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Explain Emotion and explain how it is helpful to remove mental illness.


Emotion and Motive are closely related. Normally Emotions are arisen by external stimulus.
Emotion can be elicited by a wide variety of stimulus. Therefore we can say Emotion is a
complex effective experience and it can be expressed in characteristic behaviour pattern.
Emotion is a kind of mental activity such as inclination, moods, agitation, and connected with
feeling.
Emotion has certain characteristics:
1. Emotions are universal.
2. Emotions are personal. Therefore it can differ form individual to individual.
3. Same Emotion can be arisen by a number of stimuli.
4. Emotion arises abruptly (very fast) but subside slowly.
5. Emotions have quality of displacement.
6. Emotion can give birth to number of other Emotions as well as Motive.
7. The Emotion experience is associated with the other instincts.
8. Every Emotion experience involves many physical and physiological changes.
Emotions can be categorized as positive Emotion and negative Emotion.
Unpleasant Emotion like fear, anger, jealousy which are harmful are
termed as negative Emotion while the pleasant Emotion like, amusement,
love, curiosity, joy and happiness which are helpful are termed as positive
Emotion. According to western psychology, good emotions are love,
curiosity, and happiness is called positive emotion. The unpleasant
emotion of fear, anger, jealousies are included in the category of negative
emotion. They are harmful.
In the Buddhist psychology, emotions are associated six roots, negatively with greed, hatred,
and delusion, positively with non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. Buddhism believes
that all emotions are rooted in these factors. It also creates in evaluation toward the object.
Greed manifests to posses the object, hatred arise to destroy the object or to free from it.
According to western psychology, an emotion springs up from physical reaction. The
perception of stimuli courses our bodies to undergo certain physical changes and then we
experience this emotion.
According to western psychology as we mentioned before, an Emotion can give birth to a
number of similar Emotions. In the same way Buddhism too believed that these three roots
give birth to a number of Emotions. When the greed arises due to a particular stimulus,
thereby in due to process desire can give birth to another emotion like jealousy. According to
Buddhism there are other factors, which can be considered as emotion.
savas- closely resembles that of Emotion. Buddhist Psychology emphasis four kinds of
savas: Kmsava sensuality, Bhavsava existence, Ditthsava speculation, Avijjsava
ignorance. sava arises conditioned by desire, anger, by cruelty, by body, and individuality.
Here Buddhism concerns very subtle point of emotion, which touches the areas of self-body
and its future.
Kiles and sava considered identical. It flows out from six faculties to external world.
sava is always in the state of emotion. Buddhism says that whatever beautiful things, are in
the world, are not Kma. Kma really is desire generated towards them. The wrong judgment

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always opens opportunities to arise savas. This means improper attention causes to have
savas in the mind.
Elsewhere, teaching indicated that sava arise when the sense channels are unguarded.
Another basic spring of Emotions is analyzed in Buddhism under the term Anusaya the
word is defined as bend, bias, proclivity, and the persistent of a dormant disposition.
According to Buddhist analysim Anusayas are dormant but savas are comparatively
apparent. Buddhism recognized Anusaya as unwholesome disposition.
Samyutta Nikya mentions seven kinds of Anusayas:
1. Anusaya of sensual pleasure,
2. Anusaya of anger,
3. Anusaya of erroneous speculation,
4. Anusaya of sceptism,
5. Anusaya of conceit,
6. Anusaya of craving for existence,
7. Anusaya for ignorance.
Anusaya dhammas cover all the dispositions more than what is referred to in western
psychologies. The origins of traits of this emotion are very subtle. They are not only
connected with this very worldly life, but also connected with the repeated existence. Trait of
this emotion has dealing with enumerable previous life. Anusaya produces emotional
attachment. According to Buddhism the Arhant does not have emotional attachment. All these
negative emotions will be removed by insight wisdom on the practicing of meditation.

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