Awareness of Emotions

Without an awareness of our feelings we cannot experience compassion. How can we share the sufferings and the joys of others if we cannot experience our own?

If we are not intimate with our emotions, we cannot perceive the dynamics that lie behind the motion, the way that these dynamics work, and ends that they serve. Emotions are currents of energy that pass through us. Awareness of these currents is the first step in learning how our experiences come into being and why.

Emotions reflect intentions. Therefore, awareness of emotions leads to awareness of intentions. Every discrepancy between a conscious intention and the emotions that accompany it point directly to a splintered aspect of the self that requires healing. If, for example, your intention to marry causes pain instead of joy, following the pain will lead you to unconscious intentions. If your intention to advance in your work causes sorrow instead of satisfaction, following the sorrow will lead you to unconscious intentions.

Without an awareness of your emotions you are not able to experience compassion. Compassion is not an emotion. It is a way of being, but the path to compassion is through your heart, and only an awareness of your feelings can open your heart.

-- Gary Zukav, in Seat Of The Soul (edited)