The Feeling Collection
We need to be careful with the word Feelings as it regards this particular collection or Skanda. Just as we only have one word for snow and the inuit have 24 or just like we have the one word "mind" and tibetans, and buddhists in general, identify 51 different types of mind, we use the word "feelings" for a lot of different things.
There is the feeling that stealing is wrong, but we need to recognize the underlying value that is behind that feeling. Often these values are vague or we have these feelings "just because" because it was something that we have learned and accepted without thought.
Stealing is bad from a spiritual point of view because it denies our interdependence with others and denying that interdependence causes both parties suffering. It creates suffering for the victim of the theft because they lose something that was precious to them. It also reinforces greed within the mind of the perpetrator which is a cause for their future dissatisfaction. It also creates a debt to the victim in the continuum of the perpetrator, requiring them at some point, even if it's in another lifetime, to compensate the victim for their loss.
It is more the sensation of a degrees of positive, negative, and neutral that we are referring to when we talk here of feelings. It is the Ratna passive energy of Balance that is monitored by feelings. We decide if things are in Balance, out of Balance on the positive side, or out of Balance on the negative side and to what degree. The active energy of Nourishment is also monitored by feelings. We sense if things are supportive, unsupportive, or neutral.
Feelings is one area where using the word "Collection" to translate the Sanskrit term "Skanda" is very appropriate. We spend a lot of our time in this world "collecting" feelings about things. We develop a whole litany and list of all of the things that we like, don't like, and don't care about. We spend a lot of our time sharing that list with others and comparing their list with ours.
It is in this way that we use feelings to define ourselves. We express who we are in terms of what we like and what we don't like. Much of this is very benign as in "I like red" or "I like brocolli". The problems can come when we're relating to others. For example, if I like red, and want to paint a room that colour and my wife doesn't, then there is the possibility of dispute, depending on how attached we are to our likes and dislikes. When our likes involve major issues or turn into wants and needs, then we move into the dangerous territory where we can end up creating or perpetuating suffering.
As with all things, when we grasp at these sensations or at the objects that we are relating to in this way, then the energy takes on an unbalanced importance and we can create the causes for suffering. We let ourselves develop attachment to the things that we like, aversion to the things that we think are bad, and indifference to things that are neither good nor bad. At this point we lose sight of the fact that these things depend on causes and conditions for their existence and merely wishing for something, or wishing something away, won't make it happen.
When we decide that we want or need something that we like, we develop a hunger for it. This neediness and hunger can blind us into trying to obtain something without creating the proper causes and conditions. Another option is that the hunger prompts us to believe that harming or deceiving others in order to satisfy our need is allowable and good.
It also becomes important to recognize the impersonal-ness of feelings. We need to realize that feelings depend on our goals and values and are not ALL of what we are. We need to recognize that feelings are temporary and changeable. We need to recognize that these feelings are signals for how well something fits into our goals and values. We may need to adjust our values and goals or figure out how to resolve the discrepency between the situation in front of us and those goals and values.
It may even mean that we need to be patient and allow the situation to exist even though it doesn't help our goals or may even hinder them. We may have to allow something that we don't like to continue to exist, just because we can't do otherwise at the present moment. Developing patience with the process of creating causes and conditions is very important at this stage.
Part of this increased understanding is to recognize that others do not have the same feelings that we do and that many situations require a negotiation or interplay of our feelings with those of others. There may also need to be a negotiation, adjustment or exchange of goals and values.
Most of the time, we regard this process as a threat or a burden. We need to change our point of view and recognize that this process of exchange and interplay of goals and values is a natural, organic and normal process that is a part of reality. It means aknowledging that our own feelings, goals and values, and the feelings, goals and values of others are temporary, changeable, and part of the process of mutual spiritual growth.
Also from a spiritual point of view, we need to adjust our intention, and therefore our perceptions and feelings. We need to develop attraction and positive feelings towards contentment, patience, loving-kindness, faith, and complete viewpoint. We need to recognize the joy and freedom that comes from viewing the world as impermanent. We need to be content with the recognition that worldly things cannot really satisfy us. We need to become comfortable and at ease with the idea that we can only obtain positive circumstances or get rid of negative circumstances by creating the proper causes and conditions. We also need to become attracted to the notion of selflessness in terms of viewpoint, thought, word, and deed.
At the very minimum in spiritual practice, we need to develop dislike for harming others, and dislike for perpetuating, or creating suffering. As long as we are subject to aversion, we need to develop aversion to greed, anger, and ignorance, lying, deceit, pride and selfishness. We also need to develop a certain degree of indifference to worldly pleasures, recognizing that they cannot last, they don't provide lasting satisfaction, and they carry the danger of us becoming attached, and addicted to them.
Recognizing the temporariness and interdependence of feelings does not mean that we become feeling-less. There is a danger that, if we develop equanimity, that we stop feeling altogether and end up in the grey fuzzy area or in an area of indifference. These are mistakes. Indifference can lead to rejection of virtue and rejection of positiveness or the denial of negative, harmful situations. This can result in rejecting or ignoring reality which only increases suffering.
The best example of how we should proceed is the sand mandala. The sand mandala is a very colourful and intricate design that is made of many different coloured sands. Many days are spent creating the mandala. Prayers for motivation are said before-hand and blessing prayers are done once it is completed. Once the blessing is finished, the mandala is swept up and taken to a river where the sand is sent away down the river and dedication prayers are performed.
In the same way, we need to be completely involved in our reality, experiencing the feelings without attachment, aversion, or indifference. We allow ourselves to experience the full colour and intricacy of our reality and, at the end, we bless and dedicate the experience and then send it away. In this way we experience the complete feeling and allow it to pass away and that way it becomes part of Complete thought, Complete Speech, and Complete Action.
