Emotions are composites: they are a category. The interactive process that creates emotions is a mixture of primal and conditional factors that create our emotional state. The same way an artist pulls primary colors off to one end of his pallet to create the perfect hue, tone and saturation; our mental states relationship, intensity and viewpoint collect to form our emotional response.
The word emotion comes from the 16th century French word emouvoir, or “to stir up or agitate.” The image of mental or physical action giving rise to an aggregate of responses which become more instinctual as we develop the conditioning and habits of our lives is appropriate. The more often we act unmindfully, the more likely we are to “stir up” our emotion. The more often we fall into emotional response, the more likely it is that we will identify these emotions as a part of the definition of who we are as people. The effects of emotions are physical as well as mental, and help cement the concepts of an “I” identity.
The mental and bodily changes we see as unavoidable and real to who we are actually delusions where our conditioned responses perceive meaningful and solid content. It is only through mindful investigation; contemplation and meditation that we can start to recognize that emotions are not objects, but convergence of perceptual feelings and habitual behaviors whose associations are easily deconstructed when identified.
This is not to dismiss the importance of emotions, or conditioning. The Buddha did not teach, “give up emotion, preferences, etc. …” Emotions have a evolutionary importance: they help organize our lives and have social as well as protective benefits. In moments of danger fear can trigger physical responses that may save your life. In moments of love they may help create stronger social bonds for harmonious living.
Evolutionarily emotions focus the body. Some emotions energize us, like anger and fear. Some relax us: When you hear tires screech, you get hyper focused to see the danger. Emotions mobilize us to respond physically and mentally in different ways.
Socially, emotions create states that work for the social survival. The emotional responses are often automatic and semi-conscious, which means that the appropriate awareness and actions needed are not always acted on. So we look for a state of mindfulness that is consciously aware of what is and what is not—so that we can find the appropriate response. Nevertheless, unmindful awareness of what is emotion creates unwholesome emotional physical and mental states: lust, hatred, greed, delusion, horror, dread, etc.
Through Buddhist practice we can create conditioning of continual mindfulness and awareness; universal acceptance and loving kindness; and a life of wisdom, ethics and concentration.
Emotions are a filter how we see the world, and how we choose to see and react to the world. How we feel about the world effects how we see the world. This cycle wraps around us like a bandage until it becomes hard and solid like a cast. Without an awareness of the nature of emotion leads to distortions of reasoning and strengthens egotism.
In Buddhism, the conditions that reinforce our sensations of pleasant (sukhaa vedanaa) and unpleasant (dukkhaa vedanaa) create cravings for attraction (saarajjati) and repulsion (byaapajjati). It is these cravings that create the concepts of like (anurodha) and dislike (virodha). These craving concepts are part of the aggregate factors that create our emotions and thus how we engage in the world. It is the filter that we very often filter our judgment that lead to unmindful aversion, attraction and ignorance. These judgments of the present moment thus are rarely created with conscious and mindful understanding but from conditioned habits (anusaya). In these conditions, we are reactive instead of proactive.
When we follow the daily practice of Buddhism: develop concentration through meditation, develop ethics by following the five precepts, developing wisdom through continual investigation to our relationship with the world—we create new conditions. We create an environment within ourselves that are conducive to proactively engaging with the world. We create stillness that allows us to be more mindful of the subtle semi-conscious habits that pull us like the tides and eddies pull driftwood along a river. We create boundaries for ourselves so that we are free from temptations and dangers of unethical and heedless living and their consequences. Understanding how to apply these skills into the investigation of the world around and within us, gives us the awareness of what is and what is not so that we can engage fully with the world.
Being emotional is not unBuddhist, but we should use our emotional states as a tool in our choices how we create the world engagement; not have emotions determine our actions we make.
(thanks to Gil Fronsdal who inspired a lot of this topic)
There are times in which emotions are useful. Anger, fear, etc– they focus us. Not all fear is unBuddhist and unwise. When a tiger walks into the room, our conditioning kicks in the biological instincts: blood rushes to our legs, our minds race to calculate survival options and our eyes become almost tunnel vision as we become hyperaware.
But so much of our life runs on autopilot. We don’t choose to use emotions like fear as a tool, but let it control our lives.
While emotions, passions, lusts, etc. are intense emotions that create stimulate the senses — they rob us in the end. Like a drug that gives us an incredible high, they eventually lead to heedlessness, suffering, and the eventual lows that are the result of all hindrances.