Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Emotion of Emotions

One of the interesting paradoxes of life is emotions and detachment. Humans are very complex and what makes them interesting is the varied emotions that they exhibit. Life would be incomplete without feeling the highs and lows of love, without spending some sleepless nights in anxiety, crying over unmet expectations, living and reliving dreams, turning green with jealousy, carrying an attitude for no reason and the list is endless.

However, apart from making our lives colorful, emotions also end up making us attached to things and people and this attachment brings with it pain and sorrow. It clouds reason and gives us that unique quality of being unreasonable, bringing excitement and unpredictability to our lives. There are times when this unreasonableness encourages us to denounce the various colors of life and take the spiritual path of detachment. We try to reduce the effects of emotions on our lives, try to be reasonable, objective and logical and not get too carried away by what our heart says or feels.

This is where I feel the paradox steps in. By being so “detached”, we reduce our pain caused by various emotions, but in turn hurt a lot of people around us, especially the ones who are closest to us. The pain and hurt just gets transferred. It’s like energy which can be only transferred not destroyed.

This is where we have to take a decision. The decision of walking the road with someone or standing alone at the fag end of it.

2 comments:

  1. Very similar to the theme of the critically acclaimed movie "Samsara"...The question is - Should you seek to fulfill a thousand desires or conquer just one (thru detachment)...
    The climax of the movie actually poses questions (similar to yours) by drawing parallels to Siddharta (Buddha) who took the path of 'no desire'.
    The only difference is that the filmmaker also highlights yet another paradox - that of gender and related biases - Siddharta could renounce his family and become The Buddha....but could Yashodara (his wife) do the same even if she were enlightened? Abandoned her children while they were asleep?

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  2. I would be mighty surprised if the pain (& hurt) transferred is complete and equal. I guess it's better if one takes care of his/her own self, whatsoever the route be!

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