I was wondering yesterday if unhappiness is just a chemical—call it hormones if you want—that builds over time, triggered by thoughts.
Well, it is a known thing that thoughts create emotions. But I am not stopping at that. When someone is unhappy, and it grows or deepens, then it gets unbearable. Then tears flow. And this happens both for happiness as well as unhappiness.
When tears flow, and for a while, emotion intensity reduces. Elders advise the bereaved to cry, so tears can reduce. Men and women are biologically different. So how soon, and how deeply emotions run also differ.
In the case of anger, a different emotion—a revenge action—behaves similar to tears, thereby reducing the intensity of anger. A simple hug in the case of love. And so on with all kinds of emotions.
And all these emotions are triggered by thoughts. Thoughts go into a vicious cycle and intensify emotion, whichever it may have been. When preoccupied with something, thoughts divert and do not go into a vicious cycle.
Diversion, when possible, is the best way of coming out from sorrow. But this is possible only sometimes, not always. The mind does not allow for diversion at least sometimes.
All these things of various emotions happen cyclically to nearly everyone.
Why is that so? Can we train a person from childhood to linger in happy thoughts only, all the time? Is it possible to suppress at least one form of emotion? For example, some people believe that I never get angry. They have never seen me in tantrums or angrily shouting. This is not of me not getting angry, or of being restrained. The anger stays inside for some hopefully a wise reason, just as most men not crying in public. I am not referring to the training for this kind of “external” suppression.
My question is: can someone be trained to not have some kinds of emotions at all?
Saints? I am not sure. I don’t know. I don’t readily accept those which I am not sure. I am wondering if having all emotions is a biological thing. And that brings me back to where I started.
Are emotions purely a chemical thing, which are triggered by the mind through thoughts, because such chemicals are required by the body? Are they required so we act—meaning we do some actions to allow human sustenance, individually and collectively? Or are they required for proper functioning of the human body, just as acids help digestion, which in turn is needed to create energy?
And what does all this analysis do at the end? Knowing or satisfying my own inquisitive mind—would it change anything for me or others? I mean, knowledge is divine. That is fine. I get it.
But beyond that?
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