TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Many over the years have said that they really don't want what the Eastern teachings offer because they don't want to become "unfeeling robots, sitting on a mat with their legs folded up in front of them and humming while the world is going to hell in a handbasket or while other people are out and about and having fun."
Little do they understand the difference in whatever is driving some persons to live that way vs. what can result if one grasps what comes if the non-dual understanding is combined with an understanding of nisarga yoga.
When that is the case, then persons abide "nisarga-ly" (naturally), and natural abidance has nothing to do with being emotionally-intoxicated and nothing to do with being driven to be robotic or driven to sit on a mat and hum.
Natural abidance has everything to do with tasting the nectar of any or all of the pleasures which the Is-ness offers as long as the pleasures are natural and sane and not detrimental to that elemental plant food body which is temporarily housing the manifested conscious-energy. It also has everything to do with providing a means by which mental / emotional misery and suffering can be alleviated.
Moreover, abiding in a natural, nisarga fashion has nothing to do with being trapped in a continuous state of persona-inspired emoting (and thus fearing and hating) but, instead, has everything to do with feeling (and thus being free of fear and being able to Love).
To be able to differentiate clearly between feeling and emoting, the following is offered from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address):
INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION
Consider:
To "feel" = to perceive; the quality of, or an impression from, something perceived through feeling; an instinctive aptitude.
To "emote" = to express emotion, especially in an excessive or theatrical manner; to display exaggerated emotion, as in acting; to behave theatrically; to give expression or emotion to, as in a stage or movie role;
to be driven by the hidden agendas of ego-states / personas and, therefore, to fail to be in charge of ones thoughts and words and actions; to behave unreasonably or illogically or irrationally or even insanely.
As has been explained previously, there is a differentiation here between feelings and emotions.
There are several reasons:
1. The Realized feel but do not emote. That is the way it is when Reality has been overlaid on the relative, when abidance is happening as the original nature rather than as the ever-in-motion consciousness, and when an understanding of the Oneness leads to feeling Real Love.
2. The non-Realized emote but do not feel. To feel requires an understanding of the Oneness, which the non-Realized do not understand.
3. Thus, the non-Realized emote and become emotionally-intoxicated, but whatever they seem to be "feeling" is really nothing more than a displaying of the extreme sensitivity that results when an ego-state takes itself, and its agendas, to be real.
A person / persona being driven by one or more of its false identities will spend almost every waking hour in a state of hypersensitivity and hypertension, forever anticipating interference, hurts, attacks, assaults, or threats against the false roles that they take to be real. They will forever be in a struggle to uphold the false images that they are projecting and wanting others to accept as authentic.
4. Also, the "non-realized," being emotionally-intoxicated, are driven to act . . . and to act in what is often an extreme manner. When an ego-state thinks it has been offended or is being interfered with, then it will act, but only an ego-state can drive a person to be emotional and to succumb to fluctuations between happiness vs. depression or anger or fear or rage.
For the most part, only witnessing happens among the realized. When actions happen - as they will throughout the waking hours - they will always happen spontaneously but they will never be taken from a state of emotional intoxication.
Ego-states emote. The realized feel.
That is the distinction.
When persons are programmed and conditioned to accept roles as identifiers of who they are, they live the rest of their lives as if they are on stage, in the spotlight, and the center of attention. In accepting the lie as truth, they will live in a state of emotional intoxication, their ideas will be histrionic, and they will be plagued by over-acting and over-reacting.
Persons "live" on stage, constantly playing one role after another and taking their roles to be their real identity / identities. Just as an actor can take his part too seriously and internalize the role as an identity, so too can programmed and conditioned persons act out their roles so often and so seriously that they take the drama that they are a part of to be the real.
That drama is really the “Drama of the Lie,” wherein persons are behaving as if the play-acting they are engaged in is not play-acting at all; behaving as if the roles they are playing actually define who they are; and behaving as if the roles being played by others truly define who they are. It’s all a lie.
PREREQUISITES FOR EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION: Assumption of an Ego-State
An ego-state is that “state” in which a persona seemingly exists, where persons take false roles to be true identity / identities. An ego-state is always identified by placing a word after “I am” (such as, “I am a spouse”; “I am a lover”; “I am an employee,” “I am a teacher,” etc.)
ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES FOR EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION: Believing That an Ego-State Is Real
In order for emotional intoxication to happen, there must first be the assumption of an ego. Ego from Latin, means “I.” Specifically, it is the pronoun used to point to a false self, a false "I," by those who believe any false identity to be real.
MORE PREREQUISITES FOR EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION: The Triggering of Egotism - One of Many Ego-Defense Mechanisms Used to Defend a False Identity
Egotism is one of many ego-defense mechanisms used to defend an assumed ego (or false self), others including projection, rejection of others, justification, victimization, blame, rationalization, grandiosity, excessiveness, and many more.
OTHER PREREQUISITES FOR EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION: Mistaking Emotions for Feelings . . .
Emoting vs. Feeling:
The Realized can feel without attachment and without ever triggering a chain of reactions that result from emotional intoxication. Emoting, on the other hand, is what happens with persons—living in their false roles and ego-states—as they are perpetually intoxicated emotionally and constantly reacting and over-reacting to what they take to be "personal experiences" that are driven by desires / fears.
When AS IF living happens - that being the style of living which the realized exhibit - abidance happens without personal attachments, delusions, or emotional intoxication.
It is the manner in which the realized "finish out" the manifestation, meeting “responsibilities” and providing for the space while knowing full well that “this world” is nothing more than an imagining in the distorted perceptions of persons.
That emotion-free lifestyle (which is not devoid of an ability to feel) is unencumbered with attachment and emotional intoxication and belief in the lies of the culture.
It is a lifestyle that is free of game-playing and image-perpetuation.
It is a lifestyle unmarred by the emotions and emotional intoxication experienced by persons.
It is a lifestyle during which the Realized can witness feelings rise and fall without any emotional intoxication, without reacting, without over-reacting, and without setting off a chain of reactions (as happens with non-Realized persons).
It is a lifestyle that is free of the misery that is generated by the desires / fears of personas.
As a result of assuming false personas as actual identities, the non-realized will be trapped in emotional intoxication and will suffer a relative existence that will be marked by histrionics and drama. The Advaita teachings can address some of the roots of emotional intoxication.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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