So this is an introduction to the meditation on dealing with our emotions.
When we're talking about emotions,
First of all it's quite important to distinguish between positive,
Helpful emotions and those which are negative and harmful.
And doing that is actually much more easier than you might imagine.
In general when we're looking at the difference differentiating between a positive or negative emotion,
The first thing is that a negative emotion will always be uncomfortable and agitated in the mind.
Whereas a positive emotion will tend to be much more calm and much more balanced,
Much more healthy in the mind.
So with that negative emotion there's this sense of discomfort and agitation.
The other way to distinguish between these two types of emotions is that with a negative one there's the tendency to be much more unrealistic than with a positive one.
Research has actually shown that for example anger,
When you're angry with a certain person,
The person as you see them through your anger is actually 90% your own projection and only 10% the actual person out there in the world.
So there's an enormous amount of projection or fabrication going on when we have negative emotions.
Now obviously the result of these emotions in the mind is different as well because negative emotions tend to cause discomfort and harm to the mind and that harm can then lead to verbal and physical harm that we do to other people as well.
So negative emotions again have this,
The way they produce,
The effect they produce is very much a harmful effect.
Whereas the opposite is true for positive emotions.
So here in this meditation here we're looking at trying to reduce and work with these negative emotions so that they don't control us like they do normally.
Now when we look at how to work and how to try and reduce these negative emotions the first step really involves a recognition of negative emotions.
Some emotions we find such as attachment and so forth can fool us into thinking that they're helping us or they're positive.
Whereas they're not.
So the first thing to do is distinguish very clearly and to understand those negative emotions are harmful.
And then when we look at how to deal with those emotions through meditation we're looking at a middle way when we see the way in which emotions have been dealt with through psychology,
Through other types of systems,
We see there are two extremes.
The first is the suppression of an emotion.
Now suppression clearly doesn't work.
Suppression means you just put the lid on it and eventually the thing will boil up and explode.
So suppression is clearly accepted and understood not to work.
The other extreme is expression of emotion.
Now this technique is still used today within certain psychological and psychotherapeutic techniques to let the emotion out.
Go and scream,
Go and beat up a pillow,
Go and run or something.
The problem with this though is that again all you're doing is hardening,
Hard wiring the emotion into your mind.
So that yes it may be some there may be some temporary benefit in expressing the motion but long term you're simply making it worse.
You're going to get angry again tomorrow and the next day because you're following that emotion.
In this meditation we're going to take the middle way between those two.
We're not suppressing,
Neither are we expressing,
But we're simply observing the emotion.
And by doing that we're creating some sort of distance in our in our minds between us and them in the emotion.
We recognize that we're not the emotion.
It's something that's arising within our mind and therefore we can just let it go.
And with practice if you do this meditation regularly you'll find that you will be able to do this.
You'll wake up in the morning in a bad mood or through depression or anxiety.
You'll be able to observe it as simply a thought in your mind and let it go on its way within seconds.
So this observing of the emotion is what we're doing in this with motion in this in this meditation.
Now to observe the emotion we do it on two levels.
We do it on a mental level and a physical level.
So we look at it how does it feel?
We bring the emotion up into our minds and we analyze how does this feel?
Is it uncomfortable?
Is it tense?
Is it relaxed?
Is it hot or cold?
Has it got a shape or a form to it?
We examine it in as much detail as we can.
And then we do the same thing for the physical level.
Emotions manifest at a certain place within our bodies.
So we look at that.
Which place in the body is it mostly manifesting?
How is it manifesting?
Is it calm or agitated,
Hot or cold?
We examine in as much detail as we can.
Observing how the emotion is affecting the body.
And when we do that on the on the mental level and on the physical level we're creating through observance we're creating this distance between us and the emotion and that allows us to just let the emotion go.
Rather than identifying with it and following it.
So what follows will be the actual meditation.
