Please summarize what you read. After summarizing, you can reflect on the following questions to guide the rest of your writing, but you should not just list and answer them. What did you find most interesting? Most confusing? What do you want to learn more about? Is there any information that you find dubious or that you are suspicious of? You do not need to explicitly answer these, rather, I'm interested in your summary, and ultimately your thoughts and insight on these readings.
Please list the main key words you used in your post.
Explore!
Dorjee Chapter 4 focused on the 4 wholesome and healthy emotions needed to achieve emotional balance. Those four emotions include loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. Afflictive emotions like anger and jealousy negatively interfere with well-being. Loving kindness is a genuine happiness for us and others. Compassion helps to see suffering and its deeper causes, supporting the freedom from pain. Rejoicing brings forward wholesome thoughts, feelings, and actions, such as remembering something nice someone has done for you. Equanimity extends loving kindness, compassion, and rejoicing to not only ourselves and those close to us, but also neutral persons and persons we do not care for or has brought us harm.
Westerners assess emotional experience from the two aspects of valence—scale of pleasant/positive to unpleasant/negative—and arousal—intensity of the emotional experience. Interestingly, an fMRI study examined brain responses to positive, negative, and neutral words which further supported the two-dimensional map of emotions. Results showed that high arousal (positive or negative), not valence, was associated with changed in the prefrontal brain regions and amygdala. Valence induced differences in activation were seen in the lateral prefrontal cortex which was sensitive to negative stimuli and positive stimuli activated the medial prefrontal cortex.
Scientific research has found heightened activation in meditators’ brain regions of emotional processing when sounds of emotional distress, like a crying baby, perhaps reflecting readiness to help, which is associated with the wholesome emotion of compassion.
Key terms: wholesome emotions; loving kindness; compassion; rejoicing; equanimity; valence; arousal; amygdala; lateral/medial prefrontal cortex; emotional experience; emotional distress; readiness to help
This week’s chapter was all about emotions. They once again pointed out the differences in perspective between the Western scientific school of thought and the ancient Buddhist way of thinking. They talked about how we conceptualize emotions in terms of their components of feelings, thoughts, changes in the body and influence on action. The main distinction that the book points out is that we spend a lot of time looking at the components of emotions, where the Buddhists instead look at different mental states, which encompass emotions. The point is that they have a more holistic view of things, and that we try to hard to measure and label them. The chapter addressed the four healthy emotions of loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. They claim that after practice of meditation, we can address anything with only these four healthy emotions, instead of apathy, cynicism, arrogance, or other negative emotions. I didn’t like this as much because it seemed to be more wishful thinking than science. It seems that they identified four emotions and then promoted that practicing these will better your life, as they are alternatives to negative emotions. That seems rather straightforward, that one would prefer to feel positive emotions more than negative ones.
When they did reference scientific evidence, I was not all that impressed. They talked about studies to determine the physiological indicators of emotion, with the corrugator supercilii muscle activating during negative emotions and the zygomatic major muscle showing more activity during positive emotions. That sounds much more complex than it is, and I believe that is to make the topic sound more scientific. In simplified terms, they could have said that positive emotions make you smile (which is information known to even the youngest children) and negative emotions cause one to furrow their brow. They also mentioned a study talking about the effects of meditation on the brain, saying that a trained meditator, meditating on loving kindness/compassion, showed more activity in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (brain regions associated with the processing of emotions) in response to emotional sounds. I felt this study was not all that impressive as it sounded like they were simply primed to emotional factors as they were meditating on loving kindness/compassion. That’s not to say that meditation doesn’t increase emotional processing, I just felt the study wasn’t structured well enough for me to be all that impressed by their findings. They did mention that positive emotions increase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and negative emotions increase activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, which was pretty cool information.
Terms: emotions, Buddhism, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, meditation, prefrontal cortex, corrugator suprcilii, zygomatic major, four healthy emotions
I really enjoyed this week’s readings as it is highly beneficial to the overall wellbeing of ourselves and others. Most of us were taught at a young age to show compassion and kindness toward others. In school we were taught to stand up for one another and not to be a bystander rather intervene conflicts by telling a teacher. These teachings are generally carried on throughout life however may form and shape as we age and obtain new experiences. For example, in elementary school if there was a fight, students told the teacher and the fight was broken up. In high school, when fights occurred everyone just sat and watched, some even encouraged it. Our compassion can be desensitized as we learn to “mind” our own business. This chapter however, is a review of what we were taught growing up and encourages us not to be so wrapped up in our own lives that we fail to see the sufferings in others.
