GENIUS FORUMS

(I didn't finsish this post, but I'll post it anyway. Enough there for some to ponder, perhaps)

The entire secret to the best possible experience of life, of reality, is obtained through learning moderation.

That run of the mill comment seems such a shallow statement. Yeah sure we all know that.
For me the beauty of the comment, comes from knowing why it is true.

Moderation of one's physical and mental actions, arises by two means only - suffering and reasoning.

All emotions are in fact suffering. If you change the angle upon which you mentally gaze at the concept of suffering, then it can become obvious that that all joy, all passions, stem entirely from suffering.

This can be explained in two ways, firstly there is the relationship of the intent of the word suffering to manner in which the brain reacts to the experiences of the body. Secondly, there is the manner in which the brain reacts to its ego. The ego is the manner in which accumulated experiences are categorised and ordered in one's memory.

The brain reacts to the body, that is in itself reacting to the environment. Joy and discontentment and happiness and sadness and love and hate are just different stimulants for the brain to determine the actions required for survival.

Even one's "instinct for survival" is determined by the state of the ego, and the ego is a learnt thing built upon a semi-mutant* genetic structure (genetic = human software/instructions) heading in its own direction. We are all morphing programs (but then so is everything else).

{"semi-mutant": Sexualization is dualistic, it is a mixing of differentiated entities, the outcome of which is mutational -as in a different configuration eventuates from that which formed the outcome. This does not mean that separately formed mutations are still not for the most part alike in nature, it just means an observable difference is possible [and should we ever be able to observe at the quark/string level, somewhat expected. }

From this "outside yourself" perspective, emotions are just points of action on a particular plane within reality. There are no good or bad or negative or positive associated with these points. All emotions are just points on the same value plane*. Emotional values are determined by the ego. I would imagine that the egos "value index" is contained within the facilities of the hippocampus, should it be that the hippocampus is the localised brain that controls the inputs and outputs of the limbic system.

{*..and this is the same way "a thing" becomes a thing in your brain. Thingness is essentially the act of the brain making different properties of reality into a single property of reality. The letter T is the letter T, not because it is the letter T, but because it has properties that give the appearance of the letter T. One of those properties is the "context", a T shape in bunch of Lego pieces, is not the letter T, but place it on a sheet of paper and it may suddenly become so. Context is another word for environment. Even the word "Environment" is just a term for the manner in which one emotionalises the reality they experience. Emotions cause the mind to take certain points of view, it makes assessment occur from certain perspectives - most commonly the ego and its programmed desires, form one side of the dualistic occurrence, and the ego is the normal foundation for relationships to events.}

Now, emotions and its associated ego are our natural state. We cannot be "humanly alive" without them, however in terms of "overall value" to an entity, it really just depends on how they are used. There is where moderation steps in. Moderation is the term we use for the value given to approximately equal combinations of both emotions and reason.

Moderation by reasoning does not mean that there are times when immoderation of action is not the most rational action. Emotional catalysts and break outs are useful tools we have evolved providing they are used in concert with some forethought and much afterthought.

A sage moderates their behaviour by not valuing a centralised ego, although even this action occurs within the wider centralised self-ego. All the rest of us moderate our behaviour by the mental experience of emotional suffering. When we suffer we instinctually start to value reason more highly. This however does not mean we reason enough to really solve problems from the "what is likely to happen in the future" perspective, rather we reason enough to at least temporarily distract ourselves from suffering.

In any thought that enters one's awareness, the percentage of emotional content and the percentage of reason always sum to 1. Don't be fooled by the fact that reasoning leads to progression, and thus seems to be an additive thing. Sure there would be no human race without us evolving more "reasoning-awareness", than primate "emotional-awareness", but I can assure you that the act of reasoning means to diminish "emotional awareness", during the period of reasoning. [here is an example, when you are really busy at work, then the day seems to go quicker - why?, well it is just because overall you are reasoning more. If you are stressed through overwork, then your ego will react and cause you to emote more, and your reasoning will then suffer and be utilised less, causing the days to drag on].

However, it is all still just "one awareness", and the only form of awareness is emotional awareness. Reasoning is never felt. The nice feeling you may feel when a rational idea pops into your head, one's development of a love for truth, is a result of reasoning, but is not reasoning itself. Rather this pleasure stems from flow on effect, from the value, or degree of desire one's ego places upon knowing reality. In the same way an athlete's ego is pleased by feeling physically powerful, so to do many more temporal folk gain ego satisfaction from reasoning, be it a puzzle or a philosophical perspective.

I think I see where you're going. You're almost equating awareness and emotion, but I think you're confusing the feltness of awareness with actual emotion. This is a tricky subject, because most people don't make distinctions between sentimental or psychological "emotions" and physical emotions. Awareness itself is neither, although it contains both. Realizing the difference between the two types of emotions might help to clarify what felt awareness actually is.

It's very simple once you're familiar with the different types of energy. You could say they reside in or emanate from two different places within your awareness. Physical emotion is just that--physical--and feels like an actual emanation. The feeling of joy and fun is a physical emotion, as is the feeling of pride (in this case, pride removed from comparisons). These are feelings that urge you to action or activity for the fun of it, or at least for a particular dignified purpose. Psychological feelings, on the other hand, are softer and more vulnerable. They are decidedly "not masculine." They involve feelings of security and "happiness," as well as desire (or any lacks thereof). They seem to come from a deeper place than physical emotions; they go in at the base of you rather than come out. They are what is repressed within you if there is repression, rather than what is merely blocked as physical emotion.

Physical emotional blocks affect you physically, while psychological repression of course affects you psychologically. They both lead to different forms of suffering, but psychological pain is the more difficult form to deal with. Dealing with it actually increases the suffering temporarily because you have to bring up and examine the feeling you've been hiding. When you are able to understand yourself as awareness that is unaffected by the "suffering," it will then be easy for those feelings to change into their more healthy expressions. This is not as hard or complicated, or "advanced," as it sounds.

Awareness in actuality is not affected by any suffering. The suffering occurs when there is imagined to be something other than awareness where you can store unwanted feelings out of sight. The feelings, of course, never go anywhere; they are just in a dark place, for safe-keeping. As they sit in this dark place, your awareness is not too happy creating your reality through your perception with these skeletons in the closet threatening to pop out at any moment. They will constantly let you know they're there, in their own disturbing way, even if you adamantly refuse to look over your shoulder! If you can sneak a peak and hold the gaze, you'll realize they cannot actually affect you unless you let them within your perception. There is no power outside of you.