Monday 14 June 2010

Discipline the battle between emotions and reason

How we perceive existence and everything we experience within it depends on our senses and external conditions which are in constant flux with no fixed nature to any condition, which in turn can reduce mental clarity and the ability to focus and will interfere with decision making, changing situations, insightfulness and impartiality. This causes a state of ignorance towards reality, discriminating against circumstance in order to fulfill a craving that is beyond reasoning.

Suffering and negativity within a sentient being is caused by craving, expressed as a deluded clinging to a nurtured sense of existence, selfhood or the things that we have been led to believe is the cause of a positive or negative emotion, then freewill and reality may become an induced illusion, as though it is being controlled by an external force. When it reaches the point where one craves that a certain state of affairs should disappear or change, the illusion is reinforced. Suffering ends when craving ends, which is achieved through a liberated state of mental enlightenment, which in turn leads to clarity and wisdom.

True liberation is not simply freeing a sentient being from suffering, (because that alone will simply push them towards an ongoing cycle of positive and negative situations, which will be difficult to escape from, and will reinforce the craving even further); it is guiding them towards freeing themselves, using a method which is deemed necessary. The negativity (for example greed, hatred and delusion) is a deep rooted affliction of the mind, creating suffering and stress, which needs to be uprooted through internal investigation and discovery, which will reveal the true of one’s self and all things within reach of one’s senses.

A person can only channel this sense of freedom and potential liberation outwards, as the craving has to escape from where it originated in the first place or else it will still manifest, this then leaves a void to be filled by mindfulness, which in turn has the effect of an enlightened perception of reality. Thinking and thought must not be allowed to confine and bind one to rigidity, so a person must learn to regularly mentally ‘detox’ in order maintain a pure mind, and make sure this routine becomes part of who they are. There are many things in life that are beyond our control. However, it is possible to take responsibility for and to change one’s state of mind, as we owe it to ourselves and to the future generations that the human condition can progress beyond the unpredictable and unfocused state it is in right now in order to prove we are beings more advanced than the animals we share this planet with.

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