What I've Learned

Henry Benner, August 2010

Sufism

Become conscious of both the thinking and sub-conscious mind. The first through observing your thoughts, the second through watching your emotions.Emotions are the body's reaction to your mind. Check in frequently during the day--what am I thinking, what am I feeling. Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the doorway into Being.
The single most vital step on your journey is to learn to dis-identify with your mind and emotions. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows.
An emotion usually represents an amplified and energized thought pattern. Often a vicious circle builds up between your thinking and the emotion: they feed each other. By dwelling mentally on the situation, event, or person that is the perceived cause of the emotion, the thought feeds energy to the emotion, which in turn energizes the thought pattern, and so on.
Basically, all emotions come from the loss of awareness of who you are beyond name and form--a deep sense of abandonment and incompleteness. The mind is incessantly active to cover up that emotional pain. The harder the mind struggles the greater the pain.
Love, joy, and peace are inseparable from your natural state and are never lost--but can never flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance. They lie beyond emotions.