Teachings,+The+Values+of+Emotions

The Values of Emotions
(By Sam)(ael)

Questions
Emotions are a heavily debated Subject in many arenas and Schools of thought. They are capable of producing power in an individual, but they also create some weaknesses. In some ways we can control our emotions, in certain situations we actually cannot. Emotions are natural reactions designed to help us survive, but we also have the capacity to rise above emotion altogether. Which of all of these is the course we must walk for the best results? Where is the line between being humans or robots, minds or hearts?

Emotions Leading to Action
It is not hard to see one defining difference set into all Emotions if you will look with me for a moment, and in many ways the ability to benefit from any emotion is defined by this one trait. Action. Which emotions motivate you and help you to act? Think about it like this. All emotions are brought about originally as a reaction to a situation. usually the reactions we consider negative come out in bad situations with a few noteable good ones. But the measure of whether these emotions help us in this situation is in whether or not it motivates us to act in a way that will better our situation or at least improve our chances of success at a reasonable price. Now let us look at which emotions motivate actions (Powerful action) -**Anger** Anger can be very useful if we channel it into destroying our obstacles. If we have a really tough project that we are afraid to tackle or just don't feel like doing getting angry at the fact that such a simple thing can best you can motivate you to clobber that problem and get it over with. That is valuable. -**Compassion** Compassion can motivate you to do very great things even though it is not always considered a powerful emotion. If you are willing to listen to your desire to help others it can lead you to tackle monsters others would never dream of challenging. Many of the principles of freedom you enjoy were fought for and won by people full of compassion. -**Love** Love in a pure form is being willing to let go of the things you care about to help someone else. It is also the sincere feeling of acceptance and approval of the person despite their imperfections. Love is compassion specifically focused on a person or group of people while compassion is an almost universal form of love for all. -**Hatred** Hatred is usually based upon crimes commited upon you or your pure dislike of a person based upon qualities they have that you find offensive or worse. Hatred can cause you to take action and stick with it beyond reason and it can overcome fear and keep you focused on acting against this person. -**Terror** Terror is an extreme form of fear. When eough fear fills a person they will lose all composure and do anything to escape the terror that has presented itself.

(Simple Action) -**Sorrow** Sorrow does have one function. Crying or mourning. Though many think these a weakness it is actually a healthy action allowing you to let go of emotional tension. With sorrow it can be very helpful to let the feelings flow and then let go of them. It can be a very effective way of making peace. -**Fear** Fear can cause us to react of stay active. When afraid they you will get shot you are motivated to remain crouched in a trench despite great pain and that benefits you. -**Pain/injury** This is a knee-jerk response to pain. When you burn your hand, when you cut your finger, when you stub your toe you immediately take action to reduce the pain and avoid the source of the damage. Other types of pain can be harnessed in this way. When your friend really hurts your feelings you might use that pain to help you leave that friend and find better friends.

(Passive Action) -**Fear** Fear keeps us sharp on the lookout for danger. In every horrer movie the director uses that lingering fear (usually produced with gory scenes and scary music) to take small things out of purportion. How many times does the protagonist turn a corner and a startled dove flies away making the whole audience jump. Fear... Makes your senses sharp and activates your wary caution. -**Hope** Hope can help you to take chances. One of these chances is just to try. -**Obsessive Love** Obsessive love is actually fear of losing the object of love. Like fear it makes you very aware. -**Admiration** Admiration allows us to follow other people's examples which can not only help us to take action but help us to take effective action. -**Envy** Envy is lust after something that another person has. This can motivate you to get it yourself. -**Malice/Spite** This is a purely evil emotion but it functions as a Passive action motivater. A Person full of spite will go out of their way to make things miserable for other people. -**Benevolence** Benevolence is a purely good emotion parallel to Spite and Malice. This is the emotional drive to make things better for others and to go out of your way to make it so.

(No Action) -**Self Pity** Self pity is a death emotion. It causes no action, it has no benefits. This is the desire to simply lay down and die.

Accepting Emotions as our Nature
Now we must realize that emotion is in our nature. Originally it was an animal instinct. Danger caused fear which helped us be ready for more danger. Love helps us to bond and take care of each other. Hatred helps us to eliminate individuals and concepts that are dangerous to us though it is often used on other simply because they are different because differences are a little threatening to animals. Anger helped us to overcome obstacles that measured efforts did not work on. It allowed us to temporarily disregard danger in order to break through our blocks. These emotions are only good for us if they are used in the right context though and so only individuals that were emotionally healthy would be able to succeed. As society advances our emotions become more confused. Media attempts to use fear, sexual desires, and excitement to make a thrilling ride. We spend entire movies full of fear telling ourselves the fear isn't real and time and again we are right. Sadly this causes us to fear at all the wrong times and be calm at all the wrong times. Media especially glorifies situations where we shouldn't feel a certain way but are lead to in THAT specific case. Instances of cheating on spouses 'because I'm in love' or 'I met my soul mate after my wife' destroy our ability to feel as we should in more and more sitations.

We must recognize that emotions are natural to use. We must recognize that they can be useful. But we must remember that they are becoming less trustworthy and must therfore be monitered and possibly controlled.

Emotion Versus Calm
One could argue that Calm is the absences of Emotions. Yet some people say things like 'I feel calm now'. Semantics? I think not. What I consider calm is the balance of an emotionally healthy person. I think calm is what we should feel at nearly all times. Only when faced with situations where a steady and calm application of skill will not pass us should we have to resort to emotions. Furthermore in reversed view of this sections title I think that Calm is not the suppression of feelings and Emotions, but the healthy and balanced management of your emotions. Passion is often a state of no control. When we get angry as a reaction to things we start losing control of ourselves, usually due to an already unstable emotional center in ourselves. In order to be healthy we must take time to cultivate emotional health. This means seeking to understand why we feel the way we do and seeking to make peace with these feelings. Sometimes this requires us to act. Some things have to be fixed in order to be tolerable. It is up to us to understand, to fix, to care for, and to nurture our emotional maturity.

Our Capacity to be Human
There are very few things that we accept as 'human'. Technically anything a human tends to do is human. If that were the case though than you could easily call the human race evil because among our most common qualities are the least honorable. Lies, deciet, murder, torture, abuse, and hatefulness. So why do people refer to being benevolent and compassionate as being Humane? Is it wishful thinking? Are some people good and the rest don't count as human? I think that Humanity has a purpose and those who are humane are filling that purpose. I think the fullest capacity of a human being involves a single emotion expressed in many ways that is common and beneficial to all. Love.