in your head. Its all on how you interpret your reality, one mans good is another man's bad, there unfortunately is no defineable right or wrong that we can all live by, everyone has there own standards and there own set of rules for there brain. However to the man who claims he can live without emotion, thats simply ludicrous. Logic is our paintbrush, and emotion our paint. To paint a picture or to live a life you must have both.

[Abril]

Dear Substance abuser #9181985,
Really I just wanted to say your name. But, no, actually, I like what you're saying. I like the metaphor you use at the end.

Steve,
What do you think is a "negative" emotion? Why is it (are they) negative?

I don't think that, for example, jealousy is a horrible thing to have. However, I DO believe that it could effect a person negatively unless they have an awareness of their jealousy. But what is good and bad anyway? Just like S.A. said, things aren't really "good" or "bad," but rather "things I like," and "things I don't like." Their is no "Problem of Evil" but rather, a "Problem of Things I don't like based on my culture, ubringing, etc. etc."

[Steve]

I define negative emotions as things like fear, hate, anger, insecurity, sadness, and things of that sort. I don't refer to instinctual, survival-based forms of these emotions, however. One thing I want to clarify is that I don't classify emotions as negative or positive based on which is more enjoyable to experience, it is a matter of thinking through the purpose of these emotions. It's not a "good feeling vs. bad feeling" thing.
If you really think about it, these emotions serve no purpose in our lives. They suck an enormous amount of our energy away for nothing. It becomes very obvious how pointless and very un-human these emotions are once you really observe yourself when you feel one. You realize that it's a completely learned behavior and very shallow.
Most psychologists will tell you that suppressing negative emotions leads a person to emotionally explode. But it's not about suppressing, it's simply reminding yourself constantly how very meaningless they are, which controls, not suppresses, many of them with little effort.

[Robert the Bruce]

From Amazon.com
According to ancient legends, alchemists use a magical philosopher's stone to transmute lead into gold. In Emotional Alchemy, Tara Bennett-Goleman shows readers how they can use this alchemist metaphor to transform emotional confusion (lead) into insightful clarity (gold). And what does the magic stone represent? "Mindfulness," a lifelong practice that can bring readers more joy and contentment than the gold, according to Bennett-Goleman. "Mindfulness means seeing things as they are without trying to change them," she writes. "The point is to dissolve our reactions to disturbing emotions, being careful not to reject the emotion itself."
Those who have never entered this practice will find a concise and articulate teacher in Bennett-Goleman, who leads national workshops with her husband, author Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence). What make this book such an exciting breakthrough is Bennett-Goleman's ability to apply Buddhist mindfulness to Western psychology. She shows how emotional alchemy can be used to address typical habits, such as mistrust, fear of rejection, feeling unlovable. Readers will also find fascinating scientific facts on how emotional alchemy affects brain chemistry and even cancer survival. --Gail Hudson

[Unknown]

that sounds like Hubbard's distinction of the clear mind vs. the reactive mind.

[Robert the Bruce]

Hubbard was a great plagiarist. He said 'Jesus and Buddha were a stage below CLEAR'. Of course now that this druggie sex freak is dead he is being elevated to a god. One of the things he adapted to his system is the military order or hierarchy of people who are to listen and follow those above them. They also carry this to the extreme with Billion year soulful contracts.

[Unknown]

Do you know Dianetics secret teachings for Thetans? That nonsense is worth a separate thread!

[Robert the Bruce]

Are you referring to the BRIDGE?

My younger broother has taken it twice. They were 'infiltrated' once - HA!

[Dan]

I'd love to hear of this 'bridge' nonsense

[Unknown]