![]() Actually, pleasure and pain, and happiness and unhappiness, are things that we need to examine in more depth. In any case, the main point that we are referring to here by cognitive faculty is the ability to experience feelings: pain, pleasure, or neutral feelings. Usually it means the clearest aspect of the mind, but then, is it that there is no consciousness when we are semiconscious or unconscious? Do insects have it? Maybe it’s better to speak of “cognitive faculty” rather than consciousness. Actually it’s difficult to define what “consciousness” or “conscious” means. “Sentient” doesn’t necessarily mean being conscious or being human on a conscious level. Things that can move under their own will or desire, that’s what a “sentient being” means, according to the discussions that I’ve had with scientists. ![]() And as sentient beings, we have even more mechanisms to help us survive. But more than that, we human beings including insects, even amoebas, the smallest beings are considered sentient beings. If negative force is exerted against them, then, on a chemical level, flowers repair themselves to survive. Even non-sentient beings like flowers have the right to exist. We are here we exist and we have the right to exist. By broadening our definition of intimacy, we open ourselves to discovering many new and equally satisfying ways of connecting with others.The Purpose of Life Is to Strive for Happiness But we have within our power the means to avoid this we need only courageously expand our concept of intimacy to include all the other forms that surround us on a daily basis. This can be a profoundly limiting viewpoint, cutting us off from other potential sources of intimacy, and the cause of much misery and unhappiness when that Special Someone isn’t there. There’s a widespread notion in our culture that deep intimacy is best achieved within the context of a passionate romantic relationship-that Special Someone who we set apart from all others. This is particularly true when we go through the inevitable periods in our life when we’re not involved in a romantic relationship or when the passion wanes from a relationship. Today, so many of us are oppressed by a feeling of something missing in our lives, intensely suffering from a lack of intimacy. It means that at this very moment we have vast resources of intimacy available to us. This realization alone offers us a great opportunity. “There is an incredible diversity among human lives, infinite variations among people with respect to how they can experience a sense of closeness. But this shows how through constant familiarity and thinking, we ourselves can make our emotions more intense and powerful.” Of course, the same can apply to when we have an attachment towards a particular person we can feed that by thinking about how beautiful he or she is, and as we keep thinking about the projected qualities that we see in the person, the attachment becomes more and more intense. ![]() It makes the hatred very powerful and intense. However, if we think about the projected injustices done to us, the ways in which we have been unfairly treated, and we keep on thinking about them over and over, then that feeds the hatred. ![]() For instance when we have anger or hatred towards a person, there is less likelihood of its developing to a very intense degree if we leave it unattended. Although, in general, mental and emotional afflictions themselves can come naturally, often it is our own reinforcement of those negative emotions that makes them so much worse. “We can see that there are many ways in which we actively contribute to our own experience of mental unrest and suffering.
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