One concept our book discusses is loving kindness. “Loving kindness is the wish to be happy in the upmost wholesome and genuine way.” One way to obtain loving kindness is rejoicing or meditating on happy memories, memories that do not create arrogance rather ones that are whole-hearted. This is an interesting concept that I am eager to try. I think many of us (including myself) tend to focus on our stressors and imperfections that we fail to see the beauty in life and what it has to offer. By recalling past happy memories we can recall instances where life wasn’t so bad and we may come to realize what is really important in life.
Another interesting concept the book provides is wishing happiness on others, not just our loved ones but also people who are neutral, people we may not like, and ourselves. The reasoning, we do not always know the sufferings of strangers and enemies. The core of negative behavior is probably due to their sufferings. If these people find happiness, it will reflect in their attitudes and actions.
In order to see and understand these sufferings one must learn to have compassion (be mindful of the sufferings of others). One way we fail to have compassion is through defense mechanisms and although they can be helpful, they can also cause us to be blind of what is really at hand. One such mechanism that I think many people display is cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is holding two conflicting ideas or believes. I think people encounter this often (myself included) and once they make a decision they attempt to justify their decisions and this justification can cause us to become less compassionate toward others. For example, if I just made $5 doing a task and I walk by a homeless person asking for change. I may experience cognitive dissonance; do I help the man’s suffering who could potentially use the money for food or do I keep my money that I earned. If I choose not to give it to him, I will justify my actions saying I earned my money and he should do the same or he would have just bought drugs anyway. If I give it to him I may justify it by saying he needed it more than me. Learning to recognize our defense mechanisms may help us learn to control them and allow us to see the truth and act accordingly. One way to learn to control our defense mechanisms is through mediation.
One part of the book that I thought it was weird when it basically said there is no separate category for emotions in Buddhism but later listed of forms of emotions in categories. I think I would like to learn more about these categories as well as find scientific evidence of the effects of mediation on happiness. Overall I enjoyed this week’s reading and I will try to learn to become more compassionate as well as learn to have loving kindness.
Terms: Meditation, Rejoicing, Buddhism, suffering, loving kindness, compassion, cognitive dissonance, defense mechanisms, compassion, justification
Chapter four focused on emotions. It began by definition emotions from both the Eastern and Western point of view. In the Western view, emotions are separate entities from moods and do not last as long. In the Eastern view, emotions are part of a collective mental state that doesn’t differentiate between thoughts and emotions. The author also mentioned four healthy emotions: loving kindness, rejoicing, compassion, and equanimity. They also give rise to forgiveness, contentment, and gratitude. Loving kindness involves friendliness, happiness, and wanting the best for yourself and others. Compassion is wanting everyone to be free of suffering. The book also mentioned research that has been done involving compassion which found evidence of neuroplasticity associated with compassion training. Rejoicing is more focused on mental states that the previous two positive emotions. Finally equanimity is the ability to cultivate loving kindness and compassion for everyone, not just people we like and get along with. Equanimity was mentioned a lot in the other book we read. The book also gave ways to practice each of the four emotions including a lot of visualization.
This chapter made me think of how unnecessarily difficult it is for me to wish well to my enemies. It is to want to have good things happen to people who have hurt me especially if they haven’t apologized. I recently stopped being friends with one of my roommates who had been an absolutely horrible friend to the rest of us. She has never apologized to any of us so it was extremely hard to forgive her. It wasn’t until she lost her job, lost all of her friends in Cedar Falls, and almost failed out of school that I was able to let go of my anger. I began to realize that she is worse off than I am. The hardships in her life must have caused her to be such a bad person and now I pity her. Because of this happening to me, something I would like to research further is the power of forgiveness. Implementing these four healthy emotions in my life will be very beneficial.
Terms: emotions, mental state, loving kindness, rejoicing, compassion, equanimity, neuroplasticity
This chapter talks about emotions and the different views of emotions. Some people have false preconceptions of meditation and one of those is that you aren’t able to experience any extreme forms of emotions. Some people think that learning mindfulness requires you to not get excited, mad, or experience the world. It is very important for us to remember and realize that meditation does not mean that we are emotionless or indifferent to the events going on around us.
The text spends a lot of time on describing the difference between Western views on emotions and Buddhist views. The most common view in Western culture, of emotions, is that an emotional experience is a conscious feeling that includes a representation of the changes that are occurring in other parts of emotions in an integrated manner. One subject that has been researched and that I was particularly interested in was the facial muscles that are involved in showing emotions. The corrugator supercilii muscle which is located between our eyebrows and helps to produce the frown effect is the first muscle. The other facial muscle is the zygomatic major muscle which controls when we smile. There are many biological reactions that our bodies have when aroused or angry. These biological reactions are studied quite extensively in Western culture. Western culture has, up to this point, studied emotions such as: disgust, sadness, sexual pleasure, anger, and hedonistic happiness. The research was very focused on the physiological effects but it has developed into looking at the effects on the brain as well.
