Alluded to in many conversations, ironically, the word emotion and its various forms, is extremely difficult to define. Emotions seem to emanate from the physical body (our desire for it). Closely related are feelings. How we feel is a kind of awareness of an emotional state such as enjoyment, sadness, disgust, fear or anger.
How we practice zazen, for example, could fall under the emotion of enjoyment. I feel so calm and relaxed after doing zazen. At other times, I lack this kind of enjoyment. At times, I worry too much about my job and my family. What will I do if I get laid off?
Our body can be excited and moved in many different ways, both positively and negatively. In light of all this, we are involved with many emotional changes that are taking place within us throughout the day.
A Buddhist monk or nun tries to keep a tight rein on their emotions exercising more discipline and control over them than an ordinary person who lives in the secular world.
The monastic life does not allow us to indulge too much in the body where all the emotions live. By indulging in our emotions we soon lose sight of Buddhism's goal which is to realize the unconditioned which lies above the conditioned world into which we have been thrown.
For those who live emotional lives, but decide to dabble in Buddhist meditation or zazen, there is some enjoyment to be derived from sitting in meditation and joining a Buddhist community. Still, such people have no idea what it is like to begin to detach from the emotions. This, of course, is the life of a Buddhist monastic which is not an easy life. One cannot come and go like a lay person when they join a Buddhist community.
A major part of Buddhist training is to have your emotions always confronted until you learn to stop overreacting so them when they are triggered. Needless to say, this is very difficult for the modern person living in today's culture to do. They would rather run away into their safe space and not have to learn how to control their emotions. Others, I have noticed, want Zen Buddhism to adapt to their emotional world even though they suffer from difficult psychiatric disorders.
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