The mysterious nature of time

[zenmaster]

It's one way of using contrast to integrate emotions through metaphor.

But that's sort of like saying someone removes the cause of physical pain by integrating yelling or wincing.

One doesn't integrate emotions. An emotion is an unconscious reaction to some aspect of self that had not been integrated (acknowledged and accepted). You could call this a 'misunderstanding', an 'imbalance', a 'blockage', etc. The emotion is a response to a mind pattern (such as a complex) which has been engaged by some stimulus which brought awareness close to it. What is being integrated is how one views that which is reinforcing the distortion. When the distortion being held on to is seen as being unnecessary, the pattern is balanced and becomes part of usable consciousness. That is the form of integration.

Is your view that the unconscious is causing unbalance?]

The relationship of consciousness to unconsciousness is the balance or unbalance.

Are you suggesting that expressing emotion is unwanted?

No.

Are you saying that emotion is a mind complex and an unconscious reaction?

No. Emotion is the result of an imbalance (a distortion) that is manifesting at the body (physical) level. That distortion can be a complex of mind. The point is something (a distortion) which is still unconscious which dictates behavior.

Do you think expressing emotion is an indication Of imbalance or of a balancing act itself?

Any consciousness directed towards knowing self/other-self, no matter what the object of consciousness, that is is going to lead to balance. That's the nature of learning. An emotional reaction is an indication of an ultimately unnecessary distortion, 100% of the time. Again, this is not to say emotion is something 'unwanted'.

I've had emotional reactions, and then I've had mental thoughts about emotions. The two appear very different to me.

They are different. Emotional reactions made their way down to the physical precisely due to lack of awareness (integration of pertinent distortions) at the mental level. Thoughts about emotions are often memories or associations which draw the distortions closer to conscious awareness.

The 'distortions' are often related to a misunderstanding - usually due to the manner in which a past event or association was directed to be formed (as a memory) by consciousness. So the distortion is often related to an unknown bias or preferences: what we like or we do not like. The distortion, in effect, holds energy in pattern - a construct. The mind can easily, with complete autonomy, hold on to that distortion, in a relatively unchanged form, for a lifetime.