In the Buddhist practice there is no separate category for emotions. In Buddhism, they separate mental states into afflictive and wholesome. A simpler way to look at this division is whether something causes harm or happiness. On the afflictive side there are six emotions: pride, ignorance, anger, doubt, craving, and afflictive views. On the wholesome side there are four states: equanimity, compassion, kindness/friendliness, and sympathetic joy. Developing these four mental states in order to become a wholesome person is the very core of Buddhist mind training. The text goes into more detail about the four wholesome mental states.
It was interesting to that the text also had a small section on how to integrate those emotions into your daily meditation through exercises. I particularly liked the section about loving kindness. It talks about slowly wishing other people happiness until you have spread that thought to everyone you encounter. It does a really good job of showing the power of positivity.
Terminology: emotions, false preconceptions, meditation, Western views, Buddhist views, corrugator supercilii muscle, zygomatic major muscle, biological reactions aroused, disgust, sadness, sexual pleasure, anger, hedonistic happiness, afflictive, wholesome, positivity
Chapter 4 focused on healthy emotions and on how to achieve an emotional balance. There are four emotions: loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. Loving kindness refers to loving everything and everyone. More specifically, it means having a happy and wholesome outlook on life. Compassion refers to understanding and finding hope in your own suffering as well as the suffering of others. Rejoicing focuses on positive life events or positive emotions like loving kindness and compassion. This focus brings more positive emotions and a better wellbeing. Equanimity is utilizing all of the previous emotions toward everyone in our life regardless of if we like them or even know them. There are afflictive emotions as well. Afflictive emotion examples are anger and jealously. Overall, they are emotions that negatively impact your wellbeing.
The book discussed that Western culture focuses on two aspects of valence. These include a scale of pleasantness to unpleasantness and the intensity of the emotional experience. fMRI studies have shown that high levels of intensity are associated with changes in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala which are responsible for higher order thinking and strong emotions. Negative stimuli were associated with the lateral prefrontal cortex and positive stimuli were associated with the medial prefrontal cortex.
I enjoyed these readings quite a bit. I like learning more on how to focus more on the holistic view of things. I’m very interested in the idea of equanimity as well. I believe that our emphasis on individualism in Western societies can cause us to believe that the actions of others are meant to hurt us when in fact they were not. Practicing equanimity could help people let go of that anger and move on to a more peaceful state of mind.
Terms: healthy emotions, emotional stability, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, anger, valence, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, stimuli
For today, we read Chapter 4 in Dorjee. The chapter was centered on the topic of emotions and how to balance those emotions by using meditation and mindfulness. As in previous chapters, the book specifically contrasted how the Western and Eastern worlds think about emotions. In Western psychology, we define an emotion as a conscious temporary state of feeling that is separate from thought. Emotions are different than moods in that moods last longer than just an immediate reaction to stimuli. Eastern schools of thought believe that emotions are just a part of the whole mental state. In Buddhist practices, humans have wholesome or afflictive mental states, meaning their states of mind are either helpful or harmful. Wholesome mental states are categorized by feelings of kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. These emotions promote happiness and a healthy state of mind and body. Afflictive mental states are plagued by negative emotions like pride, ignorance, doubt, anger, craving or greed, and afflictive views, which is kind of like pessimism or cynicism. These emotions are typically harmful, and if ruminated on, can lead to negative affects on both mind and body.
An interesting part of the chapter cited research about how emotions physically affect the body, most specifically the face. The corrugator supercilii muscle, which is located between the eyebrows, helps to produce the frown effect. Another facial muscle is the zygomatic major muscle, which controls smiling. Reading about these made me think of a few things. One was just a silly thought, critiquing writers and philosophers that claim that the “eyes are the gateway to the soul” or some nonsense, when in reality emotion is expressed via our eyebrow and cheek muscles. Though, I guess that venue doesn’t sound nearly as romantic. Another thought that came to me while reading about this was the fact that not only do emotions affect the movement of our facial muscles, but the opposite is true as well. Stretching our muscles in certain positions can have an effect on emotions. I remember one study we talked about in my social psych class talked about participants placing a pencil either between their teeth or between their lips, one of which positions makes them smile and the other makes them frown, then having them read newspaper comics. The people whose faces were forced to smile rated the comics as funnier than those who were forced to frown. I think it is interesting to see that the affect goes both ways.
