Hi, Steph!
Steph S:Are you easily able to get back to clear perception when noticing the form of emotions? In what ways do you pay attention to form and what do you notice about it?
With this helpful advice from
End in Sight ("ignoring things") and
Stefanie ("the box"), I'm beginning to skilfully (and more easily) ignore some thoughts/feelings when they arrive. With "form" I refer to certain tensions, twangs and acute sensations experienced in the chest or gut areas, and/or its correspondent mental manifestations like sudden (generally obsessive and self-destructive) thoughts.
The way I pay attention to form is being attentive (HAIETMOBA). Now, what I look for is if there is something not felicitous (or at least neutral) about it. What I want is to keep at least that neutral (ideally felicitous) base from where I can start to freely being sensuous, because, when hard feelings are present, there is some gravitational force towards my internal life that is overwhelming, and won’t let me pay attention to the life of the senses. If I identify this gravity, I ask why, identify quick the sensation and its cause, and put them out of the way. The result often feels like if I were starting from scratch, like when your operative system is so slow and complicated, full with processes, and you reset the computer and everything is fast and clear again after you do that.
What I did before was tasting those feelings to get to know them, but that maybe caused them to be virulent and expansive: sense inputs turning into simple feelings turning into compounded emotions turning into generalized and solid moods. So I suppose that being super attentive and "nipping in the bud" in those ways is the path that leads to VF eventually (along with sensible investigation).
So, in summary this is what I am saying about emotions (which maybe was obvious, but that I understood experientially just days ago):
Why they arise in the first place? A social or instinctual reason that needs to be investigated.
Why do they feel so real and compounded? Personal patterns that fuel them, which needs to be cut quickly.
What can you do to both diminish their arising (quantitative aspect) and their force (qualitative aspect)? Investigate from a felicitous (or at least neutral) state and to an extent that doesn't compromise your well being; and, on the other side, be pretty alert in your attentiveness and come back to feeling good (or at least neutral) making sure that you are not repress them (only with mini-investigations that tag the emotion and identify their causes, conditions and effects)
It's a cycle where both parts benefit each other, and intelligence would determine the best way to operate according to said principles.
Steph S:I think it is helpful to get a handle on what is happening when you incline the mind towards attentiveness of form and how it leads to getting back to clear perception. Doing so will imprint in your mind an automatic habit to keep doing this over and over.
I'm beginning to experience this automatic habit. I hope I/it can maintain it/maintain itself.
Steph S:I spent some time struggling by trying to use affective clues of how to get back to clear perception, instead of noticing the way attention works to allow clear perception to naturally happen. I know it's fun to have EE's and PCE's and hang out maxing sensuousness. However, when there's an EE or PCE you should also use it as an opportunity to pay attention to precisely what is and isn't happening (qualitatively, attention wise, etc).
Yeah, the EEs/PCEs are like the lighthouse that guide my affective imitations and efforts. One perhaps should proceed in the same ways (when at best) that one does when in "normal mode": enjoy them (being sensuous) but also pay attention and take notes (being attentive) to leave bread crumbs Hansel and Gretel style when it's over.