Non-Expression of Negative Emotion.

Identification can be present towards anything; sense perception, feeling, thought etc. The same is so for ‘negative emotions’ and their expression. As Gurdjieff said, one can even be identified with the weather and go on to express a negative attitude in response to this etc.

An essential value of the ‘non expression of negative emotion’ is the work of becoming able for a real choice as to one’s manifestation. There can be the choice to manifest in line with either the affirming or denying force. Non expression of negative emotion aims towards the ability to connect with the positive potential that is present in each situation in accordance with the ‘law of three’ etc. The realization of the actual co-presence of the affirming and denying forces, which comes through the presence of the real ableness for choice towards them, then enables these two forces to interact together in a way that can ‘liberate the third force’.

The dissolution of the ‘dual/divided’ emotions, as are related to negative emotions, mainly concerns the aspect of identification with the emotions and the inability to simultaneously experience and choose between the affirming and denying forces that are present in any given situation. There is always some form of reactivity of the emotions to the environment, and some of these reactions involve ‘unpleasant’ emotions. The presence of an unpleasant emotion is not the same as a negative emotion. ‘Bearing the unpleasant manifestations of others’ is a part of the practice that aids transformation. There is always some form of ‘revolt’ and denying aspect that is required as a means for development. At one level, the given emotional reactions that are related to the ‘type’ of the individual remain as they are, being a source of fuel for transformation.

The unification of the divided emotions concerns the relationship between ‘I’ and the emotions themselves, rather than being something which merely involved the establishment of ‘pleasant’ emotions and the eradication of all currently experienced ‘unpleasant’ and ‘negative’ emotions etc. Ashiata’s words on Hope, Love, and Faith express the different laws that a Being can be operating according to, such as the law of the love of feeling which results in an opposite reaction, and the law of the love of consciousness which evokes the same in response etc. Here we have to consider that the general projection of one’s subjective definition of ‘love’ and it’s related qualities may be quite different to the actual objective thing itself.

Attachment with negative emotions also means that the concept of positive emotions and the ‘good’ is distorted. Attachment to the realm of duality in the emotional nature means that there is an identification with the manifested behavioural expression, and a lack of ability to discern ‘behind’ this expression to the realm of intention, value, and meaning present ‘within’. The general morality, though changing in place and time, is static in a way that is based upon this identification and attachment to appearances and manifest behaviour. Conscience, though objectively the same through time and place, is dynamic. This means that there is room for a variety of response in conscience, this also being related to the fact that there is always some unique aspect present to every situation.

Conscience can utilize a variety of responses, and hence conscience cannot be strictly formalized in a set of axioms that are based on external manifest behaviour with no account of the nature of uniqueness present in each situation and event etc. General morality works on the basis of identification with emotion, such that the general concern is with which emotions a Being gives rise to in another. The pleasant is sought as good and the unpleasant is avoided as bad etc. Non expression of negative emotion must be based on something more than this dualistic response and conception.