The section about the Eastern or Buddhist thought on emotions discussed four healthy human emotions, which were loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. Loving kindness and compassion were topics we have previously read about. These emotions are about hoping for happiness in ourselves and in others. Rejoicing refers more to focusing on good thoughts and remaining in a wholesome state of mind. Equanimity refers to being able to share the previous three emotions with others equally, including complete strangers and other neutral people instead of just our close friends or family.
Overall, I thought this chapter was interesting, if not a little redundant. This may be kind of expected though, since we are learning about the same practice from different books. I would have liked to see more scientific research citations in the chapter, but the ones I did see were interesting and informative.
Terms: Emotions, feeling, mood, reaction, stimuli, mental state, wholesome and afflicted mental states, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, corrugator supercilii muscle, zygomatic major muscle
This weeks reading was over emotions and the four main emotions, which are considered the healthy emotions or mental states. They are loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. Each emotion has stages where you show this emotion to yourself, people you care for, neutral people, and people you dislike. The chapter discussed the differences between Western and Buddhist beliefs and how emotions are seen differently in each type of thought. The Buddhist see emotions as part of the whole mental process while Western views see emotions as separate feelings that happen, so by having wholesome emotions you also help your well-being. The book then explained and discussed each of these four mental states in more detail; loving-kindness is about happiness but in a wholesome sense. The next topic was compassion; this is the wish that all beings are free from suffering. There was a sentence in this section that really impacted me “Without compassion, we may remain clinging to defense mechanisms of the mistaken notions of who we are in order to protect the image about the self we have created over years and decades”. The section over compassion was probably my favorite, although I don’t do it enough I agree with the book when it said that the avoidance of suffering can then cause an overemphasis of pain or sadness. People always say pain makes you stronger but then when someone faces pain or suffering they’re told to just move on instead of recognizing it. Getting to read about the neuroscience of compassion was also interesting, but I wish that they had more citations in that section. Rejoicing was the next section. Rejoicing is about bringing to mind the experiences of the previous two mind states; loving kindness and compassion. Rejoicing should be done in wholesome activities; rejoicing in a small kind act can be much more powerful then rejoicing in something that is negative or selfish. The last wholesome mind state was equanimity. It’s the state that brings all the other three states together. It means to show loving kindness and compassion for all creatures equally. This emphasizes the step-by-step practice of showing loving kindness or compassion to multiple types of people (friends, ourselves, enemies). The best part of the book for me is at the end of the chapters there is a “how to” for implementing what we learned in the chapter in everyday life. I find this extremely helpful along with the summary at the end of each chapter; I'm pretty forgetful so getting to the summary at the end helps to make me remember everything that was discussed in the chapter.
Key Words: emotions, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, suffering, wholesomeness
Dorjee Chapter 4
Chapter 4 pertained to emotional balance. In the beginning the student had perceived that meditation interrupts and takes away from our emotions. I don’t agree with this, or at least not in such a negative way. I feel as though the practice has enhanced my positive emotions and helped me keep calm in times of sadness or stress. From here, I enjoyed the next section. I can see where the line is thin in trying to separate mood from emotion. I’ve never thought about it in this way, so I thought the book did a good job in separating the two. When it comes to emotions Buddhism has two categories, those that cause harm and the others that play a role in our long term happiness. Their approach to emotions helps change the mind and brain by operating on a more positive, honest, and accepting way. However, in order for this training to be effective the individual practicing must understand genuine happiness and those specific mental states. Which is the hardest part about this practice.
The chapter then introduces the reader to the four healthy emotions. After a tragedy, we have trained our minds to shut the incident out and block out all memory we have of what happened to us. So rather than facing our causes of fear and anxiety we run from it and then completely ignore it. So this is the first mistake that is worked to be corrected before beginning the practice. We must learn to accept negative experiences, feelings, and emotions by finding the main source of cause and learn to face it. From here, we are then able to heal and learn new techniques. The first of the four healthy emotions is loving kindness. Loving kindness is a wish to happy in the most genuine honest way possible for ourselves, friends, and enemies. While practicing this, the book points out that it may be harder for our culture to wish kindness on ourselves than for others, because we have been trained to be so critical of ourselves. The second healthy emotion is compassion. Compassion, which we have learned already, relates to sources of suffering. This is where avoidance comes in to play, with compassion we must learn to avoid being avoidant. Learn to face such things that make us feel fearful or anxious. Which is what the third healthy emotion explained in this chapter is all about, rejoicing. Rejoicing rekindles ones mental states and actions. Focusing on the negative aspects that have had such an impact on our thinking and feelings which need to be corrected. Lastly, equanimity. This builds and continues the development of loving kindness, compassion, and rejoicing.
