Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
To quote Agent Smith, "only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love."
The evolution of emotion
- Thread starter shiels
- Start date
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Similar to my approach to desire: not to repress it or deny it, but to observe its flights and vacillations, so as to dispel any illusion of its absoluteness; to accept its nature as but a thread in the larger cosmic loom.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I combinatorially see all the possible affective storms that could paint my emotional state as reactions to and impressions of the reality being experienced, states that go on to delineate certain fields of possible responses and expressions, all such movements seemingly driven by this or that desire, however vaguely identified.
luka
Well-known member
its interesting isnt it how prevalent that pop buddhism approach to emotion has become and how it is predicated on the idea that emotions are really very unpleasant things we have to protect ourselves from. have you ever felt happy? what do you think happiness might feel like? ive felt excited and energised and powerful loads but i dunno if i go around feeling happy as a rule
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
It just seems that, at a certain point of demystification, one becomes less prone to being swept up by these emotional currents.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I can and do feel happy, but its not a state of mind I actively pursue, at least not often. I'm not very interested in happiness, but I do acknowledge the utility of its contagiousness: that being happy tends to make one a more magnetic person, often making communication easier.
Of course, that is a sociopathic way of framing these things. I could just as well frame it as the act of spreading happiness.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I would say it involves an instinctive affirmation of the present and/or future, a preference of being over not being, however subtle or exuberant.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I think its easier to open peoples' minds if you convey happiness, as if they see it as evidence of your success - even though, as I say, happiness isn't especially interesting to me, and it is far from being the object of my pursuits.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Do you think its because of your interactions with poetry buyers?
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
"instinctive" as in, not having to think about it.
luka
Well-known member
er, i dunno, its definitely very good to be locked into that kind of positive feedback lop
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I think the world is wondrous on a level that is at once more abstract and more fundamental than the level of people and emotions, and I find this an infinitely renewing wonder, that the energy of the universe has evolved over billions of years into structures so intricate and complex that we can hardly begin to appreciate them with the naked eye.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Its one way of affirming the abyss, that beyond the level of abstraction wherein people and emotions are chief concerns - the level occupied by most of us - there stretch quadrillions of kilometers of ostensible emptiness with patches of fierce and dazzling activity.
luka
Well-known member
this is the same with personal trainers. if they have nice muscles it advertises their brand. you see it with all the hucksters too dont you.
smiling beatifically in their press shots
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
You don't seem depressed as we speak, and you seem to have a good basis for deriving happiness, namely your interactions with people.