RE: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad
October 29, 2017 at 11:56 pm
(This post was last modified: October 30, 2017 at 12:00 am by bennyboy.)
You really are just juggling terms. "Negative" is another term for "bad." "Positive" is another term for "good." Positive emotions don't PUT us into a state of joy-- joy is just one of the positive emotions which we are capable of experiencing. You really seem to be reaching for something that doesn't need to be reached for.
But there's something that you are missing, and it's one of the keys to life. The sum total of many positive and negative experiences over the course of a lifetime may lead to an appreciation that is more deeply felt as good than any of those experienced along the way.
I've had very many bad experiences in my life, but my life has added up to a story-- the idea of what it means to be me-- and this idea provides me with a much stronger sense of value than any orgasm, drug experience, rainbow or cuddly puppy ever could have. It is the idea that I've mattered that LEADS to the "good" emotion I call satisfaction, not vice versa.
And in fact, I'd say that for the most part, this is how it works-- it is ideas of the self and of the world which lead to a true sense of value, not any of the very impermanent emotions that arise along the way. The positive emotion is the physical reward for living a life with value, not the other way around.
But there's something that you are missing, and it's one of the keys to life. The sum total of many positive and negative experiences over the course of a lifetime may lead to an appreciation that is more deeply felt as good than any of those experienced along the way.
I've had very many bad experiences in my life, but my life has added up to a story-- the idea of what it means to be me-- and this idea provides me with a much stronger sense of value than any orgasm, drug experience, rainbow or cuddly puppy ever could have. It is the idea that I've mattered that LEADS to the "good" emotion I call satisfaction, not vice versa.
And in fact, I'd say that for the most part, this is how it works-- it is ideas of the self and of the world which lead to a true sense of value, not any of the very impermanent emotions that arise along the way. The positive emotion is the physical reward for living a life with value, not the other way around.
