As you know, many posts on Ox Herding involve examination of various feelings, both pleasant and unpleasant. I write about this because it's a way for me to learn more about "my" mind.
But this can be a tricky process, especially when I start to believe in my feelings and emotions.
That's why I was pleased to read the following passage, written by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, in the current issue of Tricycle Magazine:
All too often we think that getting in touch with our emotions is a means of tapping into who we really are - that we've been divorced from our true nature, and that by getting back in touch with our emotions we'll reconnect with our true identity.
But your emotions are not your true nature; they're just as fabricated as anything else.
Because they're fabricated, the real issue is to learn how to fabricate them skillfully, so they don't lead to trouble and can instead lead to a trustworthy happiness.
Remember that emotions cause you to act. They're paths leading to good or bad karma. When you see them as paths, you can transform them into a path you can trust.
Source: "Head and Heart Together," Tricycle Magazine, Summer 2009
Photo: Tina Tervo
"They" always leave us hanging. How, how, how?
Posted by: Lauren Crane | June 23, 2009 at 06:42 AM
Rrrrrggggghhh.
(Actually, we're the ones doing the hanging. Thanks, Lauren!)
Posted by: Barry Briggs | June 23, 2009 at 06:44 AM
Wonderful! By transforming our problems into our inspirations, we can truly learn something from the ineffable. Nishijima Roshi said something like that. I've always loved that!
Great post, Barry!
Posted by: Uku | June 23, 2009 at 08:19 AM
"Actually, we're the ones doing the hanging"
By our teeth from a tree limb.
By our hand from a vine (hopefully eating berries) while mice nibble.
Posted by: Lauren | June 23, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Transform them into a path you can trust. Fabulous post, Barry. Very subtle but profound distinction there. I would say most people I know don't get that, the difference between your emotions and you're true nature. But then I guess to even begin to glimpse that one would have had to look into one's own nature via some serious quiet time (hahem...meditation). And most people don't do that.
Thanks for this post. Really important.
Posted by: Molly Brown | June 23, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Hi Uku - Zen Master Seung Sahn used to say that our problems made good manure for a healthy garden!
Hi Lauren - Oh, those strawberries!
Posted by: Barry Briggs | June 23, 2009 at 02:08 PM
Hi Molly - Thank you for your kind comment. It's amazing what we can discover when we look. And, yes, meditation is one way of doing that!
Posted by: Barry Briggs | June 23, 2009 at 02:09 PM
Is compassion an emotion? Are emotions a manifestation of attachment? Not to go all Mr. Spock here, but isn't it true that emotions engender a kind of blindness. Certainly acting from a basis of such delusion cannot be wise or result in good.
Just some thoughts.
David
Posted by: David Clark | June 23, 2009 at 03:14 PM
You ask a very good question, David. I view compassion as a way of functioning in the world, not a feeling-state.
Emotions are clearly feeling-states and, as such, flicker in and out of existence. We cannot depend upon them.
Compassion, however, allows us to function beneficially, no matter what the feeling-state might be. For example, as I've written before, loving-anger is a state in which the fierce energy of the anger feeling-state is used to benefit others.
My reading of the passage in today's post is that, since we fabricate feeling-states, we must accept responsibility for them - and not let them wreak havoc.
Posted by: Barry Briggs | June 23, 2009 at 07:50 PM
"as a way of functioning in the world, not a feeling-state."
Nice point. Is love a "feeling" or is love a verb? Never though the same way about compassion.
Perhaps empathy is the feeling and compassion is the verb?.... gotta love semantics.
Posted by: Lauren Crane | June 24, 2009 at 06:43 AM
Hi Lauren - If love is a feeling, then it's no wonder that so many marriages fail. Because those feelings we call love tend to fade away when the hormones settle down.
The Buddha taught the Brahma Viharas - Loving-kindness, compassion, empathy (sympathetic joy) and equanimity as ways of being in the world - of relating to the world with responsibility and commitment. In my understanding of the Brahma Viharas, he didn't view them as feeling-states but as function-states (to coin a phrase) that reflect how we relate to others.
Posted by: Barry Briggs | June 24, 2009 at 06:01 PM