Blessings,
These are some thoughts that came to me during my meditation on emotions and their usefulness on the Yogic Path.
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[li]E-motions = Energy in motion and the feeling that comes from that movement
[/li][li]As energy flows through a smooth surface there is an experience of joy and bliss. When jagged and rocky there is the experience of anger and frustration.
[/li][li]As the energy moves through our memories, perceptions, experiences ? it has a feeling, a taste, a quality and sensation ? this is what we call emotions. Behind our feelings is just an energy reacting and being filtered ? being received, rejected, quickened, agitated, etc?
[/li][li]We can dam these channels in the hopes of building the energy, but instead it often just causes tension, friction, and pressure. We can widen the channels, but this causes loss, slowing down the energy, and eventually drying up. We can smooth the path, even out the flow, chip away the barriers, the jaggedness and transform those areas of friction so that the energy can flow smoothly and evenly. Slowly we build the energy, slowly we increase our capacity ? this is what i have found to work.
[/li][li]Those who seek to dam it off, to close themselves off from the experience, to hide from the energy, they are the ones that lose out in knowledge, experience, power, and the wonder of being alive ? of feeling.
[/li][li]When we channel the lower emotions, that raw force, that real presence of being here, it rips at us, drowns us in its experience. When we use yogic techniques to control and use this excess energy via the breath, posture, and willful intentionality of awareness, it is like bringing oxygen to a fire. No longer does it simmer, it becomes a raging forest fire. To have that much energy is dangerous. Without a channel it can become something akin to fiendfyre in Harry Potter: consuming its wielder.
[/li][li]So we give it a channel to move upward ? that raw bundle of energy ? and use it to purify those blocks, knots, and obstacles that are in its way.
[/li][li]Emotions act as a two-fold teacher. On one side they become a thing we must balance, minimize, weaken, transform, and in some cases, eliminate. This help strengthen our will, focus our minds, and learn about energy. In learning about energy we learn what it is, how to use it, and ultimately how to transform it. On the other side emotions teach us to connect, to experience, to be present with what is before us.
[/li][li]Learning about emotions is to learn about ourselves. They take us to our depths. They show us where we are unbalanced, what is going on inside us, what energies are around us, how things unbalance us, what things we like and dislike, when we are still caught up, and so on. They help us on the Path by becoming the Path. They have a way of showing us who we are ? at least ? who we project ourselves to be and how that projection is upset when things are not flowing our way.
[/li][li]Trust the body ? the body knows how to work with energy
[/li][li]One yogic way, the transcendental approach, is to channel all that energy ? mental, emotional, physical, etc ? into one stream, and then jump out of the stream all together: why swim when you can fly:)
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What thoughts have you on emotions? Are they useful or just a distraction? Is there a connection between emotions and the Kundalini?
Blessings Be…