Compassion is another one that I think has two forms, one that stems from understanding another from compulsion.

In my opinion if you are not ready to be deliberately conscious (going beyond relying on the mind to solve problems), to consider the consequences of possible actions and learn from mistakes then you must rely on emotions.

Emotions -> Rationale -> Consciousness

Offcourse it is scale rather than separated stages. Animals seem to use emotion/instinct most. Humans use all 3 with the majority of the time spent in emotions and rationale.

But then again, my social circle is only so wide.

Maybe there is a reason you just did not discover yet.
But anyway I also experienced sadness without suffering and what about compassion? Experiencing compassion I also have feelings/emotions.

If nobody would have emotions than probably nobody would know to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy actions. – Just a thought…

Personally I can’t specifically recall an emotion that I would want to keep. The reason being that the emotions take me away from being and perceiving. That being said I have a separate class for things such as the spontaneous joy that has absolutely no reason for being. Some would class this as an emotion, I don’t because I like to clearly distinguish between the two types. This joy is like an extension of being an presence, a quality. It does not take me away from being or awareness. Complicated and I don’t really know how to put this part into words yet.

It is all thoughts that occur on their own that I want to eliminate. Using the mind to think is fine when done deliberately. As for the source of ideas, this is something I think I will be exploring for a long time to come. I feel that when I have an idea I already know what it is before the thought appears, but the timing is so short it is hard to be sure.

As for the elimination of emotions and thoughts I don’t want to get into that in this thread. You can try looking up modern gnosticism if you like. Or ask on the website I mentioned or email me. There is a bit of background information to cover before talking about elimination makes the tiniest of sense.

Thank you for sharing your experience/understanding and asking about mine

“Live YOUR life. Do whatever you do, but do it with full attention. Notice your emotions. Name them and put them aside gently. Experience that emotions are not strictly part of yourself. They are things like sun and rain – they come and go. Don’t hate or get afraid of your feelings, but don’t stick to them.

Sometimes it may be that you don’t know how to go on – how to continue. Just sit down and wait. Simply wait – don’t wait for anything, just wait. Out of the emptiness you will receive a message from your belly what to do.”

I am not sure if it is good to completely get rid of emotions – might be – To remove all thoughts would stop me from working . I think it is an art to cultivate emotions and thoughts. As with everything it can be useful or be an obstacle. How did you completely remove emotions and thoughts?

Offcourse this is just one exercise that I learnt/am learning on that site, but it is the one that has had the greatest impact.

@Martin: At the time that I was experimenting I was very much on my own trying a couple of different sitting meditations that I found on the web. I did not have any instructors as such. Consequently it was a practice ‘in addition’ to my life. Also at that time I was not seeking to understand thoughts/emotions, rather I was searching for peace.

The gnosticweb approach if I can call it that is very similar to meditation all the time no matter what you are doing. I find that thoughts and emotions surge much more freely in daily life. This particular method is one of constant perception. Applying stuff like this (as you know) all the time radically changes how you live.

The word meditation has so many different explanations depending on who you talk to, from concentration/visualisations to emptiness/perception.

I find seated meditations useful for exploring further thoughts and emotions that I see during the day.

Without knowing exactly what sort of meditation to compare it to I can’t give a specific description/response .

Meditation cannot be done only by sitting around. I got instructed that everything that you do can be done in meditation by doing that only thing you are doing and nothing else.

So what is the difference in the approach with those techniques from gnosticweb you are mentioning?

Some do better than others, but the best teacher, apparently, is life itself.

ari