Emotions In Buddhism

[Ijustwannateach]

I am very much a newbie to Buddhism, so please excuse me if I misstep in my questions or comments.

I am curious to know: how are emotions regarded in Buddhism? It seems that things like desire, suffering, etc. are both regarded as things to be avoided- how about other emotions- anger, joy, fear, regret?

I am under the impression that most emotions are suspect and to be avoided- but would this be a repression of emotions, an avoidance, a detachment? What word would be most appropriate?

Are there techniques for keeping emotions under control in Buddhism, or is control not exactly the goal?

"Steven"

[chownah]

Without going into details, I believe that the basic approach is to observe the emotions as they arise in your consciousness, watch them as they manifest and as they pass away. In other words, the approach is not to repress the emotions but to learn how they arise. If you study the Buddha's teachings you will see that the bulk of what is taught is how to see the roots of the emotions and thoughts and how to cut the roots before they arise.....sort of.

[FlyingDutchman]

Expressing [true] joy is 'done', expressing [loud] 'anger' is not-done; fill in the rest ...

[sabaijai]

I am very much a newbie to Buddhism, so please excuse me if I misstep in my questions or comments.

I am curious to know: how are emotions regarded in Buddhism? It seems that things like desire, suffering, etc. are both regarded as things to be avoided- how about other emotions- anger, joy, fear, regret?

I am under the impression that most emotions are suspect and to be avoided- but would this be a repression of emotions, an avoidance, a detachment? What word would be most appropriate?

Are there techniques for keeping emotions under control in Buddhism, or is control not exactly the goal?

"Steven"

Steven there have been two really good threads on the topic of emotions - to suppress or not to suppress, to express or not to express, etc - in this forum so far, plus a few other threads that have touched on it. I did a search for "emotions" in the Buddhism forum and came up with these two I thought were worth looking at:

Anger! What should a Buddhist do?

Jai Yen - Are you a fan?

You'll also see how the topic of emotions itself can quickly generate strong emotions.

I think Buddhism approaches emotion from several different angles, depending on which text you're reading or which teacher you're listening to. One of the things that always sticks with me is the knowledge that emotions, like everything else, are impermanent and without essence. Not something solid that's inside you and has to come out, rather stuff that floats by in a sort of vapour, which you can then choose to add solidity to or allow to thin on its own. This is what Chownah is referring to I think - if you observe your emotions, are mindful of them, they simply disappear. And if you observe closely enough you begin to see patterns in how and when they arise. You can then choose to avoid those patterns, if you think it's appropriate, etc.

The other aspect I think about from time to time relates to a clinical psychology study I once read about. The psychologists compared a cross-section of people who claimed they acted on their emotions with a cross-section of those who said they did not, then ran a correlation with stress indicators (galvanic skin responses, blood pressure, heartbeat, frequency of headaches, fatigue, etc). The conclusion was that those subjects who reported they did not act out their emotions generally showed less overall stress. As I recall, it was somewhat of an academic breakthrough in the sense that previously it was thought that those who didn't act on their emotions (whether socially or through sports, banging a pillow, etc) were somehow suppressing them, and that this was physically and/or psychologically unhealthy.

One alleged dilemma in all this is the question of 'righteous anger' (if such exists), eg., if we don't get angry over social injustices, for example, how can we solve these problems? I think in one of the two links above, someone goes into that.

[robitusson]

My understanding is that it's when we start to grasp onto our emotions and desires, that's when emotions are harmful. If our ego identifies with something like a desire for something or anger, for example, then we can become deluded and this causes us and others to suffer. The way to avoid this is letting our emotions, anger and desires come and go without passing judgement on them as good, bad or indifferent and without projecting our ego onto them and mistakenly identifying them as ourselves. Easier said than done.

Have a look at this.

http://www.lamayeshe.com/lamazopa/advicebo...ons/index.shtml

[suegha]

It can all be paraphrased as 'Managing your emotions' to use modern speak. It's not 'bottling up' your emotions, it's trying to understand them and then choosing the resultant behaviour, as we all choose our behaviour.

A road rage example might help. If you suffer from road rage, it's a chosen behaviour, bottling it up would be bad. To manage your road rage you must go through a few steps: ask yourself why? then ask your self what good it does? what's the benefit? then examine the situations which trigger these emotions, then re-frame the situation. So if you get cut up by another car and it's being driven badly (in an unsafe way). Firstly ask yourself the above questions then say to yourself something like, 'He may have just got a call from the hospital and one of his children has been taken in and maybe that's why he's driving like a maniac. You then make the choice not to be angry.

I hope this makes sense!

Edited February 7, 2006 by suegha

[Ijustwannateach]

thanks for all the ideas, guys, and thanks sabaijai for the links- I'll read over them.

"Steven"