If we divide the emotional self into higher and lower aspects,
inspiration is a higher emotional state. Because our emotional self is
actually much more complex than we’ve been led to believe, let’s
have a look at it and see what we’ve got.
First off, the
emotional self is thought to be intimately connected to the body-self.
Why? Because emotions are generated by the lower brain and limbic
system. When people talk about the mind-body, they really mean the
mind and the body/emotions.
What does your emotional
self do for you? Two things: first, it identifies the ‘problem’
and secondly, it gives you the energy to solve the problem. The mind
decodes the emotional package and figures out a solution. For example,
I step on a nail. The pain both identifies the problem (I have a nail
in my foot) and promotes me to pull it out.
There are many
layers to the emotional self. At the most basic level, when the
emotional self is just idling away, the feeling-state is that of being
alive. This is the ground state, the most basic level of your
emotional self. When all else is gone, this feeling remains. Since
it’s basically a good feeling, I believe our right as a human being
is to feel good. And this good feeling has no hangovers or
after-effects. In Zen, this state is called “the still lake with no
ripples.” In 12-Step Programs, this is “serenity.” In
Christianity, it is a “state of grace.” And the Navajos call it
“walking in beauty.”
To some
degree, the purpose of mental activity is to bring ourselves back to
the emotional ground state. This is because other emotions we may feel
are the result of pebbles thrown into the still lake.
The next layer
up is basic sensation. This includes body feelings such as hunger,
thirst, physical pain, cold, hot, and so on. These states usually
don’t cause folks any trouble. They just go get a sandwich, have a
drink, put on a coat and regain emotional equilibrium—no big deal.
The next layer
up, called ‘felt-sense,’ is a little tricky. In short, a
felt-sense is a feeling that washes over you all at once, but when you
start to describe it, it changes. (For more specifics on this
intriguing state, see Focusing
by Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D.)
The next level
up gives us feelings we can name: happy, sad, confused, lonely, and so
on. These are primary feelings—the ones we get right out of the gate
when the pebble hits the lake. If we solve our immediate problem,
primary feelings go away. If we don’t, these feelings will combine
with other feelings, or we can talk ourselves into other feelings—or
both.
And this lead
to the final level: secondary or composite feelings such as anger,
frustration, resentment, jealousy and so on. Once we get here, we’ve
got ourselves into a bit of a mess.
Although very
simplified, the above is a good representation of your ego’s
emotional-self. Any competent counselor can help you develop skill
sets to work with these states and get back to the ground state—that
still lake with no ripples.
But what of
your higher self’s emotional-self? What is it made up of? How does
inspiration or intuition or pre-cognition or universal love or
Christlike compassion or all those other feelings line up?
Well, they
don’t line up in the hierarchy way that your ego-self does. Rather,
it’s more that these higher emotions are accessed through the
elimination of fear. And, once you gain access, you must then learn
specific skills to develop the qualities associated with each state.
You see, these ‘higher’ emotions still define problems: You are
operating in compassion because of something. You are triggered with
inspiration because of something.
For example,
if I inspire you it means I’ve done something to trigger your
creativity. You are stimulated to creatively follow my lead on
something—charge the hill and kill the enemy; write the Great
American novel; realize your own Buddha-nature; whatever. In short,
you now have a problem to solve—a problem brought into high relief
by however I inspired you.
In one sense,
then, inspiration is a call that your higher self is answering. You
become willing to get out of your egocentric comfort zone and do
something altruistic, sacrifice yourself to a cause, or force yourself
to fulfill your potential. It’s through inspiration that we get out
of our petty lives and get into the bigger game.
This is not
accomplished without risk, however. Every spiritual charlatan who ever
existed depended on inspiration to gather his or her little flock of
devotees. Every war-monger who talked the nation/tribe/people into
battle exploited inspiration’s power. And every New Age junkie,
flitting from spiritual high to spiritual high, from this workshop to
that, has become addicted to inspiration at the expense of his or her
real life.
So, what do we
do to minimize the damage that inspiration could cause us? Well, if it
looks too good to be true, it probably is. That’s a basic rule of
thumb.
But let’s
consider this in more depth. For example, what is the difference
between a sangha and a cult?
From the outside, they both look the same. Everybody gives all their
worldly possessions to the ‘temple.’ They all follow the lead of a
‘guru.’ They sublimate their egos to an external standard of some
sort. And so on. What’s the difference?
To understand,
let’s look to the Zen saying, “It’s not the finger pointing to
the moon that is important, but the moon.”
In a cult, you are required to worship the ‘finger pointing
to the moon.’ You must revere the guru, give him/her all your money
and whatnot. Through your association with this guru or leader, you
are guaranteed salvation because you are a chosen one (which is a nice
ego-trip all by itself). Whereas in a sangha,
the temple, guru, money, attachments, etc., are illusions at worst,
fingers pointing to the moon at best. And once you can see the moon,
you leave with the guru’s blessing (and you get your stuff back on
the way out the door—although by this time, you probably don’t
want all that stuff anyway).
Inspiration,
then, still requires that you develop discernment. Given the above
discussion, we might say that discernment is having one foot in the
ego and one foot in the higher self. Through discernment, you learn
how to benefit your entire self.
Bruce
Bibee is a licensed
professional counselor in private practice and a Kung-fu instructor.
His one published book is The
Deep Healing Process, Infinity Publishing.