Terms: loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, emotional balance,
This chapter discusses emotional balance. Western Psychology sees emotion as two dimensions, valence and arousal. Valence is a scale of positive to negative or pleasant to unpleasant. Arousal reflects the intensity of the emotion. Arousal is usually seen as positive but that is not always the case. You and be very angry with a negative valence but you are still intensely aroused with anger. There are many physical indicators that show arousal such as sweating, facial expressions and changes in heart rate. Many studies are done on emotions like anger and happiness but very few on gratitude, forgiveness and compassion.
The chapter continues discussing how Buddhists view of emotion. The book used the term Buddhist psychology. This surprised me because it is not something I have considered. Buddhist psychology describes mental states that integrate thoughts, emotions and decision making. Buddhists consider loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. I understood loving kindness, compassion and rejoice right of the bat but this is the first I’ve heard of equanimity. Equanimity means that we are able to be understanding and accepting of everyone even though equally whether or not they are pleasant or unpleasant to be around. There four healthy emotions are practiced as time goes on and you become more experienced. You start with loving kindness and compassion, then rejoicing followed by equanimity. These emotions are easily practiced while meditating but are also beneficial for everyday life.
I enjoyed reading this chapter and was surprised by the direction it took. When I first read the chapter title, I assumed that it would discuss emotional balance as a way to subdue strong emotions. After writing, that last sentence, I realize now that my assumption was very unlikely because it is never healthy to burry emotion but that is what I expected. I was pleased learn and about better ways to handle your emotions and applying the practices to everyday life. One example related to how I respond to one of friends. I need to be able to extend my happiness towards her instead of being more on the resentful side. After reading this chapter, I have decided to do more research on the physiological changes the body has to emotions.
Terms: Emotions, emotional balance, Western psychology, Buddhist, meditation, loving kindness, compassion, rejoice and equanimity, valence, arousal, pleasant, unpleasant, happiness, meditation, mindfulness.
With this chapter we focus in on the emotion parts of meditation. Right away they explain that the western view on emotion is very obscure from the Buddhist point. Westerners describe emotions as items that stand alone away from affect and mood. While in Buddhist languages there are no separate categories called emotions, instead they do not divide mental processes into categories such as thoughts, emotions, and decision making. According to Buddhist beliefs there are things similar to what we know as emotions, but they refer to them as mental states. There are mental states known as wholesome emotion such as friendliness and compassion that help a person’s wellbeing. The opposite goes for afflictive emotions like anger, greed, and arrogance which interfere with wellbeing. They then explain in detail the four healthy emotions which are friendliness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. The focus is then more on love and kindness which develops from a vision of genuine happiness for us and others. Love and kindness along with compassion go kind of hand and hand, for compassion develops the courage to see clearly obvious and subtle forms of suffering together with deeper causes. Basically by being able to see this, then you would be able to help others through their hardships. Rejoicing is more of the balance of the emotions from day to day also seen in our actions. The last part is equanimity which is to express all these kind acts to everyone equally even to complete strangers.
There are a few resources throughout this part of the reading, but I will probably explore more in depth on some of them. I find it interesting that Buddhist culture does not actually categorize emotions on its own. I found it most confusing in the paragraphs on Buddhist views on emotion, for even though they say they do not believe emotion as a whole, they sure did use that word a lot to decide what they were saying. Also I am not exactly sold on the whole idea. I believe they need to do more research to back up their findings and then state how exactly they figured it out. It is not enough to say that science is starting to show that they are right, because there are still errors in the reading and explanations that had no data to support them. I also found the writer to be a bit bias when talking about the westerners view, and even a bit degrading. Still you can clearly see the point that they are trying to get across.
Terms: mental process, emotions, friendliness, compassion, loving and kindness, rejoicing, equanimity, meditation, mental states.
Dorjee chapter 4 covered the third level in the Dzogchen pyramid of mind training: emotional regulation. The section contrasted western scientific views with Buddhist views on emotions. The first includes a more specific and separate definition. Western science views emotions as being short-lived in response to something specific, while moods last for weeks and affect encompasses all of these sub-feelings. Some things I found interesting from this line of thinking were emotional valence and arousal. Emotions can be examined in how pleasant or unpleasant they are and also how extreme they are.
