90. How to Deal with Emotions of the Mind

By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī

All human beings have emotions in their minds. From birth until the day we die, every one of us has emotions. They may be heavy or light, intense or mild — differing from person to person. Once born, we become entangled in various emotions such as love, aversion, anger, hatred, delight, infatuation, and so on. These are ingrained in everyone’s character. Therefore, listen to this discussion on "emotions" in order to understand them.

The word arammana (emotion/object of mind) means "that which pleases or delights the mind." Even unpleasant things — anger, hatred, etc. — the mind still takes delight in clinging to that anger and hatred. That is, it doesn’t let go or abandon them. Hence, it is called arammana.

The origins of emotions are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — what are called the six sense-bases (āyatana). These are the sources of emotions. But the teachings say they are the sources, not that emotions originate from the sense-bases themselves. In truth, emotions do not arise from the eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body. They arise from the mind itself. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are merely doors.

It is like the doors or windows of a house. When you hear a sound, you go open the door to look, or peer through the window. If you want to see something, you go look through that opening. But the one who peers is not the window; the window is just an opening for looking. The one who looks is the person himself.

Even if there were no doors or windows — that is, no eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body — the mind would still exist, and it would still see. Therefore, emotions do not arise at the eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body. They arise at the mind. If we investigate and separate them — separate the body, the mind, and the emotion — we will see clearly with our own mind that emotion is one thing, the mind is another, and the sense-bases are another. Yet emotions arise from the mind itself.

In that very act of separating through investigation, emotion and mind part from each other without our realizing it. When the mind has no emotion, emotion disappears entirely. But we do not investigate and separate like that. Instead, we chase after emotions and do not seek the mind. Therefore, we do not know that they are separate. For instance, when we love something, we then like it, take delight in it — we get caught up in that very thing we love. Or when we get angry or hate something displeasing, we keep circling around that thing in our thoughts. Thus, we remain stuck only there and never reach the mind.

But when we investigate in this way — investigating the mind: the mind is the "middle." As I have explained before, the mind itself has nothing. There is no thinking, no fabrication. No past, no future. There is only awareness of the present moment.

As for emotions — such as love for children, grandchildren, spouse, or various things — they lead us to think about the people we love, fabricating past and future: "It will be like this, it will be like that." Even before it happens, we wish for it to happen; or after it has happened, we think and fabricate and delight in various ways. That is called arammana. It is unstable, not staying in one place, not resting in the present.

If it settles into the present, then the matter is finished. It lays down all the thoughts and fabrications. Then there is no emotion — just stillness, neutrality, no thinking. It reaches the mind. That very neutrality is the mind itself.

I ask you to see and know that "neutrality" first. Even if it is not yet concentration, that’s fine. See the neutrality in order to know its original nature. Love and aversion arise from that very neutrality. They are the cause of past and future. If there were no neutrality, the matter would be finished, because there would be nothing to go out and fabricate past and future.

This neutrality is called the "mind." That which thinks and fabricates all kinds of things is called "consciousness" (citta) or "mental factors" (cetasika), depending on one’s terminology. Here, we will call it citta.

The citta never stays still. If you try to chase after its endless fabrications — in one day, it runs all over the place, thinking this and that, never stopping — trying to follow it is impossible. It’s like chasing a shadow. No matter how much you run, you never catch the shadow. If you stop running, the shadow stops right there. The same with the citta — it never stops. As soon as we stop dead still, it stays right there, and we don’t have to chase after it.

Therefore, it is said: first see its original nature. Once you see the original nature, then you will know that emotion is precisely the citta — the thinking that sends itself forward and backward into past and future, delighting in its own thoughts and fabrications, whether wholesome or unwholesome.

Take anger, for example. In truth, we don’t want to be angry. But we cannot let go — that is, we take delight in, we are attached to that matter, thinking and fabricating only about that anger. We cannot put it down or abandon it. That is the emotion concerning that matter.

How then to abandon, let go, and uproot emotion? Let us consider: If we did not think, what would happen? When we do not think, do not fabricate, then it is simply neutral. That is the "neutrality."

Once we have reached that neutrality, anger, displeasure, love, and all emotions fall away completely. This is the method to deal with emotions: separate the mind from the emotion, and take only the mind. Do not take the emotion. In this way, you can separate everything entirely.

Whether it is love, aversion, anger, hatred, jealousy, vindictiveness, anxiety, fear, grief, distress, infatuation, all defilements — they must be separated in this way, investigated in this way. Only then can you reach the mind itself. When you reach the mind, everything is uprooted simultaneously, and the matter is finished.

Today, I have explained emotions and how to deal with them, specifically just this much.

Evam.