Instability of Mood

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According to Theravadin Buddhist psychology, moods are caused by sankhara and there is no such thing as an uncaused event of any kind. One remedy for dealing with β€œemotional volatility” is the development of calm through the development of full samadhi. Such calm allows a person to stay with the state of upacara samadhi, a state in which a person retains their full intelligence before moving into full samadhi. Unlike full samadhi, upacara samadhi is conducive to acquiring psychological insight, including insight into the causes of mood.

Upvote:1

There is always a cause. Moods are often caused by something physical. Unrestful sleep, toxins circulating in the brain, lack of certain hormones/nutrients etc. You can eat healthy, exercise, meditate, but ultimately these moods will come and go.

You succumb to unwholesome behaviours, because of the force of habitual tendencies, reacting a certain way towards these moods. Since there is no ''controller, persona, immutable self'' we cannot simply make them go away at will.

In this case ''a bad mood'' will lead to ''grief'' if not observed objectively. Patiently enduring the mood, not trying to push it away, not reacting towards it. To rest with things as they are, regardless of conditions.

''Ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world.''

As confidence in the practice grows, so will ardency.

Upvote:6

Very good question, one of the key ones.

At the student level:

According to my teacher, emotional volatility comes from relying on other people and on random ideas for your confirmation, for your system of values. As opposed to relying on one teacher and one dharma. When you have one dharma, all your actions and circumstances are evaluated against single set of rules, which gives stability.

At the enlightened level:

When you completely internalize Emptiness, when you clearly see and know there is no absolute reference point whatsoever, and when you stop clinging to emotional security of an absolute reference point, you enter suchness (tathata), the true nature of enlightenment. In suchness, there is not only no mismatch between external "is" and "should" due to the absence of clinging, there is also no mismatch between "I am forced to be such" and "I wish I could be such instead" - due to the cessation of maintenance of ego. Your actions are spontaneous and free of inner conflict.

So that's the twofold answer to your question: emotional stability is achieved 1) by taking refuge in one consistent Dharma as one's highest authority vs letting other peoples' opinions sway your mood by their judgements and 2) by eventually taking refuge in Emptiness, the ultimate insecurity of tathata.

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