In the Buddhist view of emotions, there is much more overlap and integration among the sub-definitions. According to this view, there are two mental states: afflictive and wholesome. Afflictive probably prescribes to more hedonistic versions of happiness and quick-fixes. Afflictive emotions include craving, anger, pride, ignorance/delusion, afflictive doubt, and afflictive views. Wholesome mental states on the other hand probably describe eudonistic happiness and include emotions such as self-respect, conscientiousness, regard for consequence, non-attachment, non-hatred, diligence, and equanimity.
Part of this Buddhist philosophy are the four key healthy emotions. The first is loving kindness. This is defined as being the authentic and wholesome desire to be happy. In all of the four healthy emotions, they are practiced by taking the key elements of the emotion and applying them to ourselves, people close to us, people we haven’t met or don’t have an opinion of, and people we don’t necessarily get along with. This exercise was lightly touched on the H&M book when it described imagining loving kindness or compassion towards people we really care about and then to ourselves.
The second healthy emotion is compassion. Compassion focuses on suffering and working past understanding our own and other people’s suffering by getting to a place where we desire freedom from suffering, which gives us hope. One of the more interesting points I thought this section made was how we might cling to defense mechanisms because we’re afraid of losing our automatic reactions to things, even if unhealthy. This is because we incorrectly label them as being a part of our sense of self. While trying to get into the mindset of someone we find hard to understand who has suffered or caused suffering, one method is to imagine the afflictive mental state present during the experience. I feel like this ties in with the in-class conversation we had about being able to empathize with criminals and murderers because of the ability to really think about the situation they were in and put themselves in their shoes to understand the afflictive emotions going one. Additionally, there are three subtypes of compassion. The first is the desire to be free of immediate, surface suffering such as illness, hunger, aka things on the physiological brick on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The second is the desire to be free of the deeper, root causes of suffering. The third subtype is when compassion because the new automatic and unforced.
The third healthy emotion is rejoicing. Rejoicing involves essentially focusing on the positives. I enjoyed reading about how this particular emotion can be a good cure for jealousy. By changing jealousy (an afflictive automatic emotion) with rejoicing for another person, we can actually physiologically experience similar sensations to the person with the happy news. This is just all the more incentive to share gains and accomplishments with others and to empathize and rejoice with people who share with us.
The fourth healthy emotion is equanimity. This emotion involves being able to apply loving kindness, compassion, and the ability to rejoice with someone to all sentient beings. While it’s normal and acceptable to show some favoritism to the people we’re close to, to me that book instructs that by having a high level of equanimity the basic level of respect that we give everyone is held to a higher standard. Overall, I enjoyed the section, especially the parts about compassion, and I am excited that the next stage involves learning about enlightenment.
Terms: emotional regulation, equanimity, valence, arousal, eudonistic, hedonistic, loving kindness, compassion, suffering, defense mechanisms, empathy, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, physiological, rejoicing, jealousy, enlightenment
I found this chapter to be particularly interesting, particularly because a) as a psychology major, I tend to be exceptionally interested in emotions and b) the cultivation of the wholesome emotions seems to be rooted in positive psychology.
Additionally, the discussion of emotions seems to be contrary to Western society. For example, very rarely do people sit down and discuss how they feel, particularly if they feel suffering. I wonder if this tendency to hide one’s suffering makes it more difficult to feel compassion towards what we may consider trivial or frivolous difficulties, such as being slighted or ignored. I’m sure it has no bearing on the suffering that is easy to see such as a need for shelter or food, but for some of the more psychosocial needs, it may be harder to cultivate compassion.
As stated earlier, the foundation of the Buddhist cultivation of emotional balance/well-being is most certainly grounded in positive psychology. The book even states that the cultivation of the four wholesome mental states (loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing and equanimity) is easier than trying to improve focusing on negative emotional states such as anger, jealousy, etc. Naturally, focusing on the positive emotional states even directly negates tendencies towards the negative states. For example, focusing on rejoicing for another’s success inhibits feelings of jealousy while feelings of compassion combat feelings of selfishness and pride. Furthermore, the push for well-being as a goal is immensely appreciated as opposed to the usual “success” or riches and status encouraged by Western society.
I also appreciated the acknowledgement and subsequent discussion of whether equanimity is the absence of emotion. As a citizen of Western society, for a long time, equanimity seemed to be the absence of emotions. However, from reading this section, it seems as if it is more the absence of immediate (re)action resulting from emotional experience. Which is a valid, laudable end goal. Too often, individuals tend to react as a direct result from what they’re feeling, which, from my experience, tends to exacerbate the problem.
