How to transform negative emotions
16 Mar 2010 14:40 - 16 Mar 2010 14:44 #29275
by Garm
How to transform negative emotions was created by Garm
HOW TO TRANSFORM NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
Sogyal Rinpoche writes in Glimpse of the Day:
\"Two people have been living in you all your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to.
As you listen more and more to the teachings, contemplate them, and integrate them into your life, your inner voice, your innate wisdom of discernment, “a discriminating awareness,” is awakened and strengthened, and you begin to distinguish between its guidance and the various clamorous and enthralling voices of ego. The memory of your real nature, with all its splendor and confidence, begins to return to you.
You will find, in fact, that you have uncovered in yourself your own wise guide, and as the voice of your wise guide, or discriminating awareness, grows stronger and clearer, you will start to distinguish between its truth and the various deceptions of the ego, and you will be able to listen to it with discernment and confidence.\"
The most basic method to rid ourselves of negative emotions is via analytical meditation. The reasoning is that the negative emotions are delusions - misunderstandings of reality.
If one analyses the process of how they come about, we can discover where real problem lies. Analytical meditation appears a very good method, as one avoids emotional excitement in meditation, and very calm observation of the workings of our own mind usually presents answers quite easily.
So, simply by being calm and quiet, analyse what is behind these destructive emotions and learn where the fault really lies.
As all our positive and negative experiences are results of our own karma or actions, only our failure to behave more positive causes all our problems.
The biggest obstacle to rid ourselves of these delusions is habituation. Although it is possible to analyse afterwards why it may have been unjust to become angry at someone, it is not simple to stop oneself before anger comes up.
It should be noted that the ultimate antidote to negative emotions is the wisdom of emptiness. As all distinctions of 'self' and 'other' vanish with this realisation, when all duality vanishes, things like good and bad, or pleasant and unpleasant become meaningless.
Due to the way our mind works, it is quite difficult to make this wisdom 'breakthrough', and analytical meditation is a good starter to work on our day-to-day negative emotions and actions.
You don't have to resign yourself to ordinary suffering, to being always unconscious of what is really going on, helpless before not only society and space and time and others, but more importantly before your own inner drives, impulses and demands.
You need not give up and allow yourself to be buffetted here and there by passions and angers. You can become conscious of what you were formerly unconscious.
You can understand your drives, see where they come from, block the source, and divert the energy for your own use. You can resist all imperatives and learn to wield the underlying energies.
You can reclaim those energies for your life, for your happiness and the happiness of your loved ones.\"
In the way that a gardener knows how to transform compost into flowers, we can learn the art of transforming anger, depression,
and racial discrimination into love and understanding.
This is the work of meditation.
`Thich Nhat Hanh from \"Touching Peace\"
Instead of analysis, one can also learn to deal with negative/problematic emotions by practicing awareness of them, In fact this is a form of Vipassana whereby one focuses on emotions and feelings rather than the sensations of the body.
The basic instruction is simple: 'just observe'.
MTFBWYA
Sogyal Rinpoche writes in Glimpse of the Day:
\"Two people have been living in you all your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to.
As you listen more and more to the teachings, contemplate them, and integrate them into your life, your inner voice, your innate wisdom of discernment, “a discriminating awareness,” is awakened and strengthened, and you begin to distinguish between its guidance and the various clamorous and enthralling voices of ego. The memory of your real nature, with all its splendor and confidence, begins to return to you.
You will find, in fact, that you have uncovered in yourself your own wise guide, and as the voice of your wise guide, or discriminating awareness, grows stronger and clearer, you will start to distinguish between its truth and the various deceptions of the ego, and you will be able to listen to it with discernment and confidence.\"
The most basic method to rid ourselves of negative emotions is via analytical meditation. The reasoning is that the negative emotions are delusions - misunderstandings of reality.
If one analyses the process of how they come about, we can discover where real problem lies. Analytical meditation appears a very good method, as one avoids emotional excitement in meditation, and very calm observation of the workings of our own mind usually presents answers quite easily.
So, simply by being calm and quiet, analyse what is behind these destructive emotions and learn where the fault really lies.
As all our positive and negative experiences are results of our own karma or actions, only our failure to behave more positive causes all our problems.
The biggest obstacle to rid ourselves of these delusions is habituation. Although it is possible to analyse afterwards why it may have been unjust to become angry at someone, it is not simple to stop oneself before anger comes up.
It should be noted that the ultimate antidote to negative emotions is the wisdom of emptiness. As all distinctions of 'self' and 'other' vanish with this realisation, when all duality vanishes, things like good and bad, or pleasant and unpleasant become meaningless.
Due to the way our mind works, it is quite difficult to make this wisdom 'breakthrough', and analytical meditation is a good starter to work on our day-to-day negative emotions and actions.
You don't have to resign yourself to ordinary suffering, to being always unconscious of what is really going on, helpless before not only society and space and time and others, but more importantly before your own inner drives, impulses and demands.
You need not give up and allow yourself to be buffetted here and there by passions and angers. You can become conscious of what you were formerly unconscious.
You can understand your drives, see where they come from, block the source, and divert the energy for your own use. You can resist all imperatives and learn to wield the underlying energies.
You can reclaim those energies for your life, for your happiness and the happiness of your loved ones.\"
In the way that a gardener knows how to transform compost into flowers, we can learn the art of transforming anger, depression,
and racial discrimination into love and understanding.
This is the work of meditation.
`Thich Nhat Hanh from \"Touching Peace\"
Instead of analysis, one can also learn to deal with negative/problematic emotions by practicing awareness of them, In fact this is a form of Vipassana whereby one focuses on emotions and feelings rather than the sensations of the body.
The basic instruction is simple: 'just observe'.
MTFBWYA
Last edit: 16 Mar 2010 14:44 by Garm.
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