This week is
pondering and writing about something invisible and intangible, it is real,
although hard to quantify or explain and put into words so here goes….
As a writer, these topics are challenging and I may
need to re-phrase the same issue a couple of different ways, as everyone
processes information differently. Some may read this article, and the light
bulb doesn’t come on for a month or more, but you will recognize
it and understand it better I hope!
First, I need you to reflect upon the day you just
had. Did it consist of emotions which came from judgments?
Take the following scenario..you walked into a grocery
store and you hear an ear-splitting scream. First your senses are to see if
someone is being hurt, so you look toward the source of the scream to find. It
is a three-year-old not getting their way and is having a huge tantrum because
they can’t have the lollies they want.
Therefore, we have a situation on which to set a
judgement and an emotional response follows from that situation.
Your judgement may be:-
spoilt child
Or… I remember when my child /ren did
those things and shrug it off
Horrible noise
The emotional response to your judgment follows
Annoyance
Irritation
Laughter
Hence you are reacting to a situation, forming a
judgment which then develops into your emotional response. No one can see or
hear your responses, or knows how you are reacting unless you respond with a
grimace or smile on your face.
Our days comprise of situations, judgments and
emotional responses.
What I am trying to explain and for you
to contemplate
is the concept of emotional
voids.
I have thought long and hard to find where this came
from or when it goes. I noticed it came after years of mediation which had led
me to noticing my thoughts and reactions to situations. It came after I
accepted all the opposites of a judgment or emotion.
For example you can’t understand one
opposite without knowing the other side. Like a pendulum swinging from side to
side on our sensory meters.
You won’t understand
Ecstasy without intense Depression
Happiness without experiencing Sadness
Laughter without Sobbing
Day without Night
Love without Hate
Serenity without Agitation
Laughter without Anguish
Life without Death
We experience many of these judgments based on our
experiences and where they fall on the pendulum. The pendulum swings from side
to side.
A goldfish who has met his / her death has a different
number on your scale of grief compared to a sibling or parent dying. But the
end is the same Death. With death comes grief - situation followed by an
emotional response.
A child will mourn a gold fish as a 10 on their meter
because this is the first time they have experienced the concept of death. When
they are an adult and watch their child, flush the goldfish down the toilet in
the ritual of death and dying. The child now an adult may view the experience
of death on a scale of 0.5 to 1. But may feel for their child and comfort is
now their primary concern.
I hope I haven’t lost you yet?
The acceptance of darkness and light
With life there is
death (natural or taken by someone else)
Wet seasons and
Droughts
Love and Hate
Many situations we can't change or influence.
When you remove your judgments, because these degrees
of circumstances exist in the world whether, you like it or not. Without, judging
a situation you remove the emotional response. Therefore - creating an
emotional vacuum or void.
If I hadn’t been practicing
mediation for years and experienced the weightlessness or void when meditating.
I may not have been so accepting when these emotional voids happened. They are
no different to many other cycles which happen in our lives. We take for
granted every day and accept without a second thought.
Cycles like Day and Night
Wet seasons and Dry seasons
The sun cycles of four Seasons in a year
The 28 day moon cycle from New to Full Moon
These are all a natural phenomenon.
Human emotions and responses are also a natural
phenomenon they have a cause and effect.
Emotional voids happen in my life and may last for
days or weeks. I have learnt to accept them and try not to hasten their end.
They are here for a reason. Similar to the no thought state in mediation which
rests the mind of thought. These emotional voids means you have removed the
judgments of good and bad, happy or sad. You do not respond to the outer world
situations with judgments therefore
You are void of emotion - you are still
I rest….. the pendulum has stopped swinging. I
am one with the universe.
Emotional voids are
an exceptional experience and I have learnt to value them.
Stay Strong!
Karen
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