THINKING CAUSES EMOTIONS? ~ Atman Nityananda

Desire is a mode of the emotive mind. It has got a power of externalizing the mind. Desire is the fuel; thought is the fire. The thought-fire is kept up by the desire-fuel.”

“…the endless chain is welded out of three component, desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself in an act.”

~ Swami Sivananda   

THINKING CAUSES EMOTIONS?

Most of the temporary spiritual teachers all over the world assert that thoughts (or the thinking) cause emotions and desires.

If this is true, then the question that arises is this: what causes the mechanical thinking process?

We cannot find any other satisfactory answer except that the thinking is caused by desires and emotions.  Thinking by itself is meaningless, if there isn't a desire or an emotion behind it there is no meaning to think anything.

There is always some desire (or need), some like or dislike behind the emotions and thoughts.

Both desires and emotions cause the mechanical thinking, that's why we cannot stop easily the thinking process, especially when emotions or desires are manifested with intensity.

Certainly desire and emotion create a vicious circle with thinking and the one empowers the other. But as Swami Sivananda says above, it is the desire or the emotion that keeps the mimd in motion.  (The thought-fire is kept up by the desire).

Can you stop your mind when anger is on? Can you stop your mind when gluttony or lust are on? Can you stop your mind when anxiety and  worry are on?

Only when the emotive mind (desires, passions and emotions) becomes calm then the thinking mind becomes calm as well.

And what is the context of mechanical thinking? To get what we want (desire) and avoid what we don't want. We want what we like and gives us pleasure and we don't want what we dislike and gives us pain.

So the core of our behavior is to meet pleasure and to avoid pain. Thus pleasure and pain are the original sources of desires, emotions and desires and emotions of the compulsive, mechanical thinking.

Our thinking mind is a victim of the vital emotional mind due to its impurities in the form of passions, desires, negative emotions. The clarity, sharpness, serenity, reason, discernment and intuition are highly distorted by the vibration of desires, passions and emotions. We fail to control our mind and use it consciously and voluntarily due to distorted and distracted power of desires, passions and emotions. When a desire, passion, impulse or emotions are manifested through the mental vital* rise up and get into the intellect (buddhi) and either through the cloud it or distort it. (Sri Aurobindo)

Relation of desire and emotions

Our lower rajasotamasic ego express itself through desires and uses primary the imagination and the thinking mind to manage what is needed to fulfill the desire.

So, desire causes thinking in relation to the desired object and the means and the way by which the desire will be fulfilled. 

Various emotions accompany the desire and have to do with:  

1. the uncertainty of fulfillment, 

2. the obstacles or the impediments of fulfillment, 

3. the fulfillment and 

4. the non-fulfillment of desire.

1. The uncertainty of its fulfillment causes psychological uncertainty, agony, anxiety, worries, impatience, fear, etc. and the thinking that corresponds to these emotions,

2. The obstacles or impediments that may appear and can cancel its fulfillment, cause dislike, irritation, resentment, anger, hostility, and the thinking that corresponds to these emotions,

3. The fulfillment causees satisfaction, happiness, joy, contentment, and the thinking that corresponds to these emotions,

4. The non-fulfillment causes resentment, disappointment, frustration, depression, sadness, as well as anger and hatred against what caused the non-fulfillment of desire and the thinking that corresponds to these emotions.

Who is free from desires, passions, anger and fear can control fully his mind and rest consciously in his essence, the divine glorious Atman and drink the nectar of peace and Bliss eternal!

26. Absolute freedom (or Brahmic bliss) exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thoughts and who have realized the Self (Atman, Pure Consciousness).

27. 28. Shutting out (all) external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the outgoing and incoming breaths moving within the nostrils, with the senses, the mind and the intellect always controlled, having liberation as his supreme goal, free from desire, fear and anger—the sage is verily liberated for ever. 

~  Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5, “The Yoga of Renunciation of Action” 

 NOTE:

 the mental vital*:  It is a term of SRI AUROBINDO  which explains how functions the vital proper and how its expressions of the impure vital being distort the intellect.

  The vital proper has four parts:  

SRI AUROBINDO

1. The mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital .

2. The emotional vital which is the seat of various feelings such as, love, joy, sorrow hatred and the rest.
3. The central vital which is the seat of the stronger vital longings, and reactions e.g. ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions repulsions, desires, passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies.
4. The lower vital which is occupied with desires and emotions such as make the greater party of the daily life e.g. food desire, sexual desire, small likings and dislikings, vanity, quarells, anger at blame, little wishes of all kind and a numberless host of other things.

Their respective seats are:
1. Mental vital the region from the throat to the heart.
2. Emotional vital its seat is the outer heart and the inner heart behind it it is related with the soul.
3. The central vital has as its seat the region from the heart to navel.
4. The lower vital below the navel.

We must not confuse the mind with the vital although the vital has a mind element transfused in it. Mind and vital are mixed up on the surface of the consciousness, but they are quite separate forces in themselves.

The mental vital is a sort of mediator between vital emotion, desire, impulsion, etc and the mind. It expresses the desires, emotions, feelings, passions, ambitions, possessive and active tendencies of the vital and throws them into mental .- the pure imaginations or dreams of greatness, happiness, etc. in which men indulge are one peculiar form of the mental vital. It is through the mental vital that the vital passions, emotions, impulses, desires, rise up and get into the buddhi (intellect) and either cloud it or distort it.

 

Bhole Baba ki jai!

Bhole Sri Haidakhandi Bhagavan ki jai!

Bholo Sri Haidakhandeshwari mata ki jai!

Jai mahamaya ki jai!