Edward’s Diary Entry 127: More on Feelings...

The most popular article on this blog since it started up is about “The Feelings”, so let’s take a new look at feelings and emotions for our growing audience.

Now “feelings” may be very popular, but when we look at our Mind Map, they seem to occupy a very tiny place in the whole arrangement, which might be a problem for the feeling-oriented! …Not that feelings cannot be very powerful and produce all kinds of reactions, both good and bad. Of course they do. But they can be seen to be dependent on either of two processes:

1) The Bodily Sensations, Movements and Reflexes. When “pushed” from the body, what we can call the Emotional Process may generate first, emotions, and then cognised emotions can become actual Feelings.

2) The Thought Process itself. When the Thought Process generates a thought that “connects” to the Emotional Process, it generates Feelings.

So Feelings can arise from either of these two areas, which are not mutually exclusive and may interact. What seems reasonable is to suppose that in any case a “Thought” is triggered first (from either direction) and that Thought, being given more energy, is converted into a Feeling. It’s as simple as that. A Feeling is an energised and augmentative root-thought. Here is another view of our Mind Map, showing the place of Feelings:

Awareness (Chitta) “I”, the Observer, the Witness, That which sees but cannot be seen, hears but cannot be heard, etc.	Source of Consciousness /  (Self-Awareness) Corresponds to “Being”	ßß Sense Organs	E X T E R N A L W O R L D
Identity (Ahankara) When sufficient Awareness is not present, the Will is usurped by a spurious “I” (a fragmented will) which attaches to or is engulfed by a Thought, Feeling or Action.	Source of Will / (Fragmented will) Corresponds to “Willing”
Intellect (Buddhi) Thinking or thought process, Producing emotions, feelings. Receiving sensations and bodily movements.	Source of Function Corresponds to Functioning Thoughts Feelings Movements/Actions/ Reflexes
Memory (Manas) Automatic “Image picturing” and “Word thinking”, of which one is aware or unaware (unconscious origin), triggering more of the same, and occasionally triggering thoughts or feelings of one kind or another.	Internal Mental Action - with “Will” and “Intellect” dipping into Memory, and triggering Thought, Feelings or Movements/Actions/ Reflexes
↑↑  ↑↑      Bodily organs     BODY

But, in addition, we have to recognise that there are different variations of human beings – we are not all of the same “type”. And Feelings will be stronger or more frequent in some than in others.

1. Enneagram personalities 5, 6, 7. Some of us live more in our thoughts. We intellectualise most of the time, we have more difficulty recognising and connecting with our Feelings and those of others. We live more in the head brain.

2. Enneagram personalities 2, 3, 4. Some of us transform thoughts more easily into Feelings, and are more connected to our feeling patterns and, when not self-obsessed, can actually connect with the Feelings of others.

3. Enneagram personalities 1, 8, 9. Others are simply too active or action-based to bother too much about thoughts and feelings – we just do things all the time, and thoughts and feelings trail behind our actions.

And then comes the question of more or less Self-Awareness, or a degree of initial separation within the Mind-Stuff to permit a certain level of objectivity. The lower awareness is, the more engulfed in reaction we are; the higher our awareness, the more “control” we exercise over thoughts and feelings…

3 Degrees (minus, midrange and plus):

S-A 2-.  In low awareness, the “pushes” from downstairs or upstairs bypass the Intellect, and are immediately infused with Identity (a piece of fragmented will), and automatically trigger a reaction in the form of an Emotion, Feeling, or Reflex Action, as in self-defence, or perhaps offense against a supposed instigator.

As an example of Body to Feelings, take someone who insists they are “afraid of insects” (Identity engulfed in Memory), automatically getting anxious, putting on a painful expression and waving their hands around because of a buzzing fly.

As an example of Thought to Feelings, imagine someone who is a out-and-out bullfighting opponent (Identity attached to a belief in Memory) feeling incensed and insulted upon seeing a famous bullfighter walking down the street in Spain!

S-A 2.  In occasional Self-Awareness, the “pushes” from downstairs or upstairs may either bypass the Intellect, resulting in the above, or are classified by it into desirable or undesirable stimuli, where Non-Virtuous Feelings are nipped in the bud, by the application of non-judgmental Awareness. This may also happened socially, but it is of the judgmental kind, when it is “not appropriate” to express a certain Feeling, and this emotion (having been produced) is forthwith repressed, which may subsequently cause upset in the Thinking Process (as in self-incrimination, guilt and increased anxiety over guilt).

S-A 2+. In more frequent practise of Self-Awareness, a “space” or “distance” is created between Awareness and the Identity-Intellect-Memory section of the Mind, and the “pushes” from downstairs or upstairs may still occasionally bypass the Intellect, resulting in the above, or more frequently they are observed as being desirable and acted on and emoted to, producing Feelings and Action. If undesirables are detected, increased Awareness helps to see them and cancel them out. This result is greater inner freedom, saves energy by non-emoting negative feelings, and automatically brings more of the positive feelings.

As an example of Body to Feelings, take a Self-Awareness practitioner who realises he receives strong messages from the stomach that it wants food, but refuses to give it food until a pre-established time.

As an example of Thought to Feelings, imagine a reasonably aware subject who in the face of an angry person who cannot stop talking, breathes deeply, repeats the initial instruction calmly, and keeps a potentially explosive situation from getting worse.

And so, we come back to the knowledge of and practise of the Virtues, as widely discussed on this blog. As far as Feelings are concerned, modern theories about “normal human emotions” are entirely fallacious and we cannot reasonably subscribe to them at all. The so-called negatives are due to wrong Thinking. Once wrong Thinking is rectified, all Feelings will be positives, thereby overcoming our inheritance from the mammals, which developed all kinds of emotions over millions of years, and which we now transform thanks to Consciousness into truly human positives. 

When we say that feelings like fear, despair, impatience, envy, sadness, boredom, anxiety, annoyance, irritation, anger, frustration, nervousness, jealousy, disgust, contempt, hostility, guilt and pride are "natural" or "normal", it is just an excuse for unconscious lowly human behaviour, as most of the time these negatives don’t make anything – either things, situations, relationships or people, or even our own Selves – any better. 

More soon...