Also, unlike many of the other books and articles on meditation, this article was particularly evidence based, which is a nice contrast. There was even an entire section on how compassion affects the brain, which lends significant credibility to the author’s claim. The chapter even encouraged further research to be done on emotional experience, which could help the progression towards discovering the mind/brain question. If we understand how we "feel" sad, for example, we might begin to understand how the brain makes our mind feel that way and understand the connection a bit more fully.
It is also worth noting that much of this chapter seems to directly contradict the norms of masculinity. Masculinity tends to dictate men (well, “masculine” men) should not express feeling anything except anger or jealousy and, sometimes, simple happiness. However, compassion is not something encouraged by masculinity. In fact, emotional balance as a whole does not seem to be encouraged by our Western Society. A lack of expression of anger is viewed as weak, more so in blue-collar, less educated and professional areas. We are frequently encouraged, both explicitly and implicitly, to take care of ourselves, first and foremost. Though, admittedly, we are also told not to be selfish, which is a bit contradictory.
The order of Dzogchen does not seem commonsensical to me, as emotional balance, in my mind, needs to come before attention and motivation. I think one would need to be emotionally balanced in order to develop attention and motivation goals. However, I suppose it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg argument.
Dzogchen, mental state, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, jealousy, anger, emotional balance.
In this week’s readings, Dorjee compares and contrast the different aspects of emotions from the Western point of view and the Buddhist point of view. According to Dorjee, the Western scientific perspective of emotions differs from the Buddhist point of view of emotions. Western psychology differentiates emotions separate from other related concepts such as affect and mood. Affect is an overarching category which includes emotions, moods, impulses and even stress. Moods, in comparison to emotions, are longer lasting. Emotions are typically experienced for a shorter amount of time, often in response to a specific event. Scientists define emotions in terms of a broad range of components which include feelings, thoughts, physiological changes in the body and tendencies to act. Despite this complex view of emotions, emotional experience is the aspect of emotion which remains most significant in our everyday encounters with emotions. Emotional experience is different from sensations and perceptions felt through our sense. Unlike sensations, emotions have personal meaning and are relational. There has been a great deal of research conducted in order to assess the importance of emotional experiences. The traditional approach to assessment of emotional experience uses two basic dimensions of emotion, valence and arousal. Emotional valence places an emotion on a scale from positive to negative (pleasant to unpleasant). Arousal, on the other hand, reflects the intensity of emotional experience. Using the two dimensions it is possible to position each emotion in a two-dimensional space of valence and arousal. Anger, for example, would be on the negative side of the valence axis and usually has high intensity. In contrast, feeling bored may be described as a somewhat negative emotion which is low in intensity.
There are also physiological markers of valence and arousal. Researchers have consistently correlated a relation between facial expressions and valence of stimuli. There are two facial muscles sensitive to valence; the first facial muscle is the corrugator supercilii muscle, which is located between the eyebrows and is responsible for the frowning reaction. The second muscle is the zygomatic major muscle which controls smiling. When we experience unpleasant emotions (and also moods) there is an increase in the activity responsible for contraction of the corrugator supercilii and little or no change in the zygomatic major muscle. In contrast, pleasant emotions are associated with an increase in the zygomatic major muscle activity and no change or a decrease in the corrugator supercilii tension. The arousal dimension of emotions also has associated physiological markers, one of them being changes in skin conductance. Sweating is an indicator of arousal because changes in skin moisture are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system which activates the fight and flight reaction. Changes in skin conductance are strongly correlated with people’s ratings of how intense the emotion feels regardless of the emotion’s valence. Higher skin conductance response usually occurs with highly arousing pleasant or unpleasant experience, whereas low skin conductance is recorded to neutral stimuli.
According to Dorjee, there is no separate category called emotions in Buddhist languages. Buddhist psychology does not divide mental processes into categories such as thoughts, emotions and decision making. Rather, it discusses mental states similar to emotions based on their wholesomeness, well-being-promoting or harmful effects. Buddhist psychology divides mental states into afflictive and wholesome. This division is simply based on whether the mental states cause harm or lasting happiness, whether they are sources of suffering or contribute to our well-being and genuine happiness. There are six main afflictive emotions: craving, anger, pride, ignorance/delusion, afflictive doubt and afflictive views. Additionally, the Buddhist approach to emotions highlights the ability of the mind to change its ways, the possibility of consciously and purposefully developing positive mental habits involving wholesome mental states. Development of wholesome emotions is so central to Buddhist mind training that it is inherent in the progression of the Buddhist path from its beginning. The basic meditative training in the development of wholesome emotions proceeds from loving kindness and compassion to rejoicing and equanimity. It was really interesting to learn the differences between the Western view of emotions and the Buddhist view of emotions. These two perspectives were really intriguing, but I would have to agree with the Westernized view because it operationally defines emotions and categorizes the different kind of emotions people experience.
Terms: emotions, Buddhist point of view, Western point of view, affect, mood, emotional experience, valence, arousal, physiological markers, corrugator supercilii muscle, zygomatic major muscle, loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing and equanimity.
Chapter Four: Emotional Balance
This chapter looks into what emotions are, and how they impact our lives in a whole. Emotions are considered in different terms between western psychology and buddhist psychology; with buddhist psychology integrating emotions into the larger context of our daily lives. Emotional balance is a topic that has been covered before in this text, but this book takes it further with the ‘four healthy emotions’. Loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity together comprise the four healthy emotions. One thing that bothers me about this chapter is that it repeats information from other chapters, but provides it in a separate, specialized, construct; the four healthy emotions. Dorjee stresses that loving and kindness should also encompass acceptance, and understanding. Compassion is similar to empathy, which has been a topic at the forefront of our meditative discussions. Compassion is stressed by Dorjee, and he implies that it should be particularly influential in our interactions with those who are sick, and elderly. However, compassion does not stop there, and you should elicit this emotion on a daily basis, Dorjee suggests that meditation helps to rid people of the emotions that prevent them from displaying compassion. Rejoicing is a topic that requires special attention, because it is an emotion that can be displayed in inappropriate times, it is imperative that you balance rejoicing with compassion in order to correctly display this emotion. Dorjee suggests that people should rejoice in the little things in life, focusing less on possessions, and more on nature. Through rejoicing you will “strengthen positive emotions”. The fourth emotion is one that is frequently discussed as well, equanimity. This emotion is less tangible, and transforms people into more empathic, and understanding individuals. Dorjee states that all four emotions should be practiced on a daily basis, in an appropriate manner, in order to achieve emotional balance. Emotional balance is the road towards enlightenment. Over all chapter four is disappointing because it does not provide us the opportunity to learn new techniques, or information on meditation. Instead, it takes topics that have already been discussed in length and develops them into this chapter, and the four healthy emotions.
Terms: Equanimity, Compassion, Loving Kindness, Rejoicing, Four healthy emotions, Enlightenment, Emotional balance.
In chapter 4 Dorjee focuses on emotional balance and healthy mental states, focusing specifically on loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. Dorjee begins the chapter by examining the Western approach to emotion and emotional responses. One advantage to a Western approach is the ability to scientifically measure emotion and its effects. We can see how the brain activates while experiencing different emotions through the use of an fMRI. Studies have shown that high positive and negative arousal occurs in the prefrontal cortex, this is just one examination of the physiological approach to examining emotion.
The Buddhist approach is less physiological and focuses more on the effects of what they label as the four healthy emotions and how they affect your life. Loving kindness is the first of the four healthy emotions. Loving kindness is the wish to be happy in the a wholesome sense. To achieve states of loving kindness Dorjee advises meditating on what kindness means to the individual or what positive whishes one has for themselves. Compassion is very closely associated with loving kindness meditation. Compassion is the application of this loving kindness to others. It involves connecting with others and with the suffering they feel. Felling compassion is to share the burden of their suffering, not to feel bad for them. This shared endeavor helps to overcome the suffering and return back to a loving kindness state.
Dorjee also draws focus to rejoicing and equanimity. Rejoicing occurs when we notice the acts of kindness in our lives and take the time to live within those moments. This reinforces the positive effects of both loving kindness and compassion. Rejoicing also prevents one from dwelling on negative emotions like jealousy because it brings focus on to what you do have and not what is missing. Equanimity is a method of separation from intense emotion. It is not an emotionless approach to life, rather it is a the ability to recognize emotion but not become overwhelmed by that emotion. Equanimity also calls for us to put aside the overly negative emotions we may have towards others or situations and to recenter and apply the loving kindness, compassion, and rejoicing previously covered.
This chapter is very much about the application of meditation on our daily lives. It focuses on the positive implication of meditation on our lives and relationships. I think that equanimity is an extremely interesting concept that could have great implication in day to day life. I see equanimity as the ability to stay focused and neutral through moments of high emotion. This would allow for a more focused and logical thought process as well as preventing anxiety due to extreme emotional highs and lows. Dorjee does a good job of explaining the Buddhist views of important emotional practices while also presenting the benefits of modern Western measurement techniques. Buddhist approaches are more about the application while the Western approach is aimed at explaining the physiological process of emotion.
Terms: loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing, equanimity, fMRI, prefrontal cortes, anxiety, emotion, meditation