Feelings and Intellect

One requires constant vigilance of one’s inner world to realize the nature of the experience that we call as reality. Questions regarding the nature of thought and its hold on the nature of perception and conception are inevitable. With it, follows the definition of external world and the kind of role one wishes to play in it. At a fundamental level, the two worlds are interlinked by how we choose to think.

The question that I choose to write about is – what is the generator of thought? And do we require any kind of an environment for thoughts to be generated or do they exist by themselves?

I think ‘feeling’ is the generator of thoughts or is the primary impulse behind thoughts. And intellect is the controller, analyzer and the conceiver of thoughts. The consciousness or the space or the void is the medium where this interplay of feelings and intellect occurs. Noone knows why does space wishes to manifest into a conscious being (of manifestation) and why does that being evolve to transform into space again? We have to just accept it – this “tendency” to regenerate.

IF we accept this grand tendency to regenerate, then we will also accept whatever that tendency brings about in us. The tendency will therefore mean all kinds of emotions, feelings, desires, temptations, beneficial or otherwise that will keep getting generated irrespective of the external world and irrespective of our state of existence. There is no way in which fear or doubt will be eliminated. To eliminate that, or the ego or the anger, means to completely eliminate the mind! What thus remains, is our choice to concentrate and nurture those thoughts or those tendencies that will give good environment – internal and external.

This brings us to what are emotions, what are feelings, what is logic? I think, emotions are shown in small scale of things. Which means, the more one thinks through body or temptations or desires – one is becoming emotional (Tamas vrutti). By disengaging ourselves to emotions and by concentrating on larger scale of events, we start to feel compassionate or feel empathy towards all. Herein, emotions get converted or transformed into feelings. Feelings are much deep rooted, have more depth and exist in all creations and therefore become a source to connect to all. They aren’t governed by the present or by small things or small events – they are formed by a much more comprehensive understanding of the past-present-future and portray an element of space-time (Bhav).

Just as emotions get transformed into feelings, I like to believe that a parallel transformation of logic occurs. Logic of small events of petty cause-effect scenarios means that a person is playing at an emotional level – to such an extent that any irrational emotion may appear perfectly logical to that person! If one becomes aware of this attitude and if one understands that it is futile to concentrate on minute things, then it is only by the strength of the intellect, that we begin to concentrate on things that should really matter – that is on understanding the pattern of phenomena or the space-time construct. Herein, the scale of logic is concerned with the idea of ‘pattern’ and our thoughts become more abstract, more intuitive, more comprehensive, more universal. Thus, by the intellect, we have come from the level of emotions to the level of feelings! Then what is beyond feelings? This answer cannot be discerned by intellect – but by a method that lets us suspend the hold of space-time on us. Known methods are meditation or Rajyog. This is the ultimate achievement of our existence – to experience a state of existence that is not in the grips of feelings or intellect – or that state, which is the subject matter of all creations in the universe!

Why do we aim to reach to such a point of knowing? It is because the intellect wants to know the idea of permanence. This search for permanence leads us to a point wherein we encounter the boundary between the cause-effects playing in Space-Time phenomena and things that exist beyond that. Actually, it is not that separate – the boundary. What we refer to as “Beyond” is the generator or the player or the initiator or the medium of the causes and effects of intents, processes and the birth of phenomena. Since It prevails in everything, It is present everywhere and It can take any form, it remains unbounded by any kind of a framework of Space-Time. As It exists, the resultant phenomenal world also continues to exist. Any phenomenon – be it moon or Sun or stars or galaxies or our own thoughts – are subjected to the “tendency” of existence, which is birth, evolution, transformation. Phenomena are interdependent and all parts of the phenomena and anything else between the phenomena are also interdependent. This means the existence of a single thought or a single sound or a single letter or a single colour isn’t fruitful. The meaning behind one colour or sound is related to all other colours or spectrums OR a given colour has ingredients of all other colours! Hence nothing exists in isolation, nothing exists for a moment and nothing exists as a boundary. When I say ‘brown’, it also means all other colours are present right there, except certain tendencies are preferred to express ‘brown’. So is with the mind – that by focusing on a few selected thoughts, it doesn’t mean that other thoughts have vanished – it only means our preference for a selected set of thoughts is highlighted.

By now, it will be clear that the presence of Space/ void/ energy and its inherent tendency to keep manifesting into the phenomenal world is to be treated as a given – it is to be accepted without questioning (which means by full faith in the ability to manifest and change). This realization is traditionally called ‘God’ – the combination of the Formless and the Form – that which is invisible and that which is visible. This experience is expressed in religion or art or architecture or any kind of an approach (such as ecology).

Ideas – Processes - Product

Come to think of it, “thoughts” exist in a vacuum of space – one can’t see or catch or stop or continue – but can only feel….much like the surfer floating on the waves. The waves come and go, the surfer only maintains a balance. Thus, we keep running from pillar top post trying to accomplish something – trying to catch some sort of a ghost, but all the time we are just there – the consciousness not governed by space or time. The feeling of space-time dimension is born out of manifestation of the Formless. That is, the ‘form’ operates or exhibits a dimension of space and time – externally as well as internally. As body and mind, we have manifested out of consciousness and hence there are thoughts that make us perceive and conceive reality or our specific idea of space and time. Thoughts therefore can be directed only towards manifestations, or the processes or an idea. Manifestations change and to remain attached to the manifestations can cause pain. It is better to dwell on ideas as they are yet to manifest but show a potential to be converted into a process and then a product – a manifestation. ‘Phenomenon’ can be understood as a combination of idea/ intent, process and a product. A product, therefore, can lead to an idea. A product is to be seen as a gateway to the idea (which may be contextually relevant for a given place and time) and moving beyond the context, we may see the idea purely as a pattern of consciousness – which can manifest if we undertake the effort of doing so.

For people thinking about the idea, it may seem difficult to convey their thoughts or intentions to people who concentrate only on the products. Products aren’t permanent or don’t convey the nature of reality. Clinging to such a tendency of holding on to a product becomes problematic for everyone. Why not discuss the idea itself? Anything can either be seen as a product in itself or an idea. Religion becomes a product to confirm if looked at only from the perspective of following set rituals. Religion becomes an idea if decoded to the level of revealing the Formless nature of things. Similarly is the case with personalities – are you reacting to a personality ‘type’? If that is the case, then you are seeing the personality (or the person) as a fixed product which you insist must confirm to your own set standards. If you consider yourself fixed, then you are also seeing yourself as a product! However, a person may be seen as a set of ideas that can also potentially ignite your own ideas – then there is discussion involved (and not any compulsion to confirm to someone’s standards).

Why not attempt to decode everything to the level of patterns? What are these patterns? How are they created? How do they lead to some changing manifestations of seasons, climate, ecology, flora, fauna, people etc.? By adhering to this urge of understanding patterns in Nature, we move beyond extremely narrow definitions of age, gender, language, religion, ethnicity, nation, humans and so on. This involves a struggle within. It is not an easy task since it just challenges the notion of body and mind. But that’s the potential of the human mind – to attain freedom from fixations and to exist as pure consciousness!