Thinking-from-heart is a phrase used by those whose brains are impotent. This is what I thought until recently when I was totally taken with rationality in my truth-seeking. Well, in a way it still stands true for those who are totally averse to thinking with their head and always talk about "enjoying life". You know the species that propagate such statements like, more living-less thinking (or even "no thinking")? Those people are too naïve in their approach to have a good and fulfilling life.
Anyway, this post is about emotion-intellect conflict. Emotion-intellect – meaning heart and head – conflict is not a new topic here anymore, but it is such an important topic that I wanted to dedicate a post to it.
What is the emotion-intellect conflict? We all know the ills of excessive emotional indulgence. But I guess only the truth-seekers or critical thinkers have the possibility to know the worst ills of excessive intellectual indulgence. It is for them that the topic of emotion-intellect conflict is most important. Of course, for those who don't want to think much on the first place there's no question of the conflict arising — although, that doesn't mean theirs is a healthy life.
We human beings are a complex system. On one hand we are wired with all the powerful animal instincts, and on the other hand we have got a brain capable of rational thinking that sets us apart from the other animals into being civilized creatures as we are. This latter thing may seem like a good thing when talked about it, but it's exactly what makes our life miserable.
The animal instincts inside us are always active. Emotions also fall under that part of us. Though emotions and biological impulses do have their own significance, from the evolutionary/survival point-of view, but they don't square with rationality. For example, say, you want to have sex desperately; but you can't just grab some girl on a street and ask her to have sex with you, much less go ahead without consent. We live in the civilized world where we aren't allowed to act merely on our biological instincts.
Talk about romantic love. Romantic love provides us the greatest emotional feast. But it's totally irrational, because romantic love is an outcome of the chemicals in our brain that are produced to enable reproduction and mating. All the extraordinary magic we feel in romantic love is because of those chemicals. So when someone gets rejected by the one one is in love with and becomes depressed and runs to suicide, what to call it? There's immense emotional trauma in that case. But it is irrational. If only that person, through intellectual endeavor, knew exactly what romantic love is, it would be much easier for him to get over the rejection, since he would be sure he can develop the feelings again for someone else. Then what makes us feel every time we are in love, that this is the only perfect person for us, and all that? Emotions. Biological wiring.
Turns out, intellectual development can save us from the suffering that we are put through by our biological wiring by way of various emotions and instincts. When it first dawned on me that our biological impulses and emotions only serve the evolutionary purposes (Nature's purposes) I totally became intellect oriented. That means I gave up on happiness. How? Happiness is a function of emotions. But as we saw, the thing about emotions is that they are irrational. And they are not placed in us particularly for our wellbeing, but have a broad evolutionary purpose. Thus, though they provide us happiness, they also put us through a lot of stress and suffering. Anything that gives us happiness also has the power to give us suffering. Happiness and suffering come in the same package. And evolutionary purpose means we have to go through the roller-coaster of happiness-and-suffering so that we pass on the evolved genes. So I said: how cunning is Nature there! Why should I go through suffering just so that the human species evolves? What have I got to do with whether the species is more evolved a thousand years after or not? I am concerned with MY wellbeing. I don't want to suffer so that the Nature can have its way for some evolution.
And I succeeded. I call the state that I developed contentment. It comes when you have understood how the world works to an extent that there are no shocks in your life, no emotional pangs, no confusion as to why and how you are having certain experiences. This state is only possible through intellectual endeavor at seeking the truth, and rationality is an indispensable tool for it.
But that's not the end. I reached contentment. Now what? It's colorless. There's no point in living life if one is to remain in contentment always. Say no to desire, say no to expectations, say no to attachments, say no to romance, sex, material needs. Say no to emotions. What is left to live for then? Of course, there's no suffering, because there's the understanding about how everything works. But there's no happiness also. While it is not wrong to remain in contentment, I found that there's simply no point in living like that. Besides, it would be easy to live in that state if one is living away from the modern societies, in the village-like place where life is very simple. Living in a metropolitan with contentment is a very difficult life-task. And anyway, whichever the place, I soon knew that there's no point in always being contented that way.
Does that mean I didn't benefit anything from my intellectual endeavors? Quite to the contrary, contentment, I still maintain, is a very important stage to reach. Contentment is exactly what empowers one to keep calm in life in worst adversities. The idea is to realize just how much to dwell on it.
Here's a life-saving insight I had —
Happiness is important to make life worth living. And contentment is important to keep life worth living. The former is a function of emotions, and the latter is a function of intellect. And the balance between emotions and intellect is the key to a great life.
The key word is balance.
When you are suffering emotionally, you need critical thinking and analysis (intellect) to make life good. On the other hand, when you have arrived at a "flatland" (seeing no value, no meaning – Nihilism) you need emotional indulgence to serve the same. To be noted is the fact that the latter case is only experienced to the extreme by highly passionate rational truth-seekers.
The fact that intellect saves us from the pains caused by emotions, and emotions drag us out of flatland by bringing colors in life, proves that there has to be some point of perfect balance between the two, which when reached, a human being is said to be operating at his highest capacity.
Anyway, this post is about emotion-intellect conflict. Emotion-intellect – meaning heart and head – conflict is not a new topic here anymore, but it is such an important topic that I wanted to dedicate a post to it.
What is the emotion-intellect conflict? We all know the ills of excessive emotional indulgence. But I guess only the truth-seekers or critical thinkers have the possibility to know the worst ills of excessive intellectual indulgence. It is for them that the topic of emotion-intellect conflict is most important. Of course, for those who don't want to think much on the first place there's no question of the conflict arising — although, that doesn't mean theirs is a healthy life.
We human beings are a complex system. On one hand we are wired with all the powerful animal instincts, and on the other hand we have got a brain capable of rational thinking that sets us apart from the other animals into being civilized creatures as we are. This latter thing may seem like a good thing when talked about it, but it's exactly what makes our life miserable.
The animal instincts inside us are always active. Emotions also fall under that part of us. Though emotions and biological impulses do have their own significance, from the evolutionary/survival point-of view, but they don't square with rationality. For example, say, you want to have sex desperately; but you can't just grab some girl on a street and ask her to have sex with you, much less go ahead without consent. We live in the civilized world where we aren't allowed to act merely on our biological instincts.
Talk about romantic love. Romantic love provides us the greatest emotional feast. But it's totally irrational, because romantic love is an outcome of the chemicals in our brain that are produced to enable reproduction and mating. All the extraordinary magic we feel in romantic love is because of those chemicals. So when someone gets rejected by the one one is in love with and becomes depressed and runs to suicide, what to call it? There's immense emotional trauma in that case. But it is irrational. If only that person, through intellectual endeavor, knew exactly what romantic love is, it would be much easier for him to get over the rejection, since he would be sure he can develop the feelings again for someone else. Then what makes us feel every time we are in love, that this is the only perfect person for us, and all that? Emotions. Biological wiring.
Turns out, intellectual development can save us from the suffering that we are put through by our biological wiring by way of various emotions and instincts. When it first dawned on me that our biological impulses and emotions only serve the evolutionary purposes (Nature's purposes) I totally became intellect oriented. That means I gave up on happiness. How? Happiness is a function of emotions. But as we saw, the thing about emotions is that they are irrational. And they are not placed in us particularly for our wellbeing, but have a broad evolutionary purpose. Thus, though they provide us happiness, they also put us through a lot of stress and suffering. Anything that gives us happiness also has the power to give us suffering. Happiness and suffering come in the same package. And evolutionary purpose means we have to go through the roller-coaster of happiness-and-suffering so that we pass on the evolved genes. So I said: how cunning is Nature there! Why should I go through suffering just so that the human species evolves? What have I got to do with whether the species is more evolved a thousand years after or not? I am concerned with MY wellbeing. I don't want to suffer so that the Nature can have its way for some evolution.
And I succeeded. I call the state that I developed contentment. It comes when you have understood how the world works to an extent that there are no shocks in your life, no emotional pangs, no confusion as to why and how you are having certain experiences. This state is only possible through intellectual endeavor at seeking the truth, and rationality is an indispensable tool for it.
But that's not the end. I reached contentment. Now what? It's colorless. There's no point in living life if one is to remain in contentment always. Say no to desire, say no to expectations, say no to attachments, say no to romance, sex, material needs. Say no to emotions. What is left to live for then? Of course, there's no suffering, because there's the understanding about how everything works. But there's no happiness also. While it is not wrong to remain in contentment, I found that there's simply no point in living like that. Besides, it would be easy to live in that state if one is living away from the modern societies, in the village-like place where life is very simple. Living in a metropolitan with contentment is a very difficult life-task. And anyway, whichever the place, I soon knew that there's no point in always being contented that way.
Does that mean I didn't benefit anything from my intellectual endeavors? Quite to the contrary, contentment, I still maintain, is a very important stage to reach. Contentment is exactly what empowers one to keep calm in life in worst adversities. The idea is to realize just how much to dwell on it.
Here's a life-saving insight I had —
Happiness is important to make life worth living. And contentment is important to keep life worth living. The former is a function of emotions, and the latter is a function of intellect. And the balance between emotions and intellect is the key to a great life.
The key word is balance.
When you are suffering emotionally, you need critical thinking and analysis (intellect) to make life good. On the other hand, when you have arrived at a "flatland" (seeing no value, no meaning – Nihilism) you need emotional indulgence to serve the same. To be noted is the fact that the latter case is only experienced to the extreme by highly passionate rational truth-seekers.
The fact that intellect saves us from the pains caused by emotions, and emotions drag us out of flatland by bringing colors in life, proves that there has to be some point of perfect balance between the two, which when reached, a human being is said to be operating at his highest capacity.
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