Spiritual Food for the Emotional Body

An article written by Halbert Katzen

Meher Baba devotees believe that he was an avatar—a periodic incarnation of God. Meher Baba taught that he had previously incarnated as Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed. His teaching was beyond words. In fact, he did not speak for the last forty-four years of life. An alphabet board and a self-styled form of sign language were used for communication. The reason that he gave for this was that all the great truths about God had already been spoken. His mission was only to awaken, to inspire people to focus their lives on loving God.

There is a story about Meher Baba regarding his appointment of a principal for an elementary school. After directing his followers to establish the school, he chose one of them to be the principal. I do not remember this man's name. Let’s call him Simple Simon because, as the story goes, he could not read or write.

Meher Baba had an inner circle of disciples called the mandali. These men were similar to Jesus’ apostles in that they worked very closely with Meher Baba and reported directly to him. When the mandali heard that Meher Baba had picked Simple Simon as principal of the new school, they were exasperated. To them, the appointment of Simple Simon was an embarrassment and destined to be an administrative nightmare. So, some of them decided to try to persuade Meher Baba to change his mind.

"Why? Why would you pick someone so undereducated and unqualified to be the principal of a school?" they pleaded. Meher Baba pointed to a nearby stick and indicated to the mandali that they should go get the stick and hit him with it. "No! We cannot do it!" they beseeched him. "We love you with all our hearts. We could never bring harm to you. Ask us anything. But please, spare us from an atrocity such as this! We cannot bear it!"

Then, Meher Baba told them to get Simple Simon. When Simple Simon arrived, Meher Baba indicated that Simon should get the stick and hit him with it. Without hesitation, Simple Simon did as he was told. Looking to his mandali, Meher Baba communicated that only those who are asleep disobey, in the name of love, the one whom they call God.

Emotions are a double-edged sword. The fore edge creates an opening for us to learn something about ourselves; emotions let us know what we value and how we react to the circumstances of life. But when we're not careful to control emotion, the back edge can cut away at logical reasoning. Emotions can cloud judgment. To follow logic requires courage and trust. When it's time to make a decision, being emotional doesn't help us think.

In common usage feelings and emotions are often taken to be the same thing. If our emotional state is happy, we are accustomed to saying that we feel happy. I want to make a distinction between feelings and emotions. Feelings are objective physical occurrences; emotions are interpretive mental states. There is a feedback loop between feelings and emotions. Emotions are meaning- and value-laden states of mind that are permitted expression in the body. Feelings are physical sensations upon which the mind places meaning and value.

Emotions can provide us with accurate insight into our current state of spiritual growth. They are reflections of the meanings and values that we actually (not idealistically) attach to life. This is equally true for the physical, mental, and spiritual facets of our lives.

On the physical level, a lack of food can create a physical pain¾ a feeling. But the pain is not the emotion. If one is fasting for God, the pain of hunger may engender an emotional attitude of repentance that brings forth tears of remorse. If one is starving in a prison camp, the pain of hunger may develop into a fear of death or it may arouse hatred for one’s captors. On the mental level, trying to solve a difficult math problem may cause the mind to struggle. This can result in debilitating frustration or be an exciting challenge. On the spiritual level, difficulties with others (or with life in general) give rise to a wide range of feelings and emotions. We may become angry as a result of judging another person. We may become sad that someone’s heart has slammed the door on love. Or we may experience serenity born of the hope and trust that from such tribulation deeper friendship will develop.

Our emotions are like a political system in the sense that it is important to distinguish between the nature of the system and our analysis of whether the system is being used well. For instance, a well-run democracy could vote for the enslavement of a particular race. This does not mean that democracy is bad; it only demonstrates how a good system can be used to create a bad result. Similarly, even if we express our emotions in only healthy ways and in appropriate circumstances, this does not mean that we are instantly eligible for sainthood. The nondestructive expression of anger or fear may be better than repressing such emotions, but this doesn't mean that responding with anger and fear is a goal in life.

In order to have good government, we must strive to improve the mechanisms of government as well as the nobility of the citizenry. In order to promote our psychological wellbeing, we must express emotions in a healthy manner as well as attend to the personal enhancement of meanings and values.

Emotional expression is part of being a whole person. It is simply the way our bodies get to participate in the meanings and values that we attach to the circumstances of life. Personal growth depends upon the enhancement of meanings and loyalty to supreme values. Vigilantly working for the development of meanings and values helps us wisely direct our actions. We are lying to the world when we act in ways that are inconsistent with our values or when we refuse to take actions consistent with our values. We are lying to ourselves when we emote in ways that are inconsistent with our values or when we repress emotions that are consistent with our values.

This is not to say that unless every emotion is immediately expressed, we are being untrue to ourselves. Maturity demands that we balance the spontaneous expression of emotion with the demands of living. Emotional disengagement allows the surgeon’s hand to remain steady. Unfortunately, for a wide range of individual and cultural reasons, the mere experience of certain emotions is sometimes considered wrong. When emoting is discouraged in general or when some specific emotion becomes taboo, we lose the ability to clearly see the meanings and values that we attach to life.

Emotions can generally be classified as deriving from one of three states of consciousness: 1) loving in the present, 2) being fearful about the future, or 3) being judgmental about the past.

Love begets happiness and sadness because life on earth is imperfect. Love brings the joy of relationships. It brings us pleasure to see those we love do well and inspires gratitude when we appreciate the blessings in our lives. When relationships go poorly, love is reflected in sadness occasioned by a sense of separation. Love also begets sadness as a result of our compassion for the suffering of others.

In contrast to love, selfishness gives rise to various forms of fear and judgment. Fear blocks our ability to love. When we lose faith in the eventual triumph of love, we become fearful about the future. The willingness to spiritually judge others turns the circumstances of the past into an excuse for withholding love in the present.

Emotions, when they are neither overly repressed nor overly indulged, are the healthy way in which we integrate our values with our bodies. Those emotions that are the product of love should be accepted in the body (permitted healthy expression) and validated by the mind. Validated emotions are reinforced as the worthwhile result of the values that give rise to them. Love inspired emotions should be validated by the mind.

Emotions that are the product of fear and judgment should be accepted in the body (vented in ways that will not make our situation worse) so that we may become aware of our need for a more spiritualized attitude. Acceptance of such emotions opens up a space to move beyond the meanings and values that produced the emotions. Such selfish emotions, however, should not be validated. They should not be reinforced by the mind because they are not consistent with the supreme value of love.

By accepting but refusing to validate emotions that are not the product of love, we give ourselves an opportunity to see ourselves in a new light. Pent up emotions, especially ones based on selfishness, are a vexation to the spirit and an obstacle to the reasoning abilities of the mind. By allowing the body to release these emotions, we are able to let go of unloving attitudes. Once the body has released the tension created by selfish values, then the spirit and mind are once again at liberty to recommit to holding love as the highest value.

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