Emotional, complexity, feelings and expressions of anger, fear, desire, self-pity, pride, arrogance, hatred, envy, jealousy, resentment, possessiveness and aggression are generally accepted as being normal aspects of human behaviour. Few people question these, unless they become extreme.

In an enlightened world, its leaders and its people would not be so blind to their own inner psychological state as to wage war against each other. In a world where the ego and emotional reaction are seen as normal and understandable, it is hardly surprising what cruelty and atrocities take place.

The individual ego lives in the subjective reality of its own mental and emotional world. Everyone and everything else are seen and experienced as mere objects – distinct and separate from itself. The pain and suffering of someone out of view is of little consequence, from this perspective, as long as the ego gets what it thinks it wants.

When one lives from the egocentric perspective, ‘my wife’ in effect becomes my property. When she decides she wants to leave me or have an affair with another man, an emotional reaction kicks in to try to protect ‘my’ interests. I get angry, I stamp around and become threatening or even violent. The ego learns, in life, that in order to get what it wants, anger and aggression are very useful tools, so it uses them to manipulate situations to its advantage.

This is what living in duality is about – protecting the interests of the ego. Emotional life is about the ego: “I want to be happy”, “I want to have this”, “I don’t want that”. All the emotions revolve around these issues. Films and television encourage the living out of emotional dramas, big business panders to the needs of the ego and schools teach us how to be clever little egos in our lives.

If we want to live a more meaningful and purposeful life, then we have to question all this. What is the point of the little ego struggling and striving all its life to accumulate wealth, experience and notoriety to then just disappear without a trace? Such questions need to be asked, but the trend is toward indulgence and escape, entertainment and having ‘fun’. Entertainment and fun are the ‘opium of the people’.

Who is going to question the drug that they are dependent on providing that they get what they want? So, the financial elite of the world will always make available the drugs that people need – the inner drugs of entertainment, fun, lifestyle opportunities and suchlike. But in living in such a bubble, we fail to develop tools to cope with psychological and emotional challenge. So there are experts on hand to provide us with drugs and therapy to help us through any difficulties we may experience.

In all this, we become completely cut off from who we truly are and live in a ‘virtual’ world of someone else’s making. We speak of robotics and the future, but many of us are already living the lives of robots. If we are not in touch with the silent emptiness of our true nature then we are, to a certain extent, living robots. If we are not living with awareness and sensitivity, then we are living automatically from some other script, from our conditioning and the influence of society. From the perspective of the sage, this is not living up to our potential.

During the course of our lives we are influenced by everyone we meet, everything we experience and all the knowledge we accumulate. In turn, we also influence everyone we meet and everything we get involved in. Attitudes, ideas, patterns of behaviour are passed around within society. We all influence each other continuously. The more famous and powerful we are within society, the more influence we may have.

If we have something to say from the heart, then we should share it with the world at large, because mind and emotion dominate everywhere. Lives and the direction they go are influenced by what is said and what is left unsaid.

When we are brought up in particular society, we are most likely to take on some kind of cocktail of attitudes, ideas, beliefs, patterns of behaviour and suchlike that reflects the family and the society within which we have grown up. When we express ourselves, most of us believe that we are demonstrating our individuality, our originality, but in fact we are usually merely passing on what we have already learned from other sources, what we have become conditioned to believe. There is nothing original or individualistic about this – we are merely doing what everyone else does.

When we live from the silent emptiness of our true nature something different happens. Instead of life being a continual regurgitation of old ideas and beliefs, it becomes a creative exploration, from moment to moment, of the unknown. Then we don’t approach each new experience with the old ideas, old ways of looking at things. Instead, we listen to life and allow each and every situation to inform us. This is creative living. Then our influence upon the world is a different matter entirely.

When we live from the silent emptiness of our true nature we are not living from the ego, and we are no longer living from emotion. Emotion churns around within the field of the unknown, the conditioned mind. The moment you step into the unknown, there is no emotion – there is clarity and creativity – but not emotion. Emotion then comes in as you step back from the unknown and try to relate to it your reservoir of knowledge and experience. Then you label it as a ‘peak experience’ because it has shown you a new dimension to living that is beyond your normal, ordinary, boring existence.

Getting involved in emotional issues feeds the ego, the sense of separateness that we feel. It keeps us imprisoned within the narrow field of the known – our memory and conditioning. If we are looking to grow in wisdom and understanding, then we step out of the field of the known, step out of memory, intellect and emotion, and truly listen to life. If we want to be creative, then we must do likewise. Nothing new is born out of the old. We must let the old die within us, then out of the emptiness that remains the new will come into being.

But we cannot orchestrate this into happening. We can only enter the unknown, and see what happens. Life is the creator. We can never be the creator. We can only ever be the channel for creativity to flow through us. Then we are not even there. Then we are not living in the ego with its thoughts and emotions that never give any time or space for the creative to come into being.

Life for us, is very short really. It is not so much what we do in our life that matters, but rather how we do it. If we do things with resistance and resentment then we are not functioning very skillfully. If that is the case, then we need to either change our attitude or maybe change what we are doing.

Many people get emotionally involved in the tasks that they have to do, instead of treating them merely as things to be done. To be really effective in life, we need to stand back and not get emotionally involved. Otherwise, we disable ourselves from being able to function properly. This does not mean that we are living in denial. It means that we are choosing to live creatively and effectively.

Awareness of the unconscious movement of emotions is helped by certain practices such as meditation, yoga and suchlike. Going beyond emotion is of great value in our lives, because ultimately it will liberate us from suffering and also enhance our ability to live a creative and fulfilled life. Whilst avoidance of emotional issues may not be helpful, excessive focus on emotional issues can become an endless cycle of repetition in unskillful living.

Many people who purport to be interested in inner change and transformation cling stubbornly to the emotional path, insisting that it is a path of liberation. Of course, if there are emotional blockages, then it might be necessary to release them. But if we do not take our feeling-level awareness deeper than our emotions, then we will go around in circles, never finding liberation from suffering. Only in the silent emptiness of our true nature can we